Licensed Cannabis Dispensaries are as Profitable as Starbucks, Report Finds

Licensed cannabis dispensaries are as profitable as Starbucks, a new report suggests. The report illustrates a picture of how saturated cannabis retail has become in American society. “Cannabis Retail: The $23 Billion Opportunity,” was published by Arcview Market Research and is based on data from an analysis of BDS Analytics’ GreenEdge point-of-sale data.

The report found that cannabis dispensaries could yield a 12 percent after-tax profit margin, lining up with the top profit margin of Starbucks and other specialty stores. Investors who are curious about the cannabis industry could benefit from the data.

“Cannabis stores are unlike anything the retail world has seen since big-box stores wiped out much of the specialty store business in the 1990s,” Arcview Market Research Editor-in-chief Tom Adams said in a press release. “And because of federal prohibition, publicly traded retail companies are just going to have to stand aside while entrepreneurs pursue this unique retail opportunity.”

Insights are provided in the report on the mature recreational cannabis markets in Colorado and Washington. Researchers in the study also found that dispensaries have an average per-store revenues close to $2 million.

The report is the most recent installment of Cannabis Intelligence Briefing series by Arcview Market Research and BDS Analytics. BDS Analytics CEO Troy Dayton predicts that excitement about retail cannabis could be comparable to the “iPhone.”

The findings align neatly with a 168-page report released last month by the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. That report found that retail cannabis stores in Colorado outnumber Starbucks locations. The report listed 491 retail cannabis stores in Colorado compared to 392 Starbucks locations.

The report paints a landscape of normalized cannabis stores across the county. The unique cannabis market is unlike anything the business world has seen in decades.