When Derrick Lucas and his business partner opened their first cannabis store in Watford, Ontario, they opted for a rural setting: wooden floors, slate menus, a set of John Deere green lockers.
“Like an old general store,” Lucas said.
Cauldron Cannabis opened last May and is expanding to a second location.
“I decided with the support we had in Watford, there’s no reason we shouldn’t go take our show to another small town,” Lucas said.
His second store will open in Glencoe, part of the south-west of Middlesex, a rural community about 45 minutes west of London. Lucas is one of many small business owners entering the legal cannabis trade in rural Ontario.
The Ontario Alcohol and Gaming Commission (AGCO) is responsible for issuing operator licenses and authorizing the locations of cannabis retail stores. In the London area, the AGCO lists numerous ongoing applications for rural communities such as Exeter, Lucan-Biddulph, Dorchester and Port Stanley.
If all goes according to plan, Cauldron will open its doors on Glencoe Main Street in late November.
The proposed new home of Cauldron Cannabis, in Main St. in Glencoe, ON. (Max Leighton)
Store assembly
The pot shop is moving where others have moved. Downtown Glencoe runs about four blocks along Main Street, a stretch with about 10 empty shop windows.
Brooks Marsh has lived in the city for 15 years and says he welcomes a new store on Main Street. As a “kid in the 60s and 70s,” he’s happy to be a cannabis shop.
“I think there’s a market for that in Glencoe,” he said. “There are a lot of people who also rely on CBD oil and THC, for pain and anxiety and whatever.”
He hopes Cauldron will bring customers from nearby cities, people he believes are currently buying their cannabis online or at larger malls.
A vacant shop in Main St. in Glencoe, ON. (Max Leighton)
It is time for a rural change
Although many rural people in Ontario do not have options for the legal sale of cannabis, in some cities in Ontario, the story is very different.
The City of London currently has dozens of new applications for cannabis shops with the AGCO, either in process or authorized to open.
Jay Rosenthal is the co-founder and president of Business of Cannabis, a website that tracks the latest news and trends in the cannabis industry. He said mature cannabis markets in the United States, such as Colorado, Oregon and California, offer an insight into how many retailers can exist in one place at a time.
“Economists suggest the ideal proportion is one store for every 7,500 or 10,000 people,” he said. “Getting it here is great. Unless three or four hundred of them are in Toronto, the rest of the province isn’t really well served.”
He said these figures could steer retailers towards “greener pastures” in rural communities, although the market will ultimately decide.
“I think, of course, we’ll see a lot more open ones,” he said. “And when there’s too much density, we’ll see, unfortunately, a kind of shutter, and maybe we’ll try to find a new location.”
Not just one more bag of cannabis
The AGCO requires a 15-day public notice period before new cannabis stores are allowed to open.
During this time, residents can submit written comments, expressing concerns about things like public health and safety, the impact on youth, or the restriction of illegal activities.
The Cauldron Cannabis warning period ended on October 20th. He only received a presentation, according to the AGCO, from someone concerned about the effects of cannabis on children and youth.
Lucas said he still has work to do in the building before he can open it, but when he does, he hopes to connect with the community.
“We want people to feel important,” he says. “They’re not just one more bag of cannabis coming out the door.”
