Adam Jackson
Labor Day weekend 2023 revealed encouraging trends in the recreational cannabis sector, with marked growth in sales, albeit with a slight slump in the average basket size.
Overall, the industry saw robust upticks across diverse categories, paired with the decline of CBD.
Sales Trends
According to data from Seattle-based Headset, the holiday weekend recorded an 8.4% hike in average daily sales compared to the previous four weekends. It’s also slightly better than the Labor Day weekend reported last year, which only saw a 6.4% increase.
Friday registered the most significant sales spike, climbing 15.2%. Monday market the smallest rise with a 1.8% boost over prior Mondays. Headset’s data includes sales numbers from 13 states with regulated cannabis markets.
Data from cannabis marketing platform Springbig also highlighted a positive sales trend for the weekend, posting year-over-year sales growth of 12.3%. That’s a much steeper trend than the growth between 2021 and 2022, which was was a mere 2.7%.
Month-over-month data from Springbig revealed a 4.9% rise in sales relative to the same weekend of the previous month.
Not only did sales grow, according to Springbig’s data, but retail visits increased 24% over the same period in 2022. However, the average basket size declined by 9.5% , from $67.04 in 2022 to $60.70 in 2023.
Product Trends
The popularity of products to be consumed around the Labor Day weekend offered few surprises. Springbig noted that flower continued to dominate sales, followed by vapes. But several other categories saw marked improvement over the prior month, including:
- Accessories (9.3%)
- Pre-rolls (7.9%)
- Edibles (6.9%)
On the flip side, Springbig reported, CBD products experienced an 8.1% decline, marking an unsurprising dip in its sales.
Headset offer a similar cross section of product category sales improvement across its 13-state profile, with the largest sales increases:
- Topicals (14.2%)
- Beverages (12.2%)
- Flower (9.5%)
- Edibles (9.3%)
In terms of discounts, the holiday weekend saw more generous offerings, according to Headset, with an average discount rate of 19.9%, up from the usual 17.9% during typical weekends. Labor Day Monday featured the peak average discount at 20.9%, a considerable 21.2% increase from an average Monday.
Note: Headset’s analysis is based on data from 13 states, including Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington state.
