Pay to Play – The Latest Mainstream Retail Practice to Hit Wholesale Cannabis Producers

Hot off the digital presses of Marijuana Business Daily from the mind of Margaret Jackson comes this thought-provoking piece around slotting fees for wholesale cannabis producers. We won’t spoil too many of the surprises, but it’s good to start gaining an understanding of how slotting fees work and getting them baked into your B2B cannabis business model.

Pay to play: Cannabis brands fork over cash for retail shelf space

The increasingly competitive cannabis market is fostering a pay-to-play mentality among both marijuana retailers and the brands they carry.
Known as slotting fees, the practice requires brands to pay anywhere from $500 to $15,000 a month for premium space on marijuana retailers’ store shelves.
Cannabis industry experts recommend marijuana brands build the fees into their budgets because they can cut into their profit margins. The fees are not tax deductible (more)