Customers line up outside Charlottetown’s cannabis store on May 17 when the province’s Chief Public Health Office announced liquor and cannabis stores would be closed the next day due to COVID-19 health measures. – Jim Day
As P.E.I.’s cannabis stores reopened one week ago, customers would have noticed a few changes meant to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19 strain).
Zach Currie
Zach Currie, director of cannabis operations for the P.E.I. Cannabis Management Corporation, said the reopening was going well.
“We’re just so fortunate and happy to be able to welcome our customers back into our stores after a long stint of being closed,” he said.
When the province implemented public health measures to help control the spread of the coronavirus in P.E.I., cannabis stores were among the businesses that closed.
Currie said the reopened stores will operate under reduced hours to start and there will be “very apparent” restrictions in place inside.
Those include installing Plexiglas barriers at the checkouts, following social distancing guidelines and allowing only one customer per open cash in each store.
Currie said sensory pods that contained sample product have been emptied and iPads used in the stores to view the selection have also been turned off.
“We’re just fortunate to be back,” Currie said.
The cannabis management corporation has still been selling marijuana during the store shutdown through home delivery, which was already an option for customers before the pandemic hit.
Currie said delivery fees were waived while the stores were closed. Now that they are reopened, the fees are back for any orders of less than $100.
During the store closures, cannabis sales were down to about 30 per cent of what they were prior to the pandemic, Currie said.
“It’s been certainly hard on our business.”
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