Planet 13 Sees Growth In Florida, Illinois Drive Revenue Gains
December 31, 2024With sales expected to come in around $140 million this year, Las Vegas-based Planet 13 has 34 dispensaries nationwide, including 30 in Florida, where it’s a growing player in the state’s huge medical market. At its home base in Las Vegas, Planet 13 operates a flagship superstore, the largest in the country, and also recently opened a new consumption lounge on the Strip called Dazed!. SNDC senior editor Shane English caught up with Planet 13 co-CEO Larry Scheffler to discuss growth opportunities across Planet 13’s markets.
SNDC: How is business at Planet 13’s flagship Las Vegas dispensary?
Scheffler: We really cater to the 82% of our customers that are tourists. We’re able to charge regular, full-price like we normally have done, versus all of our competitors in town that are trying to go after the 2.5 million residents here. There’s a big price war going on. There are in a lot of other states, too, whether it be Michigan, Illinois, California, where prices are just dropping like crazy.
We’ve been lucky here at the superstore because we’re serving tourists. We’re not gouging, but we’re not discounting prices like we have to at our other neighborhood stores that are not catering to tourists. Sales are increasing all the time. We constantly try to create something new at Planet 13 here in Las Vegas because everybody wants to be entertained and it’s our job to entertain them.
SNDC: How has the development and launch of the Dazed! consumption lounge gone for the company?
Scheffler: For us it’s a profit margin but not a huge profit margin. Some people may think that just like when you go to a bar, you maybe order three, four, five drinks. You go into the consumption lounge, you’re going to get one or two.
In addition to Dazed!, we opened our Plaza 13, which is a 4,000-square-foot space for comedy clubs, for holding boxing and pre-boxing events with signings and for pictures. Whenever we have the big UFC fights in town, all these things add to our traffic, and create more of a destination for people to visit Planet 13, and of course then we sell more product.
Because we have everything in this mall-type setting of the superstore, it drives more people into our store to buy cannabis. It’s one more part of the entertainment process that we try and push here.
SNDC: What product categories do well for Planet 13?
Scheffler: For us in Las Vegas the largest category is edibles, and out of the edibles gummy squares are the largest for us. Tourists have got to really stay discreet. You can’t smoke in the rooms. There’s $500 on the cleaning fee if you get caught with any scent inside, even on the casino floor. So the casinos frown on it a lot. It isn’t allowed legally on the Strip, although a lot of people do it, but that’s the reason why they tend to lean to the edibles more.
Off the Strip, it’s the exact opposite. When we get to our neighborhood stores, there’s more flower and vape sales, in addition to the edibles.
SNDC: How have sales trends changed over the years?
Scheffler: From when we started in 2017, the percentages have stayed pretty much the same. Now whether or not there’ll be new products that come up remains to be seen. But we haven’t seen a lot of change in percentage of what people desire, whether it be locals, whether it be tourists, etc.
SNDC: Can you update us on Planet 13’s holdings outside of Nevada?
Scheffler: Illinois, we’re very happy with it. In percentage of growth, it actually leads any other state we have right now, though that will be taken over by Florida next year. In Florida, we have now 30 dispensaries, and we will have about 50 or a little bit over by the end of next year. We’re opening one a month minimum even with it being only a medical market.
VidaCann, which we acquired, was doing about half of what the average dispensary does in Florida. If we can get to the average, we double the revenue from when we bought the project. We’re happy and we’re still looking for sites all the time.
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