Mercy Wellness of Cotati
  • Shop
    • Cotati
    • Santa Rosa
  • Learn
    • Products
    • Mercy Brands
    • Delivery
    • Mercy Express Pay
    • Seniors
  • Voice
    • Canna Help You? Podcast
    • Whoa Bundy! Magazine
    • Mercy Blog
    • Mercy In the News
  • About Us
    • Calendar
    • Founder/CEO
    • FAQ
  • Contact
  • FB
  • IN
  • TW
  • YT
Select Page

Sonoma County cannabis dispensaries that deliver better positioned during pandemic

by felicia | Apr 17, 2020 | In The News

Press Democrat | Austin Murphy | March 27, 2020

Every adult in Petaluma did not get a delivery of cannabis last week. It only seemed that way to Dave Tohill, a kind of mobile “budtender” for Mercy Wellness, the Cotati-based dispensary. In a single day, Tohill had 40-plus deliveries in Petaluma alone.

One of his customers was a woman who’d spent the morning working in her yard, just off Maria Drive.

“I’ve driven past your house three times today,” said Tohill, as he delivered her package. “I like what you’ve done with the pavers.”

Cannabis, like alcohol, is thought to be recession-proof. But some dispensaries are better positioned than others to weather the coronavirus pandemic. While business spiked dramatically for area outlets around the March 18 imposition of Sonoma County’s emergency stay-at-home order, that boom lasted just a few days. Sales have since slowed. Although not hurt as badly as many businesses, cannabis retailers are still scrambling to adapt to the challenging new climate.

At Mercy Wellness, sales are now limited to in-home delivery and curbside pickup. That resulted, in the first few post-lockdown days, in traffic frequently backing up onto Redwood Drive, sometimes all the way down to Gravenstein Highway. Those backups are rarer now, in part because panic buying has subsided, and in part because CEO Brandon Levine and his staff figured out, after a bit of trial and error, the most efficient patterns for traffic in a parking lot shared with Grav South Brewing Company.

Upon entering the lot, customers are directed to one of two areas, depending on whether they’ve already placed an online preorder. Even those who haven’t preordered can be in and out in 5 to 7 minutes. Pads used by customers to enter their credit card information are promptly swabbed, by rubber- gloved associates, with Clorox wipes.

Pandemic or not, the vibe here is upbeat. Music from Pandora’s “Funk Radio” fills the air. Employees dash from cars to a fulfillment desk, then back. Tim Rowles said he and his co-workers have joked about donning roller skates, like servers at a drive-in restaurant.

Customers are buying, on average, 20% more weed than they would on a normal visit, Levine said. But they’re visiting less, as one would expect. Many seek relief from anxiety and sleeplessness. Levine has noticed a marked uptick in sales of edibles, “partly because they have a longer-lasting effect,” he said. “And then they put you to sleep.”

He is also executive director of Doobie Nights, the psychedelic, 3,700-square-foot ganja emporium 5½ miles north in Santa Rosa. A new business without an established, loyal clientele, Doobie Nights will suffer more than its sister dispensary during this economic downturn.

Levine sees tough times ahead for newer cannabis outlets, as does SPARC CEO Erich Pearson, whose company has dispensaries in San Francisco, Santa Rosa and Sebastopol. Santa Rosa, Pearson said, has an “over-saturation” of dispensaries, many of which were in financial difficulty before the coronavirus arrived.

Added Levine, “A lot of those companies that didn’t have an established customer base” will now struggle even more during the COVID-19 lockdown, “and some of them won’t make it out of this.”

Despite a handful of huge days around March 18, overall sales are down at SPARC. To spread the pain, Pearson and some executives have taken 25% pay cuts. Some of his 150 workers have been shifted from retail sales to driving delivery cars. Several others have been let go.

Original Article in the Press Democrat

The Latest News

  • CUSTOMER RESULTS TELL IT ALL: CANNABIS HELPS YOU SLEEP August 30, 2020
  • A Heartfelt Request from Mercy to You June 5, 2020
  • Weed is deemed ‘essential’ in California, but many pot businesses are on the brink of failure April 17, 2020
  • Sonoma County cannabis dispensaries that deliver better positioned during pandemic April 17, 2020
  • Run on marijuana dispensaries as Bay Area shelters-in-place April 17, 2020
  • Smoke and Mirrors April 17, 2020
  • Dazed and Gratified April 17, 2020

Archives

  • August 2020
  • June 2020
  • April 2020
  • December 2019
  • October 2019
  • August 2019
  • June 2019
  • April 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
FLOWER CARTRIDGE EDIBLE PREROLL EXTRACT TOPICAL TINCTURE BEVERAGE MERCH

QUICKLINKS

  • Home
  • Products
  • Voice
  • Seniors
  • Learn
  • Delivery
  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow

C10-0000164-LIC

JOIN THE NEWSLETTER

CHECK OUT OUR VIDEO PODCAST

CANNA HELP YOU?

© Mercy Wellness 2020, all rights reserved.

MERCY COTATI

Open Every Day: 10am – 7pm
7950 Redwood Dr. Suite 8
Cotati, CA 94931
707-795-1600

MERCY SANTA ROSA

OPENING SOON!
900 Santa Rosa Ave
Santa Rosa CA 95404