The Canadian faction of Walmart said Tuesday that it’s exploring cannabis based products on their shelves, but it’s not happening anytime soon. Though they might hurry things up a little if the dollars make sense. The company’s stock rose 3 percent after the announcement.
Walmart is the biggest mainstream conglomerate to show interest in carrying cannabis products and they’re certainly not going to be the last. Big companies in the U.S. like Coca Cola and Constellation Brands have already made moves in that direction, with Constellation having invested $4 billion in the burgeoning Canadian market already. They say they won’t expand into the U.S. until the federal ban is lifted.
Walmart spokeswoman Diane Medeiros told Reuters, “Walmart Canada has done some preliminary fact-finding on this issue, but we do not have plans to carry CBD products at this time.” At this time is a very telling statement. Though it may first come off as negative, if you read the tea leaves, they wouldn’t even be having a public discussion if it weren’t a good possibility.
The products Walmart is considering carrying will contain the non-psychoactive cannabinoid CBD, not THC, which accounts for an elevated state. Which is still exciting, seeing as Walmart consumers tend to be Republican. Though cannabis isn’t really a partisan issue, Democrats tend to poll in favor of progressive pot laws more than their counterpart.
Canada becomes a legalized nation in merely a few days, ending 90 years of prohibition, and there are bound to be many massive chains that will want to join the industry and cash in on what is projected to be a 2.38 billion dollar industry by 2022 in Canada, that market projection is according to Statista, but could be bigger or smaller depending on if there’s a bubble or a consistently growing market.
The move to legalize cannabis for adult use by Canada could kick other countries into gear to also legalize adult cannabis use. “An investment blueprint has been established in Canada that we believe will play out internationally very similarly,” said Roth Capital Partners analyst Scott Fortune.
In the U.S., the majority of residents live in a state with either medical or recreational cannabis laws, however, with its Schedule I status still in effect federally, it’s highly unlikely that many big companies like Walmart are going to be considering carrying cannabis products in the U.S. until the federal ban is lifted.
