Hi there, and welcome to The Dealers Diary - my musings on the cannabis industry in California, New York and Washington, and building Halara.
If you missed past emails, I recommend checking out the Dealers page where you can see the past emails I sent.
In today's entry: booth A345 in New York | New York's unpaid-bills problem | Watermelon Z OG
The Dealers Desk
Hey Dealers,
To our Dealers out in New York, this one's for you! Next Wednesday and Thursday, Oct 21 and 22, Nick and I are flying out for Hall of Flowers NYC at Pier 36, and we're splitting booth A345 with our friends at High 5's, who sell Halara to shops across New York and make their own pre-rolls.
Quick heads up so nobody takes a trip to the pier for nothing. Hall of Flowers is a trade show, so it's for people who work in cannabis, and there's no product for sale there. If you buy for a shop or work behind the counter in New York, please come find us. If that's not you, keep reading, because there's something you can do from the counter that matters more than any booth.
This is us with High 5's at Revelry in September, and Hall of Flowers is going to look pretty much exactly like this. Yes, the photos are a little blurry. That's what happens when the booth is busy and nobody has a free hand.
Revelry, September. Hall of Flowers will look a lot like this.
In-the-moment focus. You get the idea.
Vinay, Ryan, and Trav all there at Revelry!
We're keeping it simple this time. One table with both our runners on it, and the spin wheel is coming back. Nick will be there both days, so if you've ever wanted to ask the guy behind the oil a question in person, this is your shot.
Here's why I care about this one. New York has a payment problem. Shops buy product on credit, and a lot of them never pay it back. About 1 in 8 shops in the state is on a list for unpaid bills, and honestly it might be worse than California.
As of September, that list is built into Metrc, the state system that tracks every product from farm to shelf. So if a shop is behind on its bills, it now has to pay cash up front, no exceptions. Good for brands like us who'd like to get paid. But it also means shops are being careful with their money, and some are cutting how many brands they carry.
That’s why we need to show up in NYC next week.
The brand that gets cut usually isn't the big one everybody knows. It's the slow one, the 12th brand on the shelf that nobody asks for. So if you're in New York and you like what we make, ask for Halara by name, even when it's already sitting right there. The buyer is watching what moves, and y'all are the ones handing them the data.
I'm so excited to see a bunch of y'all in person. Come say hi!
Onwards and upwards,
-Malcolm
What We're Seeing
"Fire OG" on a cart can mean two very different things. On a distillate cart, Fire OG is a flavor target: the terpenes got stripped out in distillation, and a blend gets added back to taste like the strain, so it doesn't need any Fire OG flower to exist. On a live resin or resin sauce cart, it's a claim about what actually went into the extractor. Same name on the box, and a totally different product inside, which is the whole reason we pulled ours when we couldn't get real Fire OG flower and only brought it back once the sourcing held. Ours is a limited resin sauce 510 cart, California only. Nick wrote up who else makes one and how to tell them apart: Best Fire OG Carts in California.
Strain Spotlight
It's Fire OG month, but Fire OG is a California-only run, so here's the OG our New York Dealers can actually go get. Watermelon Z OG is an indica all-in-one in our high-THC line, on shelves in California, Washington and New York, and it's juicy watermelon on the inhale with a sugary, almost creamy sweetness on the way out. It plays relaxed and calm and gets sleepy if you keep going, so it's an end-of-the-night one for me. Ask your budtender for it by name (see above), or find a shop near you.
Watermelon Z OG all-in-one
Dealers Choice
Someone picked up our Blueberry Muffin resin sauce AIO this summer and sent us this, and it's still one of my favorite things anyone has said about us.
Picked up a new AIO today from @gohalara, the strain was tempting me. When I opened the package I was met with quite the surprise, it smelled like blueberry muffins made with that hint of cannibutter. I've never opened a vape package before and gotten that extra sensory experience. Like when you open the oven while your food is cooking, or walk into a restaurant with an open kitchen. Some call it foreplay, I call it delicious. Enjoy your weekend buds.
Verified Customer
Some call it foreplay, I call it a great review. Thank you!
Reader Mail
Eric asked: "Are you finished making the cloud 9 CBN vape?"
We are, Cloud 9 is retired. My bad if it was your go-to. The CBN lives on in Couch Cruiser, our 1:1 CBD:THC all-in-one with CBN in it, guava melon flavor, and it's the one I'd point you to. It's California only, so ask your budtender or find a shop near you.
Got a question? Hit reply. I read every one and answer the best ones here.
Quick Hits
A lot of people are using weed to drink less this October. A new poll found almost a third of legal-market buyers have swapped drinking for cannabis completely, and most of the rest have cut back. The Sober October numbers.
Massachusetts is voting on whether to undo legal weed. The ballot measure would end legal sales for adults (medical stays), and both of the state's senators just came out against it. Where they landed.
Weekly Munchies
Since we're on blueberries this week, a blueberry and brie grilled cheese. Twenty minutes, serves one, no notes.
Refer a Friend
Got a friend in New York who works at a shop? Send them this and tell them booth A345.
Know a budtender who'd dig this? Forward it. They subscribe, you get a Dealers hat.
P.S - My Weekly Bops
P.S. These two were on while we went birding the other day. We ended up above our ankles in mud and water, saw a few cool birds, and we're pretty sure we spotted a snipe, a little bird with a very long beak, which was pretty cool.
