Legal Weed Gets Cheaper as Competition Heats Up in NY

Darryl Hilkert — High Points Dispensary
Paul Szmal 5:40
The "High Points Dispensary" sign is displayed on a building with columns, likely a drive-thru entrance.
The High Points Dispensary sign is visible on its building in the Finger Lakes region, a local cannabis business featured in news reports.
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The legal cannabis market in New York is maturing fast, and customers at High Points Dispensary in Geneva are starting to feel it in their wallets, according to Darryl Hilkert, who joined the FLX Morning Podcast on October 21st to talk about what’s changed since the state’s legal dispensary rollout began roughly two years ago.

Hilkert said High Points, located on Route 5 and 20 in Geneva, now carries products from over 80 vendors and stocks more than 800 individual items — and even that barely scratches the surface of what’s available in New York. “There’s hundreds of brands we don’t even have in our store,” he said, “and we have a lot.”

That abundance is driving prices down. As more brands compete for limited shelf space, vendors are offering dispensaries better wholesale pricing, which Hilkert says is being passed along to consumers. He noted the contrast with the early days, when the price gap between licensed dispensaries and the gray market was significant enough to give shoppers sticker shock. “A lot of people would cringe on prices,” he said.

Part of what’s fueling the expansion is the entry of multi-state organizations, or MSOs — large cannabis companies with years of experience in other states — that are finding ways to get their brands into New York through licensed processors. While New York’s cannabis program was initially designed to prioritize smaller, independent operators, Hilkert acknowledged MSOs are now a growing presence and their scale helps push prices lower.

He also drew a clear distinction between licensed dispensaries and gray market shops still operating in the region, pointing out that unlicensed products often lack the New York state stamp and may be out-of-state overflow that hasn’t gone through required testing.

On the product side, Hilkert highlighted a wave of new formats hitting shelves — including cannabis-infused popsicles, suckers, and drinks — many in the $5 to $10 range, making it easier for customers to try something new without a big commitment.

High Points Dispensary is open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sundays until 6 p.m. Find them at Routes 5 and 20 in Geneva.

Read Full Transcript

Paul Szmal: Coming up now on 754 on FLX Morning on Finger Lakes News Radio, temperature is at 45 and we are joined now by our dispensary correspondent, and that would be Darrell Hilkert from High Points Dispensary, Roots 520 in Geneva. Darrell, good morning. How are you, sir?

Darryl Hilkert: Hey, Paul. How are you doing today?

Paul Szmal: I am doing great, doing great. And we were talking before you came in, before the microphones turned on here, about how there continues to be an onrush of product that is coming into these dispensaries, the legal dispensaries throughout the state.

Darryl Hilkert: Oh yeah. As more and more brands come into New York, the more and more products are expanding and becoming more plentiful, so the competition out there through brands is really gearing up. Do you think that maybe that's going to change the pricing structure for a lot of these products if there are more products available?

Paul Szmal: Oh yeah, it already has. We get a lot of vendors that, you know, they want to give us a little better price on our products so we can lower our price to the consumer. And we've seen big changes in the last year and a half from when we started until now. And the abundance of products that are available, and then as more and more are available, they do become cheaper. It's a competition out there. So they're all trying to get their products on the shelves, and unfortunately we only got so much shelf space. There's hundreds of brands that we don't even have in our store, and we have a lot. We're dealing with over 80 vendors now and over 800 products in the store. So I mean, there's something for everybody out there. And we haven't even touched on what's available in New York.

Darryl Hilkert: That's amazing to me how this has kind of exploded in the course of just, what, maybe two years?

Paul Szmal: Yeah, yep. And then actually right about two years now, we've been open a little over a year and a half ourself, and you know, others were open before us. So there's a lot of products available out there, the MSOs, the multi-state organizations are finding ways to get their brands into New York processors so they can sell their products in New York also. So as it keeps growing, I mean, they've been in other states for 10 to 15 years. So it's growing, it's growing pretty fast.

Darryl Hilkert: Multi-state organization, how does that work?

Paul Szmal: They're considered an MSO in the beginning, you know, the whole thing in New York was supposed to keep it, you know, small mom and pops so that people could make a decent living off of it. But MSOs, when they come into the state, they're huge, you know, they're big, big organizations. And so they can afford to sell their products cheaper. So it helps us because in the beginning prices compared to the gray market were so big of a difference that, you know, people would cringe on prices. A lot of people, they would understand the products are tested and, you know, they go through a whole process before they come to us. So that's why the products are a little bit more expensive than the gray market stores. And not for nothing, there's no tax, no nothing, all those are like backdoor stuff. A lot of it's overflow from other states. If you go into any of the other gray market stores that aren't licensed, or even some of the other places in the state that aren't licensed that are allowed to sell, you'll notice you don't see the New York stamp on their products. You'll see a California or Colorado or it's an out-of-state stamp that's on it. So that's the overabundance that's in the other states, you know, that has flowed here that allowed the gray market to prevail for a long time. But now that there's a lot of products available here, prices are getting a little bit cheaper. We're able to pass that on to the consumer. And I think customers are actually feeling a little better to be able to walk in and buy a product without having to break the bank.

Darryl Hilkert: Yeah, and then we should emphasize that there are new products that are coming out as well in the midst of all of this.

Paul Szmal: Oh, yeah. It's crazy. I mean, now we're the popsicles and suckers, and some of the little add-ons, you know, a little $5 or $10 item you can add on to your order just to try something new, or the drinks, you know. Yeah, it's really neat to see it grow. And you can find High Points Dispensary on Routes 5 and 20 in Geneva. Hours of operation, Darrell?

Darryl Hilkert: Saturday through Friday, or let's say Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sundays noon to 6.

Paul Szmal: All right. Well, I appreciate you coming in and filling us in on what's going on, man.

Darryl Hilkert: Appreciate it.

Paul Szmal: Thank you. You got it, Paul. Have a good day.

Darryl Hilkert: All right. You too, man.