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Equipment Store for Medical Marijuana Cultivation Opens in Arizona


A professional equipment company opened a large garden center in Phoenix, Arizona on Wednesday. The superstore, which is the first outlet of weGrow outside California, caters those who want to cultivate their own medical marijuana.

The opening of weGrow outlet in Arizona was made possible when medical marijuana law was approved by resident voters last fall. The company, which is based in California, has outlets in Oakland and Sacramento. The outlet is billed “Home Depot” or “Wal-Mart of Weed.”

Dhar Mann, the person who established weGrow, said their company offers products, including various services that will assist people to carefully and responsibly grow their medicine. However, he said the company does not sell the plant itself.

Mann said the 21,000 sq. foot store sells around 2,000 products and equipment that are particularly designed to effectively grow cannabis. This includes soil, irrigation trays, grow lights and many others.

Also, the garden center has existing medical practitioner on site. The doctor will provide initial medical approval required in the state health department so that qualifying patients can obtain the cards that will allow them to legally cultivate and use cannabis for several eligible ailments like chronic pain.

State officials have been receiving applications from caregivers and patients since April. It shows that around 4,000 people have already obtained their cards Figures show that males make up 75 percent of those authorized individuals.

However, U.S. attorney for Arizona, Dennis Burke, warned last month that the sale, distribution and cultivation of marijuana remain a federal crime. Marijuana is categorized by the government of the United States as an illegal narcotic.

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Japan Disasters Affect U.S. Company Profits


The huge earthquake followed by a Tsunami in Japan that happened a few weeks back are now hurting the sales of U.S. companies that are serving Japanese consumers. Although Japanese shoppers are showing a little resilience, large U.S. companies like Coca-Cola, Coach Inc., and 3M Co. are feeling the effects of the disaster that struck Japan.

Japan has the world’s third largest economy and although people there were tight-fisted with money even before the March 2011 catastrophe, the country remained to be a primary market for a lot of companies.

Coach, a world-renowned maker of signature handbags and other accessories, generates almost 20 percent of their sales from Japan. The earthquake, its aftermath, and the current nuclear disaster Japan is facing right now could significantly reduce the company’s projected annual earnings by 2 to 3 percent; that is 5 percent of Wall Street’s yearly profit forecast.

On the other hand, Muhtar Kent, a Coca-Cola Chief Executive, said on a conference call that the supply chain is under stress due to Japan’s inability to provide some raw materials needed for production. Indeed, Coke said that the recent events in the country have hampered a lot of bottlers’ capacity to produce enough products for the anticipated growth in demand on summer.

Wal-Mart said that the best way to stabilize sales in Japan is to reach out to them. The company has shipped water and food from Canada to meet the demands in their 400 stores in Japan. Wal-Mart Executive Mike Duke said that doing so will really help consumers in Japan recover from the disaster.

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