Role track • Buyer
Buyer
Strategic procurement for the people who decide what goes on the shelf and what comes off it. The arc opens with the cannabis supply chain end-to-end (the five stages from cultivation to retail, the wholesale channels, the sealed-state ecosystem that makes cannabis buying unlike any other category). Vendor management goes deep on brand due diligence, the questions the best buyers ask in vendor meetings, and lab selection as a buyer responsibility. Assortment covers category mix by format and store maturity, pricing tier architecture, menu engineering through the Stars/Plowhorses/Puzzles/Dogs lens, and the seasonal calendar (4/20, Croptober, Green Wednesday) that produces the year's velocity peaks. Economics closes with margin math, vertical-integration trade-offs, and the awards-and-equity calculus that decides which brands earn shelf space.
16 lessons7.3 hours0 section quizzes5 chapters
Begin courseFree during early access
What you'll master
Outcomes you can defend.
- Map any state's cannabis supply chain end-to-end and identify the leverage points for buying
- Conduct vendor meetings that surface the answers most buyers never get
- Build category assortment that matches store format, market maturity, and customer demand
- Engineer pricing tiers and a menu that maximizes contribution per square foot
- Plan a seasonal buying calendar that captures peak demand without over-investing in inventory
- Defend every SKU on your shelf with margin math, GMROI, and the rationalization framework
Curriculum
The full syllabus.
Every lesson, in the order we recommend you take them. Click any lesson to begin. Your progress saves automatically.
Part 01
3 lessons • 78 minSupply Chain
- 01The Five-Stage Supply Chain: Cultivation to ShelfHow a gram of legal cannabis travels from a cultivator's clone room to a dispensary jar through five licensed stages, what each stage controls, where the margin sits, and how a buyer should read every state's distribution model before writing the first PO.29 min
- 02Wholesale Channels: Direct, Distributor, Marketplace, BrokerHow the four cannabis wholesale channels (direct from producer, licensed distributor, marketplace, broker) actually behave on price, terms, and operational load, with the channel-mix decisions a buyer should be making by category and by state.24 min
- 03The Sealed-State Ecosystem and Why Interstate Commerce Doesn't ExistWhy every cannabis supply chain decision a buyer makes is bounded by the in-state-only constraint, how that constraint creates 50 separate parallel markets with wildly divergent wholesale pricing and assortment shapes, and what changes (and doesn't) as federal policy evolves toward potential interstate commerce.25 min
Part 02
3 lessons • 75 minVendor Management
- 04Brand Due Diligence: Ownership, Stability, Category FitHow to vet a cannabis brand before placing a first PO: who actually owns it, whether it survives its own balance sheet, and whether it earns shelf in your specific store given the assortment you already run. After April 22, 2026, state-licensed medical cannabis moved to Schedule III, changing 280E tax treatment for the medical portion of dual-license operations.25 min
- 05The Vendor Meeting: Questions the Best Buyers AskHow to run a vendor meeting that ends with a real allocation decision instead of a free lunch: what to read before the rep walks in, the specific questions that separate brand stories from supply realities, and how to translate everything you hear into open-to-buy dollars and shelf slots.24 min
- 06Lab Selection and Your Vendor's Testing StoryHow to read which lab a brand uses as a procurement signal, spot the THC-inflation and lab-shopping patterns that should kill a PO, and use lab choice as a quality filter when rationalizing the vendor list. As of April 22, 2026, state-licensed medical cannabis operators may now deduct ordinary business expenses for the medical portion of their operations; recreational cannabis remains subject to Section 280E.26 min
Part 03
4 lessons • 118 minAssortment Strategy
- 07Category Mix by Store Format and MaturityHow to set the dispensary's category mix as a function of store format, positioning, and market maturity; what the national share benchmarks are, where they break, and the assortment-planning, ABC, and GMROI moves a buyer uses to land a mix that fits the store the customer actually walks into.30 min
- 08Pricing Tiers, Market Maturity, and the Price-Point ArchitectureHow to design a three-tier price-point ladder per category, calibrate the bands to your state's market maturity, and pick which pricing strategy (cost-plus, competitive, value) belongs at each tier; with worked elasticity math, initial-vs-maintained markup planning, and the architectural moves that drive 55-65 percent mid-tier conversion.30 min
- 09Menu Engineering for Buyers: Stars, Plowhorses, Puzzles, DogsHow to grade every SKU on a dispensary menu by crossing capital efficiency with absolute contribution, classifying each one as a Star, Plowhorse, Puzzle, or Dog, and converting that 2x2 grid into a Monday-morning action list of what to expand, hold, reprice, or cut.28 min
- 10Seasonal Buying: 420, Croptober, Green WednesdayHow to build a year-round seasonal buying calendar around the four cannabis events that actually move the P&L (4/20, 7/10, Croptober, Green Wednesday) using open-to-buy planning, a decomposition forecast, and a planned markdown ladder so that peaks land in stock without a January graveyard of branded overstock. As of April 22, 2026, state-licensed medical cannabis is Schedule III, but adult-use/recreational cannabis remains Schedule I; IRC Section 280E relief applies only to the medical portion of dual-license operations going forward.30 min
Part 04
3 lessons • 71 minBuyer Economics
- 11Margin Math: Markup, GMROI, and the Category Contribution LensHow to price, evaluate, and rank dispensary inventory using the three margin lenses every buyer lives in: gross margin, initial vs maintained markup, and GMROI; with worked cannabis math on flower, vape, and edible SKUs that a buyer can run on their own menu by Monday.21 min
- 12Vertical Integration: When to Buy from an MSO vs Stay IndependentHow to read a vendor's vertical-integration posture as a buying signal, when MSO house brands deserve more open-to-buy than independent craft, and how to model the financial tradeoffs of integrated vs independent supply on flower, vape, and edible categories with worked dispensary math.25 min
- 13Awards and Brand Equity: Does "Cup Winner" Actually Move Units?How to read cannabis cup wins and award stickers as buying signals: which competitions actually move units at retail, what the post-win sell-through curve looks like, and how to size opening orders so a winning SKU earns the shelf without becoming dead stock when the buzz fades.25 min
Part 05
3 lessons • 94 minTrends and Capstone
- 14The Trend Watch: Live Rosin, Infused Pre-Rolls, Beverages, Minor CannabinoidsHow a buyer reads four genuinely-moving cannabis subcategories (live rosin, infused pre-rolls, beverages, minor cannabinoids) and translates the signal into assortment depth, open-to-buy allocation, and a sales forecast that survives contact with the shelf.28 min
- 15Hemp-Derived Products and the Gray-Market ProblemHow a buyer should read the intoxicating-hemp market: where the SKUs come from, why they are roughly half the shelf price of licensed equivalents, what P.L. 119-37's November 12, 2026 effective date changes, and how to defend a low-dose category that is being attacked from outside the licensed channel.32 min
- 16Capstone: Building a 12-Month Buying CalendarA worked end-to-end build of a dispensary's 12-month buying calendar: the annual plan that anchors every monthly open-to-buy, the seasonal forecast that drives every reorder, and the cadence that keeps a buyer from working reactively. Reflects the April 2026 federal rescheduling of state-licensed medical cannabis to Schedule III and the resulting changes to Section 280E tax treatment.34 min
Ready when you are
Buyer starts with one lesson.
The Five-Stage Supply Chain: Cultivation to Shelf, 29 minutes. Pick it up here whenever you have time.
Start lesson 1