Ontario Cannabis Store expands same- and next-day deliveries, depending on postal code

Cannabis

The provincial retailer has expanded its cannabis delivery options to include the same- and next-day service to select neighborhoods in the Greater Toronto Area and Hamilton.

Other areas are under consideration for the expedited delivery — reported to be handled by Pineapple Express Delivery Inc. — but in the meantime, interested customers will have to plug in their postal code to see if they qualify.

Transportation vendors are selected according to several criteria, including coverage area, age-verification processes and ability to meet important anti-diversion requirements, noted an OCS response to The GrowthOp.

The service isn’t cheap, but neither is going outside, in general, and it will spare customers from a wide range of other painful experiences they might encounter on the other side of their front doors.

Same-day service runs $12.17, plus HST, and orders must be received before 1 p.m. to ensure a delivery that evening (between 5 p.m and 10 p.m.). Next-day service (provided the next day isn’t a holiday) is $10.62, plus HST, and orders must be in by 11:59 p.m. the previous evening to qualify. Next-day deliveries will arrive in the same 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. window.

The OCS does not deliver to P.O. boxes or Toronto Island, but if you are willing to take the ferry to the city side of the dock, your delivery person will meet you there, cannabis in hand.

A series of text messages will keep customers apprised of the status of their delivery, with the OCS recommending customers have ID ready at the door to prove you are old enough to make the purchase. Orders cannot be cancelled once placed, the retailer noted, because the speed with which shipments are prepared makes the process difficult to modify.

Some expect the delivery options to be embraced by millennials who are well-versed in using apps to order their food and transportation. / Photo: ViewApart / iStock / Getty Images Plus

While it isn’t yet clear how much demand there will be for the same-day delivery of cannabis, Alanna Sokic, a senior consultant at Global Public Affairs, told BNN Bloomberg that it will likely be embraced by millennials who are well-versed in using apps to order their food and transportation.

“This is something that in the age of Amazon, which consumers are clearly craving,” Sokic said. “Especially in places like Ontario, which is still ramping up physical retail stores, a service like this would be welcome,” she said.

Same- and next-day service is currently available in select neighbourhoods in Toronto, Mississauga, Oakville, Burlington, Milton, Brampton, Vaughan, Thornhill, Richmond Hill, Markham, Pickering and Hamilton. Excluded areas can still receive delivery through Canada Post for a $5 fee, plus HST.

Asked how the current program is working and it there is any thought of expanding further, OCS noted that “customers have provided positive feedback around the convenience of same-day/next-day delivery options. Since launch, same-day/next-day orders have accounted for up to 30 percent of daily orders in each community where available. Same-day/next-day will continue to be expanded to new communities over time as transportation vendors are capable.”

Source: The GrowthOp