Northern Michigan marijuana dispensaries worry they’re driving each other out of business
From flowers to pre-rolls, edibles to concentrates, CBDs and more, the marijuana industry is constantly growing throughout Michigan. It’s growing especially fast in Big Rapids. The city of 10,000 people has welcomed 11 dispensaries in the last year. More are still in the works.
Skymint Premium Cannabis was the tenth dispensary to open in Big Rapids.
Summer Ransom-Cleveland is the president of retail for the brand.
“It’s going great,” she said.
Since the shop opened in June business has been steady, and she expects business to increase once students return in the fall time. The store is just about a block away from Ferris State University.
“We opened up Big Rapids outside of the students being in town, so we’re definitely pulling from different zip codes outside of Big Rapids,” said Ransom-Cleveland. “We had a really successful grand opening back in June, but we plan to do another once the students return,” Ransom-Cleveland said.
Out of Skymint’s 15 locations, Ransom-Cleveland said they added Big Rapids because of the growing market.
“We’re ready to compete,” she said. “We also love college campuses; I mean our strongest demographic is ages 21 to 39.”
If Skymint is successful on college campuses, said Ransom-Cleveland, then their customers will stick with the company in the future.
Skymint’s highest-revenue location is outside of Grand Rapids in Nunica, Ransom-Cleveland said. This week, the company opened its newest store in Coldwater.
One of the oldest cannabis shops in Big Rapids — at the ripe old age of 1 year — is Kkind, where Cameron Morris is a manager.
Kkind was one of two dispensaries that were in Big Rapids at the beginning of the pandemic.
“A lot has changed since then with the business in Big Rapids. There’re so many different shops. I feel like there’s a new one opening every week,” he said.
If the trend of new shops continues, soon they could be driving each other out of business, Morris added.
“Competition is going to get fierce. People are going to shut down and not make it. I hope that we’re not one of them, but I mean there’s going to be a price war,” Morris said.
“The bigger companies are the ones with the most money. Those are going to be the ones that survive. I have no idea, it’s something that we will find out when it happens.”
There’s a lot of opportunity for that growth in Big Rapids because, unlike other cities in Michigan, the local government has not set a limit on the number of marijuana facility licenses it will grant.
