All About How and What Dispensaries Buy Supplies Wholesale!

Walking into a marijuana dispensary for the first time can be incredibly exciting for a cannabis connoisseur. It’s a bit like being a kid in a candy store – there’s flower, pre-rolls, paraphernalia, concentrates, and even literal candy (cannabinoid-infused of course) lining the walls. A friendly budtender is there to help you navigate the vast array of options, and you leave with a sack of weed products. What’s not to love?

But have you ever wondered how these stoner meccas stay stocked with all their goodies? Keep reading to discover all about dispensary wholesale supplies!

What Do Dispensaries Buy?   

Obviously, one of the most important things that dispensaries purchase is cannabis and cannabis byproducts. Many dispensaries choose to cut down on the costs by cultivating their own marijuana crops, and in fact, this is required by law in some states. However, the massive demand for concentrated products like dabs, tinctures, and edibles encourages most dispensaries to forge relationships with commercial growers. Sourcing from multiple farms and grow operations also creates a more varied inventory that better appeals to potential customers. 

Any dispensary that is going to cultivate their own products is also going to have package those products. Not any old ziplock bag will do either. Most states that allow for the commercial sale of cannabis also heavily regulate its packaging. A common example is a requirement for child-proof packaging on things like joint or blunt tubes. In order to be in state compliance, these tubes must first acquire the ASTM Approved Child Resistant seal, like these pop-tops. 

High-quality packaging isn’t just important for navigating all the bureaucratic red tape around the cannabis industry; it’s also vital for keeping your products fresh. Nobody wants to take home a dried up pre-roll that ignites like flash paper and tastes like stale tobacco, and if dispensaries develop a reputation for slinging sub-par products they’re business will burn in in smoke just as quick. Proper storage is essential. Whether it’s space-age mylar bags for flower or small silicone jars for concentrates, good packaging is vital for any cannabis business. The need for better packaging has actually birthed an industry of its own. Now companies like Canlock are creating state of the art technology to keep cannabis as fresh as possible, for as long as possible. 

For many dispensaries, the marijuana itself is only part of its inventory. Certain municipalities don’t allow for dispensaries to sell ancillary products, or paraphernalia like rolling papers, bongs, or pipes, in tandem with cannabis. For the places that do allow for weed accouterment to be sold alongside the plant itself, these products can contribute a fair amount to daily sales. It makes sense – who needs rolling papers more than the person who just bought a big bag of bud?

Dispensaries purchase these supplies in bulk at wholesale prices so that they are then able to pass those savings on directly to the customer. Whenever possible, it’s always better to purchase these products directly from the dispensary, as opposed to less reputable dealers like gas stations. Certain items like blunt wraps can start to deteriorate over time. Gas stations, and retailers like them, are more likely to let the products sit on the shelve for months or even years at a time. Nothing is worse than getting settled in and realizing that what you were going to roll up with has disintegrated into something unusable. Dispensaries are also more likely to have a varied selection of products, so customers are able to choose from their favorite brands like raw or elements. When it comes to investment purchases like glass water pipes or dab rigs, dispensaries are the best place to look. The items found there will be of much higher quality and priced more fairly than at retailers like convenience stores and bodegas.