FOX Business’ Jeff Flock reports on why more states are considering legalizing marijuana and the economic benefits that come with it.
Coloradans who are worried about the coronavirus pandemic can now purchase marijuana through a contactless weed dispenser at certain dispensaries.
A company named Anna is setting up her weed machines at Strawberry Fields dispensary in Pueblo, Colo. This month, and will be adding more to Starbuds dispensary in Aurora, Colo in the coming weeks.
The customer experience with anna equals self-checkouts at grocery stores and pharmacies.
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Buyers can shop in store with anna’s touchscreen, and can also order online by scanning their QR code upon arrival at the dispensary. Thanks to the new technology, customers can check in and receive their cannabis products within a minute, while also maintaining social distance and staying safe during the ongoing pandemic.
“Although the demand for this technology ran long before the pandemic, the presence of COVID-19 has the desire to introduce contactless payment in the dispensing process,” Anna CEO Matt Frost told FOX Business. “Despite that, COVID-19 has exacerbated the long wait times often associated with dispensaries. anna enables customers to know what they want to order and are in and out of the dispensary in under a minute, while buddenders are free to spend more time with customers who want that individualized experience. “
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The new weed dispensers will add to an already booming marijuana industry in Colorado, whose governor named it a “critical” company at the start of the pandemic.
Marijuana sales set an all-time record in Colorado in May with $ 149,186,615 total recreational sales, according to data released by the Department of Revenue’s Marijuana Enforcement Department. That record was broken the following month in June when recreational sales totaled $ 158,102,628.
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Shannon Gray, a spokeswoman for the Department of Revenue, notes that this is part of a long-term trend, as Colorado has been introducing new marijuana sales and tax revenue every year for the last six years since Colorado legalized weeds. for recreational sales in 2014.
The state is on track to break the record again, as it sold $ 978,350,185 worth in the first half through the first half of 2020. The state saw $ 1,747,990,628 of sales in mid-2019.
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More self-checkout weed machines by Anna are set to open in Massachusetts in September, with plans to expand to Nevada, California and Canada next year.
“We’ve only been in use for a week for deployment, but we’m excited about the interest and curiosity we’ve seen so far, and we expect customers to become accustomed to using the technology soon as time goes on, said Frost.
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