While you still can’t order a CBD latte at Starbucks, the market for CBD (Cannabidiol) products is opening and already on the shelves of small retailers, as well as shown during the 2019 International Home + Housewares show last March.
Cannabidiol is the non-THC part of the marijuana plant and can be seen in such housewares products as air diffusers, CBD oil sprays and infusers, purification systems and filtration systems.
Retailers do have to consider state and local rules as not every state allows the sale of CBD products, but despite that the market is booming with $641 million in sales in 2018, according to the Hemp Business Journal.
A recent report from the Chicago-based market research firm Brightfield Group predicted the market has the potential to reach $22 billion by the year 2022.
CBD is popular because it is seen as a natural way to relieve many aliments, from chronic pain to anxiety and depression, nausea, seizures, even acne, and in fact the FDA has approved a CBD prescription drug for epilepsy.
As more small kitchenware and housewares retailers look to add gifts to their product selection, CBD products are a category many are considering. And because independent retailers who sell coffee in their stores are more flexible than giant corporations like Starbucks, they can get the jump on the CBD trend before the big guys do.
Mary Liz Curtin, owner of Leon & Lulu in Clawson, Mich., is one housewares retailer who already has tapped into the trend. While she also runs a coffee shop, “we are not doing any CBD in coffee,” but she adds “We have been selling a lot of CBD products, roll-on creams and drops. The ones that sell the best are the fancy ones, not the hippy ones.”
Other products are “headache rollers with CBD oil drops and CBD chapsticks,” she adds.
Brian Maynard, the owner of Forte Coffee in St. Josephs, Mich., is considering adding CBD coffee drinks. “We don’t offer CBD right now, but we are looking into it,” Maynard says.
“Recreational marijuana is legal in Michigan,” he points out. “I am open to it, as it makes sense. CBD is a trend on the horizon for the coffee industry.”
Although both Maynard and Curtin operate in a state where marijuana has been legalized, state and local rules across the country are not uniform and many are not clear. And that is giving pause to other retailers on including CBD in their product mix.
Pamela Elias, owner of Rooster Brother in Ellsworth, Maine, says CBD isn’t worth the trouble for either her busy coffee shop or kitchenware store. “No, I’m staying away from it,” she says, even though the state recently passed a law allowing it in foods and other products in the state.
