September 20, 2016 Naturepay

A Story About Two Dispensary Owners

A Story About Two Marijuana Dispensaries

There are two marijuana dispensaries in a city. Both have great management teams with a good selections of quality cannabis products on display. They both have competitive prices, great atmospheres, and are in prime locations, but that’s where the similarities end.

Let’s look a little closer.

John is struggling

He rarely gets a day off. He is overworked and underpaid.  He spends too much time counting and attempting to secure the money in his all cash operation.  John has had several merchant accounts over the years; however, all were closed down.  John processor was miscoding his business (providing fraudulent information to the acquirer) in order to have access to a merchant account.  What makes matters worse is when John was found out by his bank they not only closed his account but held all outstanding settlements for 180 days. The other payment solutions John tried required his customers to go through a tedious sign up process. One solution even required his customers to connect their personal bank account to the solution which very few people were willing to do for obvious reasons.  Unfortunately John’s story is all too common.

Across town is Ashley

Business is good!  Ashley has access to a marijuana payment solution that does not require any funny business (miscoding).  The company that provides her payment solution knows she is operating a dispensary and they okay with that. Ashley’s customers can present her bud tenders with Visa/MasterCard/American Express or Discover credit and debit cards for payment.  There is no chance that she will be shut down or have her marijuana payment solution closed.  Ashley pays very low fees (less than 2%). She paid no setup fee, no monthly fees, no monthly minimums, and best of all there is no Risk to her business!  Ashley receives her deposits daily from a US FDIC insured bank.  There is no chance that Ashley’s payment solution will be shut down as it meets or exceeds all Fin CEN, BSA, AML, and card association rules and requirements.

While Ashley is planning her expansion into several new locations and going on her second vacation this year John is wondering how much longer he will be able to cover his overhead and keep his doors open.  Both operators work extremely hard but it seems Ashley is being smarter than John and has access to better technology and business solutions than John does.

If you think Ashley’s approach to managing her dispensary makes sense and maybe she is on to something good…please reach out to the team at Naturepay for details.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

We would love to speak with you!