In Massachusetts, cannabis retailers navigate a unique landscape marked by specific regulations, including a three-store limit and industry verticalization. Meadow’s POS system is meticulously crafted to master these local nuances, ensuring compliance, operational efficiency, and customer loyalty.
Leading the Way in Massachusetts Dispensary POS
Meadow stands as the trusted POS choice for Massachusetts dispensaries, recognized for our robust support, reliable performance, and user-friendly design. Our platform simplifies compliance, streamlines inventory management, and offers easy and robust reporting. Partnering with Meadow means accessing unparalleled support and setting your dispensary up to be the go-to choice for Massachusetts customers.
Read more: Elevate Your Massachusetts Dispensary POS
To kick off our entrance into the Massachusetts market, our sales team attended the Massachusetts Flower Expo to engage with both new and existing operators. We showcased what sets us apart from the competition, highlighting our unique offerings and industry-leading solutions.
What’s the MA Flower Expo?
The Massachusetts Flower Expo, held in Greenfield, MA on June 4-5, 2025, was the premier B2B cannabis tradeshow in New England, where buyers met brands. Known as the Northeast’s premier cannabis trade show, the 2024 event featured over 150 brands exhibiting and 300+ dispensaries in attendance, covering roughly 80% of the Massachusetts retail market. The Expo was designed to foster meaningful connections, partnerships, and sales between brands and buyers.
Meadow proudly participated in the Flower Expo with a booth at A206. The event featured a variety of engaging activities, including a drone show, after parties, and guest appearances by Red Man and Sublime. With hundreds of retailers and brands exhibiting, it was an exciting and fruitful experience for all attendees.
Our MA Flower Expo Highlights
The Flower Expo mirrored what we attend every year in California, the Hall of Flowers. The bustling event space was full of cannabis retailers and brands showcasing their product offerings.
Attendees had the opportunity to network, form new partnerships, and discover the latest innovations in the cannabis industry. The event was characterized by its vibrant atmosphere, live entertainment, and interactive exhibits. The quality of the flower showcased was impressive, comparable to California's legacy offerings, demonstrating the high standards of Massachusetts cannabis producers.
The presence of vertically integrated brands and retailers emphasized the growing trend of companies managing both production and retail aspects of their business, ensuring consistency and quality control.
Shocking MA CCC Regulatory Updates announced leading up to the Event
While the Flower Expo had planned to include sales activities, an emergency update suddenly blocked before the event by the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC). The CCC reminded licensees of their obligations under state Cannabis law, emphasizing the importance of compliance with regulations on labeling, storage, security, and inventory tracking in Metrc. Licensees were required to conduct activities within their premises and display marijuana products only in secure, locked cases. Advertising through promotional items like gifts, giveaways, and samples was prohibited. Violations could result in enforcement actions, including fines, suspension, or revocation of licenses.
This was timely with another regulatory update that MA retailers should know about.
The CCC recently expanded its interpretation of advertising regulations. Retailers are now prohibited from showing sales pricing, strikethroughs, advertising discounts, or loyalty programs on their websites or menus. However, these promotions were allowed in-store as the communication was considered "personal." Some retailers are exploring the possibility of redefining "personalized" communication to show deals to customers who opted in on the website.
Welcoming our new Sales Executive Dan to the Meadow Team
At the Expo, Meadow welcomed Dan Hayes, our new senior account executive, to the team. Dan has almost a decade of experience in the cannabis retail space, coming from top contenders in cannabis retail POS. We are delighted to have him on board and of course we asked him, “what sets Meadow apart from the competition?”
Dan highlighted several key points:
- Fast and Easy POS Software: "Meadow is the fastest and easiest cannabis retail POS software out there," Dan noted. This speed and ease of use are crucial for retailers, as they streamline operations, reduce training time for staff, and enhance the overall customer experience.
