Dark times are upon us. We can’t smell the weed in the weed club. We can barely even look at it.
Due to pandemic restrictions, the budtender doesn’t want you jabberjawing away at the counter. She wants you six feet back, at least.
… pandemic anxiety and stay-at-home orders are supercharging the subscription trend.
So how do you buy quality and get a deal?
Here’s one approach: Skip the tense dispensary line. Instead, order a curated collection of fuego to go.
Weed lovers looking for deals and discoveries are snapping up new, monthly marijuana subscription boxes this summer.
California did $2.03 billion in taxable adult-use cannabis sales in 2019 alone, and pandemic anxiety and stay-at-home orders are supercharging the subscription trend.
Before legalization, the best monthly boxes were still just head shop schwag; no THC included.
Today, weed boxes of the month have evolved into potent, craft, designer collections that are expertly selected and fashionably designed—all with online ordering and contactless delivery.
Think a BirchBox of buds.
Or the FabFitFun of flower.
State-legal and hand-delivered to your door. Payable by cash, credit card, or Venmo.
You get new levels of customization and member perks like 20% off extra orders.
“This is not a novelty,” said Nugg Club co-founder and CMO Alex Milligan. The Nugg Club box debuted April 20, and “we’re working 18-hour days.”
So sit back and let the pros sift through thousands of products to bring you the best in these mind-blowing weed subscription boxes.
Flowsent
Flowsent’s flower box curates only the best for you (David Downs/Leafly)
$179 per month; Bay Area, CA
Boutique subscription box of the month Flowsent has a small, focused menu devoted to Cali chronic. This season, we spot Fig Farms, Sovereign, and Connected flowers. For extract lovers, Flowsent’s 710 Racing Club box has King’s Garden diamonds, Alien Labs batter, and Guild. Around for a year, Flowsent has added more customization, striking that balance between discovery and personalization.
“They like it when we pick some things out, but they still want some flexibility to customize,” said Flowsent founder Rick Bakas. The growing service adds to its Bay Area, California footprint this year.
Nugg Club
(courtesy Nugg Club)
$99 per month; Los Angeles, Orange County
Leafly readers can use the code Leafly20 for 20% off
Real talk: “People are a little fed up with the taxes. The majority of people are still going to the illicit market,” said Nugg Club co-founder Alex Milligan.
Shop highly rated dispensaries near you
Showing you dispensaries nearSo six-year-old Nugg branched out this year from an online marketplace and a telemedicine service, adding a subscription box “Nugg Club”—promising members wholesale prices 40-60% off.
Nugg connoisseurs curate the box and focus on top-shelf, classy buys like Korova, Cream of the Crop, Tr7ple Se7en, Cann, and Sherbinskis. You get 5-6 products each month worth $225 for $99. How?
“It’s our secret sauce,” said co-founder Milligan.
But do the math yourself and you’ll be re-ordering next month, he said. Signing up takes two minutes. You pick your preferences (flowers, pre-rolls, vapes, edibles) and strains types, then choose how often you want a box. Boom. Done.
Lucky Box Club
Strain Green Lantern (above) lights the way in Lucky Box Club’s summer collection (David Downs/Leafly)
$99 per month / ($199 tax included, Summer Collection); California only
Lucky Box Club ain’t playin’ around. The Lucky Box Club $199 summer collection packs award-winning strains Green Lantern and Watermelon Zkittlez, as well as Mellows edibles and goodness from Garden Society, House of Saka, and Green Bee Botanicals.
For $99 a month, Lucky Box club members get a bunch of craft cannabis products selected for quality, history, and value, plus 20% off one-time deliveries—for when you need extra. Lucky Box even rocks a CBD subscription box for national customers.
Shady Pines Box Club
$150 and up; East Bay, CA
Love top-shelf indoor sativas and supporting Black- and Brown-owned business? Sign up for the Shady Pines Box Club, serving the East Bay Area of California and expanding this year. Co-founder Amber Senter envisioned a “white-glove service for people that know and love our product.”
