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Canadian Cannabis Store Numbers Expanding

By: Joyce Hayne

Ontario continued to authorize a lot more store openings in October as they grew from 1152 stores authorized to open in September to 1210. There are still a lot more in the line to be processed though.

Alberta’s growth has been slow but steady but that growth is eroding the average sales per store. However, they do boast the highest sales per capita.

British Columbia’s store numbers are still relatively small due to the large number of municipalities that have opted out of opening cannabis stores. Hopefully as the stigma continues to decline, councils will see the light and allow more stores to open.

Cannabis Stores as of October 31, 2021

ON  1210
AB    699
BC    382
MB   120
SK    111
QC     78
NF     33
NS     33
NB     20
NWT    6
YT       5
PEI      4
NU       1

TOTAL 2,702

Despite the higher number of stores, retail sales have not increased much since August 2021. September sales across Canada increased slightly from August with a negligible increase of 0.2%.