- Accurate Metrc Connection: "Our connection to Metrc is by far the most accurate when it comes to reporting, keeping you in compliance," Dan explained. Compliance is a significant concern for cannabis retailers, and Meadow's reliable integration with Metrc ensures that inventory and sales are accurately tracked and reported, reducing the risk of regulatory issues.
- Dedicated Support Team: "Our support team is dedicated to ensuring that our services are always up and running smoothly," Dan continued. Meadow's support team provides exceptional customer service, addressing any issues promptly and helping retailers maximize the benefits of their POS system.
Pain Points from Massachusetts Cannabis Retailers who aren’t running on Meadow POS
During the Expo, we heard from several retailers about their pain points, particularly regarding the reliability of their POS system. One retailer mentioned experiencing an outage on 4/20, the most important sales day of the year. This kind of downtime can result in significant revenue loss and damage to a retailer's reputation. In a burgeoning market like Massachusetts, having a reliable software solution is essential.
Here are other pain points that we currently offer solutions for:
- A lack of support: Massachusetts’ leading POS solution recently got rid of their Customer Success team and direct point of contact, leaving users high and dry without available technical support.
- System Downtime and Lag: Certain features are causing significant system lag, with each AWS instance operating at over 95% capacity. This leads to noticeable slowdowns in catalog management and reporting functions.
- Spread too thin: Jack of all trades, master of none
The High Cost of Low-Cost Solutions
While some new operators choose a POS software system on price alone, you’ll soon discover you get what you pay for. For instance, if your sales data is not being accurately reported to Metrc, or your tax calculations are not accurate, you may end up with an expensive compliance mistake or tax liability which requires hiring specialized consultants or comes with large fees and audits to untangle, which ends up creating a big headache.
Read more about How to Choose a Cannabis Dispensary POS System
Why Meadow?
Meadow's POS system stands out with its 99.99% uptime and 100% uptime on 4/20, demonstrating our commitment to providing a stable and dependable service. As we enter the Massachusetts market, we are excited to share our capabilities with retailers looking for a robust and efficient POS system.
Our all-in-one solution not only ensures reliability but also offers a comprehensive suite of tools to manage inventory, compliance, customer relationships, and more. This makes Meadow an ideal choice for cannabis retailers aiming to thrive in a competitive and rapidly evolving industry.
- Ease of Use: We help dispensaries achieve operational excellence with easy-to-use, intuitive tools. The importance of easy-to-use software “that just works” cannot be overstated. Difficult systems with bugs or inefficient processes lead to ineffective staff, increased errors, and significant financial costs.
- All-in-One: Sell more cannabis with less work, using Meadow's connected cannabis retail, inventory management, delivery, eCommerce, payments, and CRM—designed to grow with you.
- Unparalleled reliability: with 99.99% uptime since 2014, and 100% uptime on 4/20.
- Speed and Efficiency: Speed and efficiency at the point of sale are crucial; any lag can leave customers waiting, resulting in lost sales and diminished customer satisfaction. With Meadow, you’re working with the fastest POS solution out there.
Some dispensary operators cobble together five or six different software services, but smarter storefront dispensaries and delivery teams choose Meadow’s all-in-one solution to manage their operations, grow their sales, and reduce their workload. With 99.99% uptime over the last 10 years, customer support tickets answered in 5 minutes or less by knowledgable cannabis experts, and a robust series of Meadow Mastery courses to get your whole team up to speed, there’s a reason why dispensary operators like you consistently give us 5 stars.
Running a storefront dispensary or delivery team can be difficult and time-consuming, but with Meadow's all-in-one solution you'll enjoy greater efficiency and higher sales. With just one program to manage your operations, reduce the amount of work needed-freeing up more hours for what matters most!
In case you missed us, we’ll be back at the 2025 MA Flower Expo. Otherwise, you can book a call directly with our team to learn more about our Cannabis Retail Software.
Coming up: Michigan Flower Expo in Lansing MI, August 7-8, 2024.