The star here is the landrace sativa strain Red Congolese. Sativas take longer to grow, and thus cost more. That’s why you see less of them than hybrid or indica plants. Connoisseurs hunt the Red Congo for its energy and sweetness. It lacks the racy anxiousness of other sativas, Senter said.
The rare energetic, smooth sativa Red Congo (courtesy Shady Pines Box Club)
Shady Pines Box Club is now an equity licensee—meaning drug war victims are owners. That means savings. The city of Oakland waves its hefty 10% gross receipts tax—the equity tax rate is a trivial 0.12%.
“We just pass those savings along,” Senter said.
Customized subscription boxes start at a pretty $150 for pre-rolls or jars, and go up to $300. It’s cheaper than eighths of Red Congo in a dispensary, and you get discounts on extra orders, of course. The box drops twice a week and includes exclusives, T-shirts, and rolling trays.
Coming soon, a suite of hard-to-find, beautiful, unique equity cannabis products from around the Bay. Now you got the plug.
Other marijuana product collections
The High Society Box
Live that omakase life with The High Society box and membership at The Natural Cannabis Co. (David Downs/Leafly)
$300;Oakland,Santa Rosa, andHopland, CA
Look beyond bona fide subscription THC boxes for delivery and you’ll find other cool retail bundles that let you save as you splurge.
The Natural Cannabis Company’s trio of stores in Northern California sell a $300 curated bundle that’s like a high-end dispensary in a box, including award-winning, dazzling art.
This is like eating sushi omakase—where you let an expert guide you to the best.
Live that omakase life with July 2020’s High Society Box of Mac 1, GG4, White Russian, Dosi Punch, Sensi Chews, Beezle, Tutti, and more.
Start with just a taste of Tutti hybrid bubble hash that’s 38.9% THC in The High Society Box (David Downs/Leafly)
High Society members also get 15% off everything at those three, fine The Natural Cannabis Co. dispensaries—for those extra VIP vibes.
Box art comes from the internationally acclaimed High Art contest, with winners chosen annually via a global vote of high people. So you know it’s heady.
White Russian flower and High Art finalist Dan Park’s “Binaural boom” (David Downs/Leafly)
Dusk or Dawn by A Golden State
A Golden State’s Dawn set surfaces 3 eighth-ounces of indoor hybrids and sativas: Lava Flower, Woods, and Honey Flower (courtesy A Golden State)
$179; all across California (Kind Center;Buds & Roses;The Healing Center)
Indoor growers A Golden State specialize in shipping only A-grade buds. While other boxes might have one “meh” item, no “meh” is allowed at A Golden State.
The team launches its first bundles, Dusk and Dawn, this month across California; $179 for three eighth-ounces.
Hey—people will pay up for A’s.
“We’re 100% sold out,” said CEO Nishant Reddy.
AGS sells Dawn as the sativa-leaning box, featuring their custom-named Lava Flower, Woods, and Honey Flower.
The Dusk box holds indicas: Night Sky, Shasta Bloom, and Caramel Apple. Yum. Yum. And yum.
Night Sky by A Golden State. Spot the comet? (David Downs/Leafly)
For novices, “Honey Flower tests in the low 20s for THC and has an amazing taste, and it’s laughy,” he said.
The boxes are a chance to “broaden your horizons … and that includes effects,” said Reddy. “You might find yourself using different sativas at different times of the day.”
AGS plans an always-evolving box set release three to four times a year. Summer’s box comes in Japanese watercolor designs that make it a hella classy housewarming gift. (Distanced, of course.)
“People show up with wine; why wouldn’t you show up with cannabis? It really checks those boxes and makes an impactful statement,” said Reddy.
Need a side of schwag?
Skip a trip to the head shop and order a box instead. A mature lineup of subscription accessory brands have all the pipe cleaners and doodads you never knew you needed. Check out these leaders:
Would you rock a weed box? Do you have them in your state? Comment below!
