Isolation, Saturation, and Collapse: More Closures in Albuquerque’s Dispensary Mosh Pit
In the heart of Albuquerque’s industrial maze, nestled between the hum of I-25 and the nondescript business facades of Jefferson and Paseo, two cannabis dispensaries—Fort Twenty Cannabis Company and Dreamz(Formerly Sawmill)—tried to carve out a niche. Isolated enough to dodge the swarm of competition that flooded the rest of the city, it seemed they might just make it. But in the end, that isolation was a mirage.
Fort Twenty kicked off 2022 with a respectable $193K in sales, slightly edging out Sawmill, which brought in $158K. They held their own, even with 55% of Fort Twenty’s revenue coming from adult-use customers. Dreamz, on the other hand, had just made a big move in May 2022, acquiring Sawmill Dispensaries in an ambitious bid to expand its footprint and capitalize on the state’s newly legalized recreational market. This was their shot to gain a real foothold after adult-use cannabis became legal just a month earlier.
It looked like a smart play. With new locations and a broader reach, Dreamz surged to $501K in sales by 2023, even surpassing Fort Twenty’s $449K. On paper, both businesses seemed to be on a path to success, but if you look closer at the data, the cracks were already showing. Dreamz’s acquisition of Sawmill had provided a temporary boost, but it wasn’t enough to sustain long-term growth. By the second half of 2023, sales started to taper off. The high from legalization had worn off, and the market was becoming oversaturated.
Operating out of a business park, surrounded by office buildings and warehouses, wasn’t the right fit for a cannabis store looking to build loyal, regular customers. Sure, the area had employees coming in and out of the office during business hours, but this wasn’t a place people lingered. They weren’t stopping by after work to pick up a pre-roll. They were commuting home, away from Jefferson Plaza and away from the dispensaries that relied on foot traffic to survive.
By early 2024, Dreamz on Paseo had already announced its closure. Market saturation was cited as the primary reason, but the industrial location played a significant role. Dreamz, even with all its ambition and capital to expand, the location didn’t match the vibe—or the needs—of their customers. Not long after, Fort Twenty followed suit. Despite their 2023 peak, sales fell by 2024, and they too threw in the towel, announcing via social media “were not making making it.” Again citing over saturation.
Meanwhile, Generation Health, the third player in the Jefferson industrial zone, is struggling to stay afloat with less than $20K in sales by September 2024. The numbers tell the story of slow, inevitable decline.
The industrial stretch on Jefferson and Paseo might look convenient on a map, but for a cannabis dispensary, it’s like trying to sell lemonade in the desert. Albuquerque’s market might be saturated, but these dispensaries were stuck in an industrial wasteland where the business of cannabis couldn’t survive the cold, impersonal nature of the surrounding business park.
At the end of the day, you can’t run a dispensary in a no-man’s-land. It’s about more than having the right licenses, the best strains, or even a strong business plan. It’s about being in the right place, at the right time.
