“Same Plant, Different Customer”: The Hemp Industries Identity Crisis
The hemp vs. dispensary debate is heating up again, and frankly, the conversation is starting to sound like two chefs arguing over the same ingredient without understanding each other’s kitchen.
The irony is rich—hemp advocates love to champion that it’s the same plant, same cannabinoids, same effect. But when sales tank in dispensaries, suddenly it’s a different audience. Which is it?
Birds of a Feather…
“It’s the same plant”…”your customers aren’t our customers”…
These lines gets thrown around every time sales stats drop showing beverages as a bottom-tier category in dispensaries. Brands in the hemp drink space snap back with “well those aren’t our customers.” But here’s the thing: if you’re slinging THC in any form and you don’t know who your customers are, you’re flying blind with a broken compass.
The Data Divide: POS vs. No Clue
Let’s talk data. Licensed retailers in the regulated space—whether you love or hate it—often operate under track-and-trace systems like METRC, BioTrack, or POS tools like Cova, Dutchie, Treez. These systems let retailers pull:
Age breakdowns
Gender stats
Purchase frequency
Spend per visit
Even medical vs. rec history (if applicable)
This level of insight is how dispensaries tailor menus, design loyalty programs, and set pricing. You want to know what SKUs are moving, which demographics are shopping carts heavy, and how first-timers behave vs. regulars? You can find out.
Meanwhile, hemp beverage brands selling through gas stations, bodegas, or direct-to-consumer often can’t tell you a damn thing. Most of those POS terminals are glorified cash registers. No profile. No segmentation. Just raw transaction data, often disconnected from any real customer story.
Two Different Worlds, Same Ingredient
So when hemp brands say “our customers are different,” it’s worth asking—how do you know that? Are you making assumptions based on where the product is sold? A TikTok trend? A handful of Instagram DMs?
Cannabis retailers have had to build their businesses with surgical focus on compliance and consumer behavior. Hemp brands, on the other hand, often chase mass distribution over nuanced insight.
If you’re not measuring foot traffic, basket size, repeat visits, or even tracking who’s buying your drinks—do you actually know your customer?
Final Word
Here’s the hard truth: the “same plant” argument falls apart if your business model, consumer data, and distribution channel have nothing in common with the regulated side of the industry. You’re not just serving different customers—you’re operating in a different universe.
Until the hemp beverage crowd starts collecting and analyzing real consumer data at the level dispensaries do, they’re guessing. And in this business, guessing is a good way to get eaten alive.
