Cannabis Beverages Drive Growth On 4/20
April 30, 2024On 4/20, the unofficial cannabis holiday, retailers across the U.S. typically report a significant bump in sales, and this year was no different. State sales were up anywhere from 63% to 236% this 4/20 compared with a normal Saturday, according to cannabis data tracker Headset, which gathered receipts from 4/20 totaling $83.6 million across six million units in the U.S. and Canada.
Among the states seeing the biggest 4/20 increases this year were Hawaii, Oregon, Florida, Maine, and Delaware, all at or near 200% above a typical Saturday. Massachusetts set a single-day record of $8.5 million in sales, as the state’s all-time adult-use cannabis revenue passed $6 billion.
In terms of form factor, Headset’s data shows that cannabis beverages had a banner 4/20, with sales up 150% and retailers moving 200% more units than normal. The beverage category has been growing rapidly due to the emergence of the hemp-derived THC segment, which is expanding rapidly in various states like Minnesota and Texas. Concentrates, pre-rolls, topicals, and “tinctures & sublinguals” saw the greatest sales increases after beverages, up roughly 150%, 130%, 130%, and 125% respectively, with all of those categories seeing around 170% more units sold.
Despite the substantial gains for more novel form factors, flower is still king, seeing a 120% boost in 4/20 sales and representing roughly 41% of overall sales. Vape pens, at 24% of sales, and pre-rolls, at 14%, round out the top three sales categories.
Consumers took advantage of discounts during the holiday across all categories. The biggest discounting occurred in the edibles, beverages, tinctures, and topicals segments, all of which saw their average unit price fall by around 18% for 4/20.
While sales were up markedly, this year’s 4/20 underperformed slightly compared with 2023. Last year, 4/20 sales hit roughly $120 million across Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, and Washington. This year, even with the addition of Maryland and New York to those states, sales capped at around $110 million. However, when Friday sales are factored in, the 4/20 weekend exceeded the equivalent in 2023, reaching nearly $190 million in 2024 compared to $180 million a year earlier. —Shane English
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