Roy and Della installed new, improved cameras, including one in front of the shop entrance. Now customers could enter the store only if buzzed in. Even then you weren’t really in. Inside was another door so that anyone entering found themselves in a glassed-in vestibule. From there they could be observed by staff before the second door would be opened. Other cannabis stores were doing the same. And there were more stores popping up all the time.
Having had a gun waved in her face changed Della. She was scared to go to work but couldn’t walk away from the business. To help calm her nerves, she smoked a little pot as soon as she got to Puff and ate a small hash cookie at bedtime.
Just before Halloween, in mid-October, another cannabis store opened up only two blocks south of Puff. Immediately there was a drop in Della’s business. They charged less and undercut Preferred Puff Cannabis. Della and Roy reduced their rates. Sales stopped declining but did not rebound to what they had been earlier. When Covid hit in March 2020 the store temporarily closed. In fact all of Canada closed. Della spent her days in her condo getting high on red wine and hash brownies. There were times she stared out her eighth floor window and wondered if jumping would be a solution. She worried, however, it wouldn’t be fatal. Roy and Ken phoned her from time to time. They weren’t genial chats. She stopped taking their calls.
The federal government came to the rescue. It decided to help businesses survive Covid 19. Cheques from Ottawa arrived in the mail and Della’s mood lifted. She cut back on her marijuana consumption, stopped drinking wine, wandered down to her shuttered store and puttered around.
In March 2021, she was able to get vaccinated against Covid. Two weeks later, she reopened the store. Most people were still worried about getting the virus, stood six feet apart and wore surgical masks. Business at Puff boomed as people stuck at home craved cannabis mental relief. She rehired Angela.
Another marijuana shop showed up only a block north of Puff. Now there were three such stores within two blocks of each other. The province had decided in 2020 to allow for an open cannabis market. The once rare licences for marijuana retail stores were suddenly of no great value. Almost anybody could establish a cannabis store in almost any location they chose.
On the first Friday in May, Roy dropped by the store. Leaving Angela in charge, he took Della out for supper. “My treat,” he said quietly.
They found a table at a nearby Italian restaurant. For a long time, little was said. The business partners were glum. The store wasn’t doing well.
Finally Roy muttered, “We’re barely breaking even. It doesn’t look good. Ken wants me to quit before we go into the red.” He tried to take a sip of his coffee but his hands shook so hard he had to put the cup back down. “There are two other shops within a five-minute walk of Puff. I can’t believe any of us are making money.”
