Hospitality

When the first recreational cannabis dispensaries in Massachusetts opened in November 2018, their parking lots assumed a festive air as people lined up, sometimes for hours, to get the newly legal product. Nearly five years later, legal cannabis has become an unremarkable part of the state economy.

Smaller cannabis companies are white labeling and collaborating as they try to survive a fierce pricing competition against large corporations in an increasingly saturated market.

As was the case for the first two years of debt payments, the saving grace for the current fiscal year 2023 and the next fiscal year 2024 is a $3-million property sale from 2021.

Millis cannabis firm CommCan is consolidating its operations, having closed its medical-only Southborough dispensary and transferred that license to a joint adult-use and medical dispensary in Rehoboth.

The Worcester Red Sox are partnering with Canal District and Green Island businesses to encourage fans to patronize businesses in the neighborhood by offering discounts and reward points.

The Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development granted Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester $200,000 to fund a training program for previously incarcerated individuals.

Trulieve, a Florida-based cannabis company with dispensaries in Worcester, Framingham, and Northampton, will close all three of those operations on June 30.

WBJ is conducting a Midyear Economic Forecast survey of its readers to gauge how the events so far in 2023 have impacted their outlooks on the Central Massachusetts economy. Those who fill out the survey by June 14 will be eligible to win one of three $50 gift cards to an area restaurant.

Scarlet Spa and Wellness Center was approved for a $32,000 loan from the North Central Massachusetts Development Corp.

Months after Ye Olde Tavern closed at the location, the owners of a 263-year-old tavern at 7 East Main St. in West Brookfield will reopen the establishment under its original name, Hitchcock Tavern on June 2, following a soft opening in May.