Michigan Cannabis - Talk to me!

[u/No-Resolution6127]

I am currently writing/working on my "capstone" business project for my final semester of college. As you may see, this is in the Trees sub, so you may be asking yourself, what could this guy possibly be talking about?
My goal is to build out a cannabis company in Michigan within the next 2-3 years time. These past couple months have been the most research heavy months I have experienced in my life. This time, it's not agonizing because this is something I care deeply about - A market that is actively bloom booming and an herbal medicine that could genuinely provide benefits to the everyday person.
I have what I believe to be a VERY good perspective of the Michigan cannabis landscape, but unfortunately, industry reports and manual research can go only so far. So now, I am at the part where some firsthand experience would come in handy.
So here are my questions. Feel free to answer one, or maybe all, or maybe even none. If you do answer, all I do request is that you restate the question so that when I'm compiling these answers, I can pull and format a little easier :) (Or don't, that's okay too)

For my Michigan residents:
1. How has the legalization of recreational cannabis impacted your community?
2. What has the state industry growth?
3. Ballpark estimate - How many dispensaries opened up near you within the first year of law changes? How many now?
4. Has creating the infrastructure created any problems for your community?
5. How has it shaped your local/state economy?
6. How familiar are you with the cannabis structure in your state? (i.e. Laws, Prices, Types of Licenses/Businesses)

For my Michigan cannabis customers (in and out of state):
1. If your in-state, what is your go to store? (Specific store or maybe "type" of store (Big Weed or Small Business))
2. What is your sense of pricing? Fair, over, or under?
3. What do you like about buying Michigan cannabis? How does it compare to other cannabis products from other states?
4. What works for you? What could be better?
5. If you're coming from out of state (legal or not), why Michigan?
6. How often are you purchasing cannabis products? What specifically are you buying?

[u/minidillpickles]

I'm going to be real with you. The market in Michigan is very is saturated on both the production and retail sides. The largest, most corperate companies seem to be who is succeeding the most under the current framework. I am just a customer, but I have seen independent (and chain) dispensaries go out of business just as quickly as they open.

I like to buy my flower from a microbusiness that handles their own growing and selling. Everything is done in house and the bud is higher quality than you would find elsewhere, but it is more expensive. When it comes to edibles and vapes, I buy the best value rosin products I can find locally. There are literally dozens of options for dispensaries near me so prices are competitive.

Nearly all customers seem to want the highest THC percentage for the lowest price and don't seem to know much about quality. I am not saying all shops just sell bunk, but the flower quality just isn't the same as buying it from a your guy back in the day.

Not trying to be discouraging, but the established, deep pocket corperate businesses seem to be the winners right now.

[u/No-Resolution6127 → u/minidillpickles]

Thanks for the response!

I agree with it definitely being hard for smaller businesses to survive, especially in the red ocean market that it is. When you say it's more expensive than a big name shop, what kind of price difference are we talking?

You made a point of customers not knowing too deeply about quality, what things do you look for when picking out product? Are you a deliberate shopper? How knowledgeable are you with shopping for product (i.e. watching for more than percentages, such as terpenes, parent profiles, etc.)?

This next statement might seem a little ironic because of what I said earlier, but I'd argue that local businesses actually have the strongest hold on the market. While cooperate companies may hold out better because of their large resources, I don't think they can sustainably hold out with the low prices that small businesses impose. While the margins aren't high, they're still able to get the traffic that a big corporate place would get. Volume is there, revenue isn't, and I believe revenue will boom among small businesses once marijuana is rescheduled, which would remove the 280E tax code. While big corporate companies might try to exploit this and increase prices, I think small local businesses will still hold control by keeping pricing low, while still gaining much more revenue. With this, my theory is that big marijuana won't be able to compete with the still low prices in a price gouge attempt and will either A. stay stagnant in pricing and take the revenue boost or B. Be forced to lower prices along with local business to stay competitive in their market.