Super Bowl and Valentine's Day Shift February Dispensary Sales

Two annual events affect dispensary sales every February: Valentine's Day and the Super Bowl.

Comparing this year's dispensary sales during Super Bowl weekend with last year's, when the Denver Broncos were playing, gives some idea of the general mood of this state's residents.

Last year, dispensaries saw an increase in sativa sales. But this year, people preferred to mellow out on the couch, judging from an increase in indica purchases. The data was compiled by Baker, an app used by customers throughout Colorado, and a resource that dispensaries an use to track their inventory and message customers about deals.

"Last year during the Super Bowl, there was a ton of sativa purchased in Denver," confirms Baker CEO Joel Milton. "People are watching their Broncos play, and they're all fired up. This year, the Broncos weren't in it, and indica was more popular than sativa. When it's two teams we don't care about, we might as well sit on the couch and mellow out, but when the Broncos are playing, everyone wanted sativa."

Despite the rise in indica sales during the Super Bowl, Coloradans continue to enjoy sativas more than indicas. But they're also starting to purchase hybrids more frequently, according to Baker's recent data.

"We've seen sativas continue to be more popular than indicas, [but we're also] seeing a rise in hybrids, both in terms of number of skews [and] in terms of purchasing," Milton says. "That's a little murky data, though, because more and more people now are realizing that their strains are actually hybrids, so it goes hand in hand."

Not surprisingly, edibles sales increased in the days before Valentine's Day. In the week leading up to February 14, edibles sales increased 33 percent; on Valentine's Day itself, sales of edibles were up 150 percent over an average day.

Baker's data does include some surprises. Milton says that he didn't expect the big increase in pre-roll sales so far this year. During Super Bowl weekend, pre-roll sales increased by 28.48 percent, according to Baker.

Another surprising development: During the Super Bowl, 1.47 percent of customers bought cannabis-infused beverages.

"Recently, there has been a lot of hype around the fact that beer sales have gone down with more states legalizing marijuana," the company noted in a statement. "We can conclude that they are increasingly replacing the experience of relaxing during the big game of alcohol with cannabis. The most common combination for the drink category was a drink and a pre-roll for the game."