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Edibles already popular at some Red Deer cannabis stores

A manager of one Red Deer cannabis store says customers are thrilled edibles are now available.
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Colin Fisher, YSS Red Deer store manager, holds up a couple of cannabis edibles Thursday afternoon. Photo by SEAN MCINTOSH/Advocate staff

A manager of one Red Deer cannabis store says customers are thrilled edibles are now available.

“We’ve already sold quite a few of them. People seem to be pretty excited,” said Colin Fisher, YSS Red Deer store manager.

“There have been people coming in for the last week or two weeks asking about (edibles).”

YSS, along with some other Red Deer stores, received its first shipment of edibles on Wednesday.

With the cold weather, the cannabis-infused treats didn’t arrive at the dispensary on 49th Street until about 5 p.m., which was a few hours later than expected.

“Lots of people came yesterday, but they understood with the -40 weather that the truck wasn’t running and that’s why they didn’t come in earlier,” said Fisher on Thursday.

The edibles the store has available are just “the tip of the iceberg” for future cannabis products, said Fisher.

“We just have some chocolates and gummies right now. They’ve still got a whole list of infused beverages, like spritzers and sparkling water, with CBD and THC that I know a lot of people are looking forward to,” he said, adding beverages could come to the store as soon as this month.

Isaac Watson, vice-president of product development and retail experience at Fire & Flower Cannabis Co., said edibles have been a popular choice at the company’s two stores in Red Deer.

“Almost every customer walking through the door is taking some time and looking over those products,” said Watson.

“It looks like quite a few customers are picking up edibles in their various forms.”

Watson said he expects edible sales to increase coming into the weekend.

“We don’t know this for sure, but given that it has a more lasting effect, it’ll more likely be consumed on Fridays and Saturdays,” he said.

“For us, this has been a long time coming. We’ve been really excited (to introduce edibles). Alberta was a little bit delayed with their release compared to some of the other provinces.

“But for us, it’s great to finally get it into markets like Red Deer, where the community has been so supportive of us.”

Fisher said a whole demographic of customers has been waiting for edibles.

“A lot of people were waiting for edibles because they weren’t comfortable with the smoke, or just didn’t like the idea of it,” he said.

Anyone trying edibles for the first time should “start low (and) go slow,” Fisher said.

“The packages we sell are capped at 10 milligrams, which is probably a fairly hefty dose for someone who’s new to it. But for a fairly seasoned user, 10 milligrams is not a whole lot,” he said.

“One pack has one unit that’s got 10 milligrams in it, or it will have four two-and-a-half-milligram units or two five-milligram units, so it’s kind of broken up that way.”

Fisher says first-timers should start with two and a half or five milligrams and see how it sits with them.

“Then, you can always go up from there. You know for next time you can start with maybe a 10-milligram dose,” he said.



sean.mcintosh@reddeeradvocate.com

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Sean McIntosh

About the Author: Sean McIntosh

Sean joined the Red Deer Advocate team in the summer of 2017. Originally from Ontario, he worked in a small town of 2,000 in Saskatchewan for seven months before coming to Central Alberta.
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