Debra Borchardt
April 20 is the high holy day for cannabis retailers and one of the largest retail software companies Dutchie, went down. The company’s status page first noted at roughly 5pm that it was investigating errors on the e-commerce platform.
It told users that “We have engaged with our database platform partners and are all-hands on deck investigating the increased error and latency.” The company continued to update users that it was working to improve site responsiveness. By 6:20m, it noted that the error problem seemed to be decreasing and that it was seeing improvements.
At 6:45, the company said everything was back to normal.
That was wishful thinking as it turns out. Three minutes later the same problems sounded like they were returning. At 7:27pm, Dutchie said it was continuing to debug with its database platform provider to restore the site. By 7:56, it seemed Dutchie was back to “nominal performance on the e-commerce site.”
While a software glitch can happen and does, that it happened on 420 was probably the worst luck a company could have. April 20 is one of the biggest sales days of the year for cannabis. No doubt many dispensaries were scrambling to take care of customers during that time.
