PHOENIX — Arizona dispensaries are expecting long lines and big business this weekend as Easter Sunday shares the date with April 20, also known as the unofficial marijuana holiday of “4/20.”
At Sunday Goods in Tempe, the marketing practically writes itself.
“Understanding the opportunity with Easter Sunday, us being Sunday Goods, we thought, what a way to just elevate our guest experience,” said Matt Daley, director of growth for Sunday Goods.
The store’s leaning into the day. The vertical windows have been pasted over with stained glass clings. Instead of religious icons, it’s marijuana leaves and happy people partaking.
There are giveaways and raffles advertised as “Saint Sativa”.
Daley said 4/20 is always their busiest day of the year, bigger even than Green Wednesday, the marijuana industry’s version of Black Friday that falls the day before Thanksgiving.
“If there were ever a time, it is Sunday, 4/20 Easter Sunday this year,” Daley said.
Over at Mint Cannabis, the rush has already started. On Good Friday afternoon, the store was packed.
“Our respects to the Big Guy,” said owner Raul Molina, looking up, “but they landed on the same day. Haven’t really seen that happen before.”
Molina said by the time Easter Sunday arrives, they expect three times the crowd they had on Friday.
Despite the crowds, the marijuana industry isn’t growing as fast as it once was. Sales have flattened out, even as demand holds steady.
According to state figures, Arizona is collecting about the same amount in taxes for the last two years: about $280 million.
“You have a product that was prohibited and artificially inflated in value for 50 years,” said Demitri Downing with the Marijuana Industry Trade Association.
Downing said prices are stabilizing as the market matures. Marijuana is a crop, and like wheat or corn, prices drop as cultivation improves and the process gets cheaper.
“Cultivation, as it evolves, becomes cheaper,” Downing said. “The price per pound for production goes down.”
Even so, 4/20 is still the biggest day of the year for Arizona’s cannabis industry. And this time, it lands on a holiday weekend like a Black Friday turned green.
