Frosted windows in cannabis stores raise concerns

Sean Stewart, owner of two Cannabis stores in Ste Anne and Winnipeg, watched his store get broken into three times.

He got a call from security telling him the store was getting broken into and he accessed the live cameras from his device.

“It was the worst feeling,” said Stewart about the first break-in. “It was always painful to watch.”

The Bridgwater store got broken into in August, October, and November 2024.

The provincial government will be exploring relaxing window cover requirements to create a safer working and shopping environment, according to a memo from Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries (MBLL) on April 15.

“If people were passing by, they would’ve seen alarms,” Stewart said. “We really want to see who’s coming in.”

He said in the third break-in he felt “desensitized.”

Steward said kids can see guns in stores like Canadian Tires, but they would just mainly see packaging in cannabis stores.

“To me that’s bizarre,” said Stewart.

“How many people look in the store to see if a shop worker is okay? Not many,” said Stacie Rasmussen, district manager of four Rural Buds locations.

On June 1, the markup on wholesale cannabis products in Manitoba increased two percent, from nine percent to 11 percent.

Stewart said they’ve split the two percent evenly between them and customers.

“I think a two percent increase is reasonable with inflation. They haven’t raised it since legislation,” Rasmussen said.

Manitoba has one of the lowest cannabises mark up rates in Canada and this is the first change in markup since it was legalized in 2018, according to the memo from MBLL.