Last week as the state’s entrepreneurial ranks of I-502 retailers did their best to drum up even more business on 4/20, protesters again targeted 23rd and Union’s Uncle Ike’s to speak out against change in the neighborhood — and, for some, the inequitable way the legalized drug industry has played out. But just how big has the industry grown?
Across Capitol Hill and the Central District, there were more than $1.7 million in I-502 marijuana sales last month, according to state data organized by 502data.com. 84% of that was generated by Ike’s. The rest were generated by Uncle Ike’s closest competitor, Ponder, which opened in September just down the block on E Union, and 15th Ave E/Republican’s Ruckus, which opened as the first pot shop on Capitol Hill in December.
37% of those dollars went back to the state, remember. Since its birth in late September 2014, Uncle Ike’s has paid the state $6.9 million in excise tax. Don’t feel too sorry. Owner Ian Eisenberg got to put the remaining $12.3 million of it to work powering the business and doing whatever else he likes to do with his money. Uncle Ike’s is a CHS advertiser! In the meantime, Ike’s is now the second largest pot retail location in the state after Vancouver’s Main Street Marijuana.
How the sales trends will continue is anybody’s guess. The three active retailers in the area produced growth of 11% month over month coming into March. We’re going to assume 4/20 sales were good. And another boost is in the works as Capitol Hill’s second I-502 pot shop — and the second along 15th Ave E — is currently under construction.
Counting producers and processors as well as retailers, Washington pot is a $17 million per month industry. State sales totals from 502data.com
Great, now the extortion will increase. I’m not sure why you chose to publish data on his income while the owner of Ike’s is besieged by mob harassment and anti-Semitism. They demand half his income and have openly used threats if he doesn’t comply. What is the purpose of this article except to encourage the extorters even more?
They can demand all they want, but you know that old saying…..”Wish in one hand, and shit in the other…”
OK. For those who don’t understand business, let’s do some math before one assumes that Ike is raking in a million a month into his pocket.
1.4 million gross based upon 84% of last month’s total going to his business. Then 37% to the state leaving $880,000. Then he has to buy product, pay rent, property tax, security, staff, benefits, federal taxes, work comp, unemployment, B & O. This is where I am clueless, but let’s assume that this runs 75% of the 880,000 and he has a very nice personal profit of 25% which would mean 220K per month.
And I have heard that unlike other businesses, those selling weed can’t deduct their expenses from revenue from a Federal tax standpoint. If this were indeed the case, he would be really bleeding income tax.
This is a wild-ass guess but if he might have a very nice cash flow of about 2.5 million for the year – BEFORE Federal taxes, whatever they are.
The real number is higher or lower. But it is a lot less than 1.4 million x 12 months or over 16 million dollars. This puts him in rare company for most, but his success is based upon taking risk, putting himself in the public eye, great marketing, and providing a product that others want. Anyone was free to do what he is doing and those whining now, do so with envy. The vast majority of business fail, and take a lot of money and dreams with them.
Also note that there is a lot of pending competition around town and he will have to work hard to keep up the momentum and profits.
Want to talk real money, Jeff Bezos saw his net worth go up on Thursday or so, when Amazon stock increased by 10%, by 6 billion dollars! So presumably he owns about 65 billion in Amazon stock. That is an unfathomable amount of money that vastly exceeds the capacity of an individual or family to consume, and must be given back to society voluntarily or via massive inheritance taxes. Not relevant to the above article but puts the success of Eisenberg and the average business person in perspective.
Jeff Bezos majored in engineering at Princeton.
He was in Quadrangle eating club (the engineering club at the time) and revolutionized internet sales.
So what you are saying is there’s a way for people far less intelligent than Jeff Bezos to make money, and good money at that, with relatively little risk in a state-condoned monopolistic, highly regulated system–that’s all I get out of your attempt to rationalize an enormous imbalance of power in a social project gone terribly wrong. The fact that pot entrepreneurs make less money than Jeff Bezos doesn’t justify the disproportionate representation of African-Americans and women in the regulated marijuana industry and the Liquor Board/DOJ’s redlining of store locations.
No one deserves 65 billion dollars if that is what your implying. That is not even a real number! (yes, I know it is in fact a ‘real’ number) Only possible since we lost the gold standard and started letting the powers that be make up their own numbers. But the point being Mr. Eisenberg’s vindictive use of his wealth to get in on something he has contributed nothing towards. He just smelled the money and bought the ike;s property out from under the competition. Also set up a BS arcade to block competition on cap hill. Last I heard the city has been trying to give the business back to the people who started it, koodoh’s for that! Thanks guys for eventually stemming that little power grab.