Jul. 14, 2022 "One third of budtenders hired in the last year already left their job: Study": Today I found this article by Tara Deschamps on BNN Bloomberg:
Nearly one third of Canadian cannabis retail employees hired over the last year already left their jobs
and 24 per cent didn't even make it past their first month, a new study says.
The data from marijuana analytics firm Headset released Thursday shows
56 per cent of these employees, known as "budtenders," who worked at any point in the last 12 months have left their jobs.
The report covers workers in Alberta, Ontario, British Columbia and Saskatchewan between
June 2021 and May 2022 -- a period when cannabis businesses were
carrying out layoffs
and facing stiff competition as the number of pot shops soared during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jennawae McLean, the co-founder of Calyx + Trichomes, a cannabis store chain in Kingston, Ont. said budtenders leave their jobs for a variety of reasons.
Many are drawn to the sector because they think cannabis has a "cool factor,"
but later realize the job can be as tedious and public-facing as other retail positions.
"It can sometimes feel like putting lipstick on a pig," McLean said.
"It's still retail at the end of the day.
You still have to do customer service, and customer service is a very demanding job.
Not everybody's cut out for customer service."
On top of the usual retail demands, cannabis workers also have to contend with additional regulations,
checking customer identification
and working in an environment that necessitates high security.
All of these factors compound with both new and old challenges seen across
retailers,
hospitality businesses
and seasonal employers.
These sectors have long been known for
high turnover
and often attract students and other workers prone to swapping roles after shorter tenures.
"I don't think that people start working in retail and expect that they're going to retire there," said McLean.
Now, they're facing even more struggles
when hiring new workers
and trying to hang onto existing ones
because the pandemic empowered people to
seek more flexible jobs and roles
where it is easier to work from home.
For every batch of 10 employees McLean hires,
three stick around for a long time,
but the remaining seven often leave after six months.
The Headset report said about
seven per cent of Canadian budtenders hired between June 2021 and May 2022 quit during between their 30th and 59th day,
six per cent departed between their 60th and 89th day
and 10 per cent made it no further than 180 days.
Roughly seven per cent of people hired within that time frame left after the 180 day mark
but before they reach one year and almost 46 per cent stayed.
The Headset report showed Alberta retailers tend to have slightly better retention among new employees, but lost a higher number of tenured employees than Ontario, British Columbia and Saskatchewan.
The report also offered a glimpse at how turnover in the four provinces studied compares to the U.S., where Headset examined patterns in Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon and Washington pot shop workers.
It concluded Canada's 56 per cent turnover rate was one per cent higher than the U.S.'s.
One third of budtenders hired in the last year already left their job: Study - BNN Bloomberg
My opinion: I don't really find working at a cannabis store to be "cool." Even when I'm in my late teens and early 20s, I still don't find that cool.
Apr. 17, 2023 "Pot shop robberies spur push to end restrictions on window displays": Today I found this article by Tara Deschamps on BNN Bloomberg:
When Elisa Keay works at her Toronto cannabis store, the days feel long and dark — even when the sun is bright.
The gloominess comes from the frosted windows that adorn K's Pot Shop in Leslieville, blocking out the weather or even who is about to walk into her store.
The windows are frosted to comply with regulations requiring pot be shielded from the view of minors,
but Keay and others argue the requirements should be dropped because they are
leaving workers feeling closed off from their neighbourhoods
and their stores more likely to be targeted by robbers.
"You start to feel very isolated, like you're sitting in a box and the world's going by on the street and you realize how disconnected you are," said Keay.
Even more worrisome, she said, is the fact that window coverings can encourage theft because they give cover to anyone inside and prevent pedestrians from noticing a crime underway as they pass a store.
"Nobody can see what's happening inside," said Keay.
"I have a number of colleagues and friends in the industry who have had their stores held up at gunpoint and have had assaults happen inside their stores ... That opportunity is very real because of those window coverings."
Her employees carry panic buttons in the event they're caught up in a robbery.
The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, which regulates the province's cannabis retailers, said stores must ensure cannabis products are not visible from the shop's exterior.
"Ontario retail cannabis stores are able to make their own decisions as (to) how they meet the standards, and as such are not required to cover their windows or block visibility into the store," said spokesman Raymond Kahnert in an email.
To avoid covering their windows, some have built a walled off entryway that blocks the view into the store,
but Keay said they can be difficult to construct in small spaces,
so relaxed restrictions like those implemented in Alberta are preferred.
A "significant rise" in robberies, particularly in Calgary, prompted Alberta's cannabis regulator to allow stores to take down window coverings last summer.
News reports in the lead up to the regulator's move detailed a spate of incidents where robbers, who were sometimes armed, entered stores to steal cash and weed, leaving workers shaken.
"Use of violence and weapons has occurred in some commercial robberies, and the Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Commission is concerned for the safety of staff, customers and responding police officers," Dave Berry, the regulator's executive vice-president, said in an August letter to stores announcing the change.
Jaclynn Pehota, the executive director at the Retail Cannabis Council of B.C., said she's unaware of any other province that has relaxed regulations around window coverings to the extent that Alberta has.
However, she said the Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch (LCRB), which regulates pot in British Columbia, removed rules requiring weed stores to be enclosed with non-transparent walls.
But Pehota said the relaxation didn't spur a change because stores must still ensure cannabis products, which come in plain packaging that must not entice youths, cannot be seen from outside.
"It doesn't matter if you don't have to have opaque windows, if you have a regulation that says you can't see any cannabis or cannabis products from the street and you have a storefront that's all windows," she said.
David Haslam, communications director for B.C.'s Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General, said the LCRB "understands that some businesses continue to experience challenges, even though the requirement was removed, and is actively working with the cannabis industry and other stakeholders to address this issue in the interest of public safety."
Pehota intends to keep pushing regulators to relax their window covering and visibility rules and is using safety as one of the top motivators.
She said she has heard from at least eight retailers who experienced break-ins recently, including several that turned violent.
"We had an instance where there was somebody who ended up getting tied up and left in their shop for a period of time and nobody knew that poor person was in there," she said.
"My concern is that it's going to get worse before it's better and I'm worried that somebody is going to get seriously hurt."
High Tide Inc., which has 151 stores in five provinces and has experienced armed robberies, had similar worries, which encouraged it to advocate for Alberta to remove regulations prohibiting pot products from being visible from a store's exterior.
Now, it's calling on other provinces and the federal government to copy such legislation, which it said will counter the fact that "criminals can run amok without fear of public scrutiny from outside of the store."
"In many cases these gangs steal legal cannabis products for the purpose of diverting them to the illicit market where no age checks are in place," Omar Khan, High Tide's chief communications and public affairs officer, said in an email.
"Applying the new Alberta standard coast to coast will be a win for community safety."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 16, 2023.
Pot shop robberies spur push to end restrictions on window displays - BNN Bloomberg
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