Can Chalice Farms Become the Starbucks of Cannabis?

There are a lot of borrowed names in the cannabis industry when one fancies themselves to be important. (For example, I have heard more than one person in the industry don the self-appointed moniker “the Martha Stewart of Marijuana”. Let’s be honest – this is ridiculous as clearly Martha Stewart is the Martha Stewart of marijuana!)

Another name taken aspired to in the cannabis industry is the “Starbucks of Weed”, and a new contender for the title might actually be realizing that goal.

Based in Canada, Golden Leaf Holdings Ltd. has been making moves across North America to establish itself as a global leader in the industry. Specifically, the company has opened a chain of cannabis stores throughout Oregon known as Chalice Farms. And now it would seem the company has a made a move forward on the “Starbucks” front by contracting with a venture firm called BlackShire Capital to create a franchise model from the chain.

The GlobeAndMail.com reports:

“‘Like Starbucks is to coffee, we believe Chalice will be to cannabis,’ said William Simpson, Golden Leaf’s chief executive officer.

“BlackShire CEO Kevin Reed said the idea is to launch 35 to 45 stores in the next two years — first in Canada before moving to the U.S. The venture firm and Golden Leaf are in talks to create a management company for the franchises, which would be jointly owned.

“BlackShire intends to invest C$25 million ($19.4 million) for potential Canadian and U.S. operations.”

Coffee and cannabis both do well here in the Pacific Northwest, so it will be very interesting to see if Chalice Farms can effectively follow the Starbucks example (which started off in Seattle). With legalization about to officially kick off in Canada, and the growing momentum to end prohibition in the United States, and around the world, Chalice has the funding and opportunity to become the Starbucks of the cannabis industry.

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