Commentary

  Thomas Mulloy, senior editor with CBDRetailTrends.com and CStore Decisions magazine, welcomes Jeff Ragovin, chief commercial officer with Fyllo, a company whose mission is providing compliance-first solutions for highly regulated industries. Ragovin discusses the difficulties for CBD manufacturers and retailers in navigating a continually shifting regulatory landscape, as well as mainstream companies entering the CBD/hemp…

Cannabidiol (CBD) products are becoming ubiquitous: from the gummies at customers’ local c-store to the CBD-laced peanut butter they considered buying online for their pets. It’s an increasingly prevalent trend that has wafted into dozens of industries and grown abundantly on retail shelves and online storefronts alike. In fact, in a recent CivicScience study of…

When I began in this business many years ago, a typical convenience store was pretty simple — no matter what part of the country I was visiting. Whether it was a convenience store chain, like Total (remember them?) or an independent, the assortment was universal, particularly when it came to categories. Every store was focused…

When you think about ways you can meet your customers’ health needs, you may immediately think of offering options like natural foods, clean labels, fresh options and products that are low in sugar or sodium — “health foods,” in other words, many of which are focused on physical health and weight loss. But for the…

The eventual possibility of selling cannabis is highly appealing to many convenience store retailers. With typical declines in tobacco sales, more fuel-efficient and electric cars impacting fuel volume, and the pandemic impacting foot traffic, this opportunity cannot come fast enough. Currently, the sale of cannabis is fully legal in 17 states and Washington, D.C., and…

In the year since the COVID-19 pandemic began and as the staggering number of deaths across the globe has increased, so have rates of depression, anxiety and other mental health challenges related to the pandemic’s many impacts on survivors. The pandemic’s toll on mental health and the growing legalization of cannabis products in the U.S.…

  While the cannabidiol (CBD) wellness market seems to be quickly growing in the way of therapeutic topicals and edibles that help with pain and anxiety, the next decade may yield significant advances in medicinal use of CBD. The revenues from cannabinoid-based pharmaceuticals are projected to rise over the next several years. Assuming that the…

  Major players in the cannabidiol (CBD) industry are going full speed ahead on innovation despite growing economic uncertainty for consumers. Innovation in dosage and ingredients are helping to keep CBD brands top-of-mind, attract holistic wellness seekers, and offer easier-to-understand products for a growing consumer base that is turning to CBD to manage stress and…

  As the cannabidiol (CBD) category grapples with unusual circumstances, retailers must implement new tactics when selling CBD products. CBD sales were rolling along until two unusual circumstances caused a blip. First, the illegal tetrahydrocan- nabinol (THC) vaping crisis of late 2019 practically eliminated sales of CBD vaping items and negatively im- pacted sales of…

As cannabidiol (CBD) moves the mainstream, convenience stores are in prime position to benefit from the product’s rapid growth. U.S. sales of hemp-derived CBD products reached $4.2 billion in 2019, a 562% increase over 2018, according to Brightfield Group. While few consumers had heard of CBD prior to 2018, the signing of the Farm Bill…