Lean in cannabis · retail · the store and the counter
The counter's a line.
A dispensary is two flows that meet at the counter. Product comes in the back door and gets received, stocked and listed on the menu. Customers come in the front door and get checked in, served and rung up. A lot of the waste shows up where the two meet: the item on the menu that isn't on the shelf, the line at the busy hour, the online order nobody has picked yet. These are the 8 wastes from the back door to the exit, with how to measure each one and the first thing I'd try. Written for store managers, inventory leads and whoever runs the floor.
I work on the supply side of a company that also runs retail, and I plan production from what the stores sell. This page looks at the store from there, and from the public data in my report on the Massachusetts market. If you run a store and something here doesn't match your floor, tell me.
DOWNTIME · back door to counter
The 8 wastes of a dispensary
For each one: what it looks like, how to measure it, where to look, and one thing to try first. Measure before you change anything, so you can show the difference afterward. Some work in a store looks like waste and isn't. That comes right after the eight.
Defects
What it looks like
- The wrong item in the bag, caught at the register or not caught at all.
- Ghost inventory: "it's on the menu but we don't have it."
- A menu price that doesn't match the POS, fixed at the register while the line waits.
Measure it
Inventory accuracy (what you count against what the system says), and the menu out-of-stock rate: how often an item on the menu isn't there.
Where to look
Count adjustments, the void log, and cancelled online orders.
First thing to try: mistake-proof the pull. Scan each item against the order before it goes in the bag, and let a mismatch stop the bag. The check is built into the step, so it doesn't depend on memory at the busy hour.
Overproduction
What it looks like
- Every SKU in every store, whether that store sells it or not.
- Slow strains reordered until the back is full.
- New products added without one coming off, so the menu only grows.
Measure it
Products with no sales since the last order, counting only the days they were in stock, as a share of the menu.
Where to look
The sales report sorted slowest first, next to the next order.
First thing to try: order from what sold, counted the right way. Sort by true velocity (below) before every order. A product that didn't sell while it was in stock doesn't get reordered unless someone writes down why.
Waiting
What it looks like
- The Friday line at check-in, while the counter is quiet at other times.
- Online orders sitting unpicked when the customer walks in.
- A budtender and a customer waiting on a manager for a void.
Measure it
Check-in-to-served minutes at the busiest hour, and online pick time: from order placed to order ready.
Where to look
Check-in, the pickup counter, the void log.
First thing to try: staff to the traffic, not the clock. Count customers through check-in by hour for each day of the week, and shape the schedule to that curve instead of a flat one. Then move receiving and restocking into the quiet hours. Lean calls that second step leveling the work, heijunka.
Non-utilized talent
What it looks like
- Budtenders hear every day what customers want, and there's no path from them to planning.
- Outs and customer feedback that reach the store manager and stop there.
- Inventory leads retyping counts by hand instead of finding out why they're off.
Measure it
Customer requests logged by the floor each week, and how many of them changed an order.
Where to look
The counter at the end of a shift, in the budtenders' own words.
First thing to try: end each shift with one question on the board: what did customers ask for that we didn't have? Whoever places orders reads the board first, and says which answer changed the order.
Transportation
What it looks like
- Store-to-store transfers to fix bad allocation.
- Product shuttled between the floor and the back room, one item per trip.
- Deliveries moved twice because the back room wasn't ready for them.
Measure it
Transfers between stores per week, with the reason for each, and trips between the floor and the back room per shift. Count them once.
Where to look
The transfer log, the path from the back room to the floor, and a floor plan.
First thing to try: a restock run. Restock the floor at set times from a list, at opening and before the busy hour, instead of a trip each time something runs out. Lean calls this a point-of-use route, sometimes a water spider. A milk run is the same idea between buildings.
Inventory
What it looks like
- Aged product in the back, next to a stockout of a best seller.
- Slow SKUs taking display space a fast one could use.
- Older lots behind newer ones, so the old ones keep getting older.
Measure it
Days of supply by product (on hand divided by true velocity), and the age of product on hand.
Where to look
The back room shelves, the display cases, and the inventory report sorted by age.
First thing to try: a min and a max for every product. Label each product's spot in the back with both. Below the min, reorder. At the max, stop. Older lots go in front. Anyone walking past can see a gap or an overflow without opening a report.
Motion
What it looks like
- Digging through drawers for a single pre-roll.
- Searching the back room for a product because it has no fixed home.
- The fastest sellers on the far wall or the bottom shelf, so the most frequent pull is the longest one.
Measure it
Online pick time, and steps per pull at the busy hour. Count them once.
Where to look
The back room and behind the counter, during the busy hour.
First thing to try: redesign the pull. Give every product a fixed, labeled home in the back. Put the fastest movers closest to the door, at waist height. Then walk one order again and count the steps.
Extra processing
What it looks like
- Hand-counting what the system already counted, on top of the counts compliance requires.
- Re-keying online orders at the register.
- The same end-of-day numbers written up for more than one report.
Measure it
Times the same order or count is entered by hand, per day.
Where to look
The register, the receiving desk, and the end-of-day close.
First thing to try: follow one online order from the menu to the exit bag, and write down every place someone types or counts the same thing. Keep every step compliance requires. Take out one copy nobody uses, and write the rest down as the standard way.
Before you cut anything
What isn't waste here
- 1The walk to the back, and the put-away at close. A dispensary isn't supermarket shelving. In Massachusetts the sales floor holds samples in locked display cases, and finished product is stored in a locked safe or vault. So the pull for each order is real work, and so is putting stock away at close. Make both shorter and easier. Don't try to remove them.
- 2ID checks and purchase limits. They are part of selling legally. If check-in backs up, the fix is staffing to the traffic and a smoother check-in, never a skipped or rushed check.
- 3Required counts and reconciliation. The counts and the reconciliation compliance asks for stay. The waste is the recount on top of them because nobody trusts the first one.
If you only measure two things
Where I'd start
- 1True velocity. Units sold divided by the days the item was actually in stock on the floor, not calendar days. If you sell by the gram, count it by weight. Calendar days mislead: an item that was out half the month looks slow, gets ordered less, and runs out again, when it may be your fastest seller. Start by marking each morning which items are out. I plan production from what stores sell, so this is the number I'd want from every store.
- 2Check-in-to-served wait at the busiest hour. Pick the busiest hour of the busiest day. Write down when each customer clears check-in and when a budtender starts with them. It's the waste your customers feel first, and all it takes to start is a clipboard and a watch.
Free · one page · print it
The retail walk sheet
One printed page: the eight wastes as they show up between the back door and the counter, where to look, the question to ask, and room to write what you saw. Follow one delivery and one customer, write it down, and bring the sheet back to your team before anyone proposes a fix.
The rest of the operation