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Cannabis


CALIFORNIA'S 'APPLE STORE OF WEED' DECLARES BANKRUPTCY WITH $410M IN DEBT

By Lester BlackApril 29, 2024




MedMen had expanded to seven states and was listed on the Canadian stock
exchange.

Business Wire/AP

California’s first cannabis company valued at over a billion dollars appears to
have completed its long descent into failure. MedMen, once hailed as the “Apple
Store of weed,” declared bankruptcy last week, according to a press release
published by the company late Friday. 

The Los Angeles-based company said it currently has $410 million in debt,
according to Law360, and has filed for bankruptcy in Canada. Its California
subsidiary has been placed in receivership in Los Angeles.

MedMen was once the golden child of California’s legal cannabis market, opening
sleek retail locations that mimicked the minimalism of Apple Stores and
promising that it could sell massive amounts of cannabis by presenting the drug
as a modern product without the baggage of prohibition. National media outlets
like Esquire and Vanity Fair profiled the company, and it listed itself on a
Canadian Securities Exchange in 2018. 

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The company’s $1.6 billion valuation allowed MedMen’s executives to spend
lavishly, including purchasing luxury cars, expensive security details and
private jets. The retailer opened locations in Beverly Hills and Fifth Avenue in
New York City, one of the most expensive real estate locations in the world,
even though New York state had yet to fully legalize cannabis. At its peak, it
reported employed more than 1,300 people and had stores in seven states,
including three in the Bay Area.



MedMen's stores were designed to closely mimic the sleek minimalism of an Apple
Store.

Denise Truscello/Getty Images for MedMen

But the company quickly hit serious financial problems. By 2020, it was
struggling to pay its bills, CNN reported, and earlier this year its stock
dropped to $0, from a former high of more than $6. MedMen has spent the past two
years selling off assets in an attempt to become profitable, but the sales do
not appear to have been enough. The Friday news release said that the company is
anticipating some of its creditors will take enforcement actions against it.

MedMen’s San Francisco and Oakland stores are both closed, according to messages
on the stores’ voicemail machines. 

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More Cannabis Coverage


— California rock star who reportedly smoked 20 blunts a day is now selling
cannabis
—Groundbreaking study cracks one of pot's greatest mysteries
— 'F—CK 'EM': Meet the angriest weed CEO in California
— ‘Broken system’: Banned pesticides keep showing up in California’s legal pot
— Full SFGATE cannabis coverage







April 29, 2024
Lester Black
Cannabis editor

Lester Black is SFGATE's cannabis editor. He was born in Torrance, raised in
Seattle, and has written for FiveThirtyEight.com, High Country News, The
Guardian, The Albuquerque Journal, The Tennessean, and many other publications.
He was previously the cannabis columnist for The Stranger.




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