Canadians celebrated October 17 by blazing up all over the country. On this day, purchasing cannabis became north of the border.
The Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS) and its online retail Shopify announced the first 24-hours of sales saw approximately 100,000 orders of legal cannabis. That could be significant revenue for the government and also for the licensed producers, such as Aurora, Canopy, and OrganiGram.
Now over 10 days later, some of those in Ontario who ordered through the OSC are still patiently waiting for their homegrown bud to arrive.
In an update to customers, Patricia Ford, president of the OCS, stated it has now processed over 150,000 orders since legalization, which it is calling ‘unprecedented demand.’ The OCS notes that its staff are working ‘around the clock’ but the ‘huge volume and complications related to the strikes and mail backlogs at Canada Post’ means that delivery will be ‘longer than expected.’
The OCS has not released its revenue nor if customers have canceled orders. However, to ensure this does not happen, the OCS says it has taken measurements to increase capacity at the processing facility and also added additional people within customer service so you’re not waiting on hold for so long.
“We continue to ask for the public’s patience as we work through these unprecedented issues. OCS is committed to the highest standard of customer service, and we are taking steps to ensure we can achieve this standard. We will continue to provide updates to the public as we work through these issues,” said Ford. Across the country saw similar sales and shortages of cannabis. For example, in British Columbia, over 21,000 cannabis sales orders were completed within the first week, Alberta saw 8,300 orders were made in the first 24-hours, while Quebec’ Société québécoise du cannabis (SQDC) reported 138,150 orders through its website.
This article was originally published on MobileSyrup.