MedMen, a Los Angeles-based chain of cannabis dispensaries with stores in California, Nevada, and New York is working hard to become a household name. This year, the company has opened a flagship store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, gone public on the Canadian stock exchange with a $1.6 billion valuation, and now, is launching its own in-house product line of cannabis flowers, pre-rolled joints, vaporizers, and tinctures to sell alongside the products already offered in its dispensaries.
MedMen has been called the Apple, Starbucks, Target, Barneys, and Supreme of weed. On a call discussing MedMen’s new private label products, communications chief Daniel Yi added Whole Foods and Costco to the list.
“If you go to Whole Foods or any modern supermarket nowadays, you’re going to have the brand from that company—like Costco has Kirkland,” he said referring to the retailer’s private-label products. And like Whole Foods or Costco, MedMen has the benefit of consumer data to help drive its product line.
“We know what sells,” said Yi, adding that joints and flowers make up about half of the business for now, but the 25-35 year olds who shop at MedMen are increasingly gravitating toward vaporizers and edibles.
The Kirkland of MedMen, called Statemade, has seven different formulations—Max, Joy, Zen, Ebb, Zzz, One, and CBD—designed to deliver desired effects whether by a pre-rolled joint, vaporizer, tincture, or flower.
But you won’t find stoner-friendly strain names like Bubba Kush or Cannatonic on the packaging. Instead, the richly-colored boxes and copper-topped glass jars resemble pricey cosmetics—a house brand positioned as luxury. And as wellness.
“Maybe you want to incorporate cannabis into your yoga routine or into your sports recovery routine,” said Yi. The Zen formulation might lend itself to the former, he said, while the pure CBD might be good for the latter.
“There’s a fine nuance between one and the other,” he said, referring to the different formulas. “You could use ‘Ebb’ to feel ‘Zen.'”
For now the products, ranging from $12 single pre-rolled joints to $72 vaporizer pens, will only be available in Nevada. (The name Statemade refers to MedMen’s intentions to produce and sell the products without crossing state lines.) Yi said he expects MedMen’s California dispensaries to have them in stock by late 2019.