One of the more interesting views for virtually any data set is the Pareto chart (a/k/a the 80/20 rule). As we can see in the below visual, the majority of flower sales in MA trace back to a small number of companies with a few big ones really driving the category. Looking closely we note that just six companies own over 50% of retail flower sales.

Flower Sales by Company – Massachusetts

There are reasons for this type of market dynamic including brand strength (both with the shopper and with the retailers), distribution challenges, cultivation/manufacturing issues, etc. All of this comes together to create a standard pattern over time. Our expectation is that cannabis flower sales will come to mirror a market like beer, with a bifurcated landscape of mass market large players and a chaotic micro market with many boutique operators.

You can’t see the bifurcation at this level of data, you’ll need to gain access to more detailed data sets that allow you to dive into the sales of specific segments within the category. For example, which brands sell well in the low vs high price bands? That’s likely to show the mass market versus boutique split, just like Budweiser vs 4 Noses (for those not in the Colorado beer scene, 4 Noses is a high quality, high price microbrewery) would show up if you looked at beer sales by $1 price bands. More to come on that topic…