Medical Marijuana

[Fluffy Scarsdale]

Where medical marijuana is legal to cultivate, how long do you think it will be before local garden center retailer gets into this burgeoning industry and openly and unabashedly markets to the home grower/farmer?  

I don't mean growing or selling marijuana.  I mean becoming the go-to guy for best techniques, and better yields, and selling the systems, grow mediums, lights, fertilizers and other plant products the home grower buys.  

 

  

 

    

[Eric Rohloff]

Get your End Cap ready!

[Fluffy Scarsdale]

How 'bout, get your plant clinic ready!  But something. And it doesn't have to be the usual in-your-face advertising/retailing--it shouldn't be.  Providing the know-how and products for the medical marijuana market is part of the compassionate care industry.  This is where tone, positioning and message are key.         

One of the main topics I've seen on the marijuana growing sites is home-growers trying to find information about how to start and grow their plants, what type of lights and how long, what to feed, etc., and then diagnose and fix issues.  Growers are crowd-sourcing each other asking each other where to locally buy what they need.  There's an untapped burgeoning market out there and the IGC is perfectly positioned for it.  It's got garden center written all over it!

I posed this question on Linkedin and someone came up with the idea of partnering with a dispensary for a mailing list.  You'll be able to target a message directly--and to those who are guaranteed not to be offended.  I thought that was a brilliant marketing idea.    

It's not a question of IF the IGCs get's into this market, or even what their particular niche will be.  It's a question of when.

[Eric Rohloff]

As long as you don't push the upside down Marijuana plant.LOL

[Sandy Burrell]

actually the topsy turvy marijuana plant might be just the thing. The dampness from water dripping out on the leaves might help keep the spider mites off.

[Michael Pawelek]

Once they get the go ahead to grow marijuana huge Agricultural Corporations like Beatrice, Con-Ag, Nestle etc. will have tens of thousands of acres in production. The small IGC's will have hassles with patent rights, yearly inspections, will be forced to have a "tag" in every container and will legally have to grow it in purple colored containers they can only buy through the patent owners. Then a copyright law will be passed that growing more than a single plant in a starter cell is a copyright infringement and punishable by a fine. On the other hand elderly grandmother's raised as hippies during the 1960's will say "scr*w this" and will blatently grow their own in tattered containers in their back yards across the country. All in all many more folks will smile all the time and sales of potatoe chips and munchies will sky rocket. :)

[Fluffy Scarsdale]

Sandy, I thought of the same thing:)  
Sandy Burrell said:

actually the topsy turvy marijuana plant might be just the thing. The dampness from water dripping out on the leaves might help keep the spider mites off.

[Fluffy Scarsdale]

Michael, I think you're way ahead of things.  As things stand now, big public companies are staying far away from the marijuana industry--so is all of Wall Street (banks) for that matter.  

But I'm not suggesting IGCs start selling or growing marijuana.  

I'm saying that the opportunity to market the know-how and hard goods is something only an independent garden center can do right now because they have autonomy and no shareholders to worry about.  

I've read on this forum some lament about the big box stores taking their market away, etc.  This is an area where the IGC has the freedom and advantage over the corporate players.  This is a unique opportunity for IGCs and IGCs alone.

As far as the grandmother's raised as hippies during the 1960s, they don't care the stigma associated with marijuana.  They are part of your customer base already.  Why not help them and sell the products to them that they need?  

[Eric Rohloff]

Growing marijuana is easy as growing weed.LOL There's still areas in Michigan that have it popping from old hemp fields that were there decades ago.

[Sandy Burrell]

Yeah they're not too good for tomatoes!


Fluffy Scarsdale said:

Sandy, I thought of the same thing:)  
Sandy Burrell said:

actually the topsy turvy marijuana plant might be just the thing. The dampness from water dripping out on the leaves might help keep the spider mites off.

[Fluffy Scarsdale]

 I just Googled "garden center and marijuana" and this came up--and it's in AZ.  So am I and I didn't even know about it. Anyway...check this out what I bolded:)

"...a superstore-sized garden center in Phoenix catering to those who want to grow their own cannabis."

"We sell everything but the plant itself," said Dhar Mann, founder of weGrow, the company that began franchising its big-box stores with outlets in Oakland and Sacramento, California. "We sell the products and the services for people to safely and responsibly cultivate their medicine."

The 21,000-square-foot store offers some 2,000 products, including soil, grow lights and irrigation trays, specially designed for effective marijuana growing, Mann told Reuters.

You IGCs should take notice, and play some heads-up-ball:) 

[Michael Pawelek]

And unlike other perishable products that IGC's have to throw away........

[Roger Bolger]

The issue for many IGCs is the social stigma. Even if the owner's personal morals are ok with helping people grow marijuana, how will it affect the existing customer base? If your store caters to marijuana growers, will you scare away nice ladies who want to buy hanging basket? Will shopping there make your neighbors, or even the police, wonder about what else you are growing?