ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – The long-awaited start of retail cannabis sales brought out a lot of New Mexicans over the weekend who were ready to spend millions. From Friday through Sunday, New Mexico cannabis businesses racked up a total of more than $3.5 million in recreational use sales statewide.
Those numbers were reported by the Cannabis Control Division (CCD), which tracks sales across the state. On the first day (Friday, April 1), retailers brought in more than $1.9 million, CCD reports show. Saturday sales topped $1 million. On Sunday, sales of recreational cannabis (what the state calls ‘adult use cannabis’) reached more than half a million dollars.
In total, buyers made nearly 58,000 individual transactions. That puts the average purchase at about $61 per purchase.
“New Mexico’s adult-use cannabis sales on Friday, the first day of sales, were almost double the total sales that Colorado saw on its opening day,” says Heather Brewer, the spokesperson for the CCD. “So these are really tremendous numbers showing tremendous support from New Mexicans.”
While some stores reported steady streams of customers on opening day, the CCD says there were no major supply issues. Brewer adds that no retailers reported selling completely out of product.
What’s next?
The initial excitement from April 1 has waned a bit — at least according to the sales numbers. But KRQE News 13 previously reported that more retailers are hoping to join the market soon. And there are more businesses in-line for license approval.
“Over the coming weeks, the market will settle into a balanced and predictable supply and demand that will allow for industry to carefully plan its own production and pricing,” explains Brewer from the CCD. “What that balance will look like, we just don’t know yet.”
While some retailers were able to cash in on the first weekend, some simply weren’t ready. One would-be retailer in Albuquerque, Canvas Organics, tells KRQE News 13 it had planned to open on April 1. Store reps say they had a huge amount of people show up, but the store wasn’t quite ready to sell to them.
“The amount of people that came up and wanted to shop with us was unbelievable — was completely unbelievable,” explains Rodrigo Ramirez with Canvas Organics in Albuquerque. “We ran into some snags and we couldn’t do it. So now we’re fixing those snags. Hopefully this week, we’ll open.”
And while Ramirez wishes the store had been able to participate in the first few days, he says there’s still plenty of customers who will be looking to shop in the coming weeks.
“Everyone that calls and I talked to, they go, ‘Whoa, you’re in the neighborhood. We’re waiting on ya,'” Ramirez says. “So, we’re not in it for the race. Although it would have been nice. However, we’re in it for the long haul.”
