John Schroyer
The first licensed recreational cannabis retailer in New York has now added home delivery to its options for customers, albeit in only a handful of areas within New York City.
Housing Works, the nonprofit that launched adult-use marijuana sales in December, began offering home delivery a “few weeks” ago, Spectrum News reported.
The Manhattan-based retailer has a function on its website where customers can punch in their home addresses, and if it’s within the company’s delivery radius, there’ll be an option for home delivery for a $7 charge with a minimum $100 order.
“We’ve gone all the way up to Central Park at this point,” Housing Works manager Britt Buckner told Spectrum News.
New York regulators announced in December that recreational cannabis shops would be allowed to get started with delivery – instead of having to wait for their brick and mortar shops to be fully built out before commencing sales – but the process to get such offerings off the ground has been slow.
While Housing Works is the first licensed marijuana delivery operation, it’s unclear how tough the competitive landscape may be, since there are also countless unlicensed delivery services competing for market share already in New York City.
A Housing Works manager told Spectrum News that all of the shop’s products are available for delivery with the exception of infused drinks.
Delivery staff also never travel alone for the sake of safety, and for the same reason, the company declined to even disclose how their delivery workers travel – by foot, bicycle, subway, or by car, since all of the above are allowed under industry rules. If delivery staff are dropping off products via car, they can take up to $20,000 worth of goods at once, but if they’re going by foot or by bicycle, the limit is $5,000 worth of cannabis products.
The nonprofit is next hoping to extend delivery services into Brooklyn, where recreational retail marijuana licensing has been delayed by a lawsuit.
