Maggie’s Farm started back when Colorado was just getting into the medical marijuana business.
The well-known Colorado weed store chain, Maggie’s Farm, closed five of its stores out of nowhere last week. This shows how tough the market is in the US’s first state to legalize recreational weed.
Now, the company that’s been around for 14 years is down to just three stores: one in Colorado Springs, one in Pueblo North, and one in Manitou Springs, as reported by The Pueblo Chieftain. The stores that had to close were in Pueblo, Las Animas, and Cañon City.
Bill Conkling, who started the company, said on social media that shutting down the stores was a hard choice. He didn’t want to hurt the company’s workers or customers.
“We had to make a really tough decision to keep Maggie’s Farm going,” Conkling explained. He also said sorry to the staff for the trouble and letdown the closures caused.
This sudden news left some workers without jobs and no severance pay, The Chieftain shared. There are also reports that Maggie’s Farm owes money to some of its suppliers, as told by people who used to work there.
“On Monday, we got a notice to leave our store,” said Eric Ruybal, a store manager in Pueblo West. “By Tuesday, we were out of jobs.”
Ruybal mentioned to The Chieftain that their health benefits would continue only until the end of the month and that they’d be getting COBRA forms soon after.
Maggie’s Farm was there when Colorado started selling medical marijuana and moved into selling it for fun when that became legal in 2014. However, like many others, it’s been hit hard by the ups and downs of the market.
According to state reports, Colorado’s weed market has been having a tough time for a while, with 2023 being the slowest sales year since 2017.
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