The number of stores or doors continues to be a key cannabis metric. The chart below shows the growth of both stores and licenses in the last twelve months. The proliferation of smoke, vape and hemp retailers is continuing to have an impact as there are many more points of distribution than ever before.  This is in addition to the legacy market.

Key Findings

• New York accounted for 533 (28%) of the newly issued licenses way up from 19 in 2023
• Michigan was second with 202 down from 243 last year with New Jersey third with 174 down from 224 last year
• The 4 top states issued 57% of the newly issued licenses – down from 60% last year.
• There were 12,349 stores holding 13,016 licenses at the end of 2024.

Here’s a graphical view of the new stores added by month.  The nation averaged 157 new stores per month with little variability month-to-month.  The low was 106 in November and with a high of 244 in August.

The ratio of licenses to facilities is slowly shrinking.  In early 2023 there were approximately 108 licenses per 100 facilities.  By the end of 2024 that number had dehydrated to 105 licenses per 100 facilites. We think this is largely driven by administrative changes in states like Nevada and New Mexico where operators will not need separate medical and adult use licenses.  

One final view is to understand the impact of Oklahoma.  Thanks to enforcement and a license moratorium, the number of stores in the state shrunk from 2,297 to 1,781 for a decline of 22%.  Removing this Oklahoma effect from the numbers and the number of stores nationally is up 14%, rather than just up 7%.  

Conclusion

Stores grew in 2024 as new states came online and as others like New York ramped up their license issuance.  We estimate that overall, the number of stores is up 7% nationally or 14% if Oklahoma is excluded.  The industry will continue to focus on the and expanded programs like Delaware, Kentucky and Minnesota in 2025.  

The rise of THC beverages is also having an impact these products, often hemp derived, are available via mail order, Grubhub, or in traditional liquor establishments.  The hemp and liquor industries have partnered up to expand this category.  Focus will be especially keen on Minnesota which is allowing THC beverages to be sold alongside alcoholic ones.

Cannabiz Media customers can stay up to date on these and other new licenses through our newsletters, alerts, and reports modules. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive these weekly reports delivered to your inbox. Or you can schedule a demo for more information on how to access the Cannabiz Media License Database yourself to dive further into this data.

Author

Ed Keating is a co-founder of Cannabiz Media and oversees the company’s data research and government relations efforts. He has spent his career working with and advising information companies in the compliance space. Ed has managed product, marketing, and sales while overseeing complex multi-jurisdictional product lines in the securities, corporate, UCC, safety, environmental, and human resource markets.  

‍Cannacurio is a column from Cannabiz Media featuring insights from the most comprehensive license data platform. Catch up on Cannacurio posts and podcasts for the latest updates and intel.