April 20 is a day recognized globally for celebrating cannabis culture, but it’s also like the cannabis industry’s Black Friday.
Dispensaries offer deals designed to inspire people to flood their stores to stock up.
However on Saturday, dispensaries across the state using an inventory platform called Dutchie were hamstrung for hours by technical challenges, which caused many of their registers to go down or move at snail pace.
It was the second year in a row that a 4/20 sales surge caused the system to crash.
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“Imagine running a restaurant where you have one burner working and you normally have 20 stoves operating,” said Nick Rinella, CEO of Hippos Cannabis dispensaries. “We had one burner going.”
Each Hippos location went from selling around 500 items per hour to less than 100 because of the issues the outages were causing, he said.
Dutchie is similar to the platforms major stores, such as Home Depot and Walmart, use to scan items at check out. However, Dutchie also has the special function of communicating with the state’s seed-to-sale tracking system called Metrc.
It keeps the stores compliant with the state’s stringent tracking requirements of marijuana products.
With recreational marijuana now legal, 4/20 looked much different in Missouri
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Rinella said all three Hippos dispensaries in Springfield, Chesterfield and Columbia faced delays all day — causing them to lose an estimated $200,000.
Mark Hendren, president of Flora Farms, also said his six stores across the state faced delays up to five hours. He’s not sure what kind of loss Flora Farms experienced, he said, because the company extended their deals through Monday to make it up to their customers.
“It seems to be working,” he said.
John Mueller, CEO of Greenlight cannabis company, said his 15 stores were not impacted, nor were any of the company’s 32 stores across the country. Greenlight stores experienced some outages last year, he said, so they were expecting the same this year.
“We prepared and trained for the outage that never came,” Mueller said. “But I’ve heard from a number of my peers that they had outages and somehow we did not.”
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Dispensaries that are on certain servers faced more difficulties, Rinella said, but it’s the luck of the draw which servers companies are put on. Companies can’t pay more to get on the “good server,” he said.
Missouri was not alone. Dispensaries across the country experienced delays on Dutchie.
“This year’s 4/20 was a record setting day for the majority of Dutchie powered dispensaries,” Chris Ostrowski, chief technology officer of Dutchie, said in a statement emailed to The Independent.
Ostowski said the systems powered more than two million transactions, representing $165 Million dollars in retail commerce — which was a 50% increase from last year’s 4/20.
“While Dutchie and our partners prepared extensively for this year’s 4/20, a group of customers local to a specific instance of our POS system experienced serious issues that impacted their ability to transact,” Ostrowski said.
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The difficulties impacted less than 20% of Dutchie customers, he said.
Rinella said Dutchie’s statement just made the incident sting even more.
“Hearing that is just painful to me,” Rinella said. “So they had a 50% increase. That means I probably would have had a 50% increase had they not jacked my entire system for the day.”
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It’s unclear if Missouri’s cannabis industry had record-breaking sales this past weekend. April’s sales numbers won’t be available on the state’s website until early May.
However, Rinella said the sales were likely record-breaking, which is why the bandwidth on Dutchie’s server couldn’t handle the volume that was coming through.
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Lisa Cox, spokeswoman for the Division of Cannabis Regulation, said the Dutchie malfunctions did not interfere with the division’s tracking operations.
“While licensees are permitted to use these [point of sale] systems, it is their responsibility to ensure each day’s transactions and inventory are recorded accurately in the statewide track and trace system,” Cox said, “no matter what happens with the POS system.”
Rinella said the staff and customers were very understanding, and hopes any new customers that came to the stores on 4/20 aren’t discouraged to come back.
“We kind of want to do more of an apology,” he said. “Obviously, this wasn’t something that we could control, but we do want to be able to make sure that customers get the greatest experience they can possibly get when coming to a dispensary.”
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – The Missouri State Highway Patrol arrested a 29-year-old woman after seizing over 200 pounds of marijuana in a traffic stop.
ALSO READ: Investigation into Missouri kratom retailers expands, says AG
According to the MSHP, troopers stopped a vehicle for a registration violation and following too closely on EB I-70 in Montgomery County, Mo., on Thursday, December 11. Authorities then searched the vehicle, finding 221 pounds of marijuana.
According to an MSHP report, 29-year-old Briana A. Roberts was taken into custody and held in the Montgomery County Jail for 24 hours. She could be charged with trafficking drugs in the first degree and endangering the welfare of a child in the first degree, according to the report.
Some mid-Missouri stores and restaurants will have adjusted hours on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. KOMU 8 News has compiled a list of what’s open on Christmas in 2025.
If you don’t see your establishment listed, please email news@komu.com with your operating hours.
Stores
Walgreens – East Broadway, Columbia
Christmas Eve: Store open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., pharmacy open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Christmas Day: Store open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., pharmacy closed
Walmart
Christmas Eve: Open 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Christmas Day: Closed
Target – Columbia
Target – Jefferson City
Christmas Eve: Open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Christmas Day: Closed
Aldi
Christmas Eve: Open 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Christmas Day: Closed
Dollar General
Christmas Eve: Open 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Christmas Day: Closed
Dollar Tree
Christmas Eve: Open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Christmas Day: Closed
Gerbes
Christmas Eve: Open 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Christmas Day: Closed
Hy-Vee
Christmas Eve: Store open 6 a.m. to 5 p.m., Pharmacy open 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Christmas Day: Closed
Moser’s Food
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Sam’s Club
Christmas Eve: Store and pharmacy open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Christmas Day: Closed
Schnuck’s
Christmas Eve: Open 6 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Christmas Day: Closed
Restaurants and Coffee Shops
IHOP
Christmas Eve: Open 12 a.m. to 7p.m.
Christmas Day: Closed, opens next day at 5 a.m.
Waffle House
7Brew
Christmas Eve: Open 5:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Christmas Day: Closed
Scooter’s
Christmas Eve: Open 6 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Christmas Day: Closed
Starbucks – Broadway & Fairview in Columbia
Christmas Eve: Open 4:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Christmas Day: Open 6 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Starbucks – Missouri Boulevard & U.S. 50 in Jefferson City
Christmas Eve: Open 5 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Christmas Day: Open 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Starbucks – Nifong & Buttonwood in Columbia
Christmas Eve: Open 4:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Christmas Day: Closed
Starbucks – West Truman & Country Club in Jefferson City
You can get in on Missouri sports betting with a BetMGM welcome offer for college basketball on Thursday.
BetMGM Bonus code NYPDM1500gets bettors a 20 percent first deposit match up to $1500 when in Missouri.
Mizzou is a 22.5-point favorite over Alabama State. The Tigers step back onto its home floor looking to reset after road losses to Notre Dame and Kansas. Alabama State has struggled mightily against high-major opponents.
BetMGM Missouri bonus code NYPDM1500
The BetMGM Bonus Code NYPDM1500 can be used for any sport and market offered at BetMGM. That includes Missouri State vs. Arkansas State in the Xbox Bowl.
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BetMGM’s Missouri promo code is considered one of the highest valued promotions in contrast to other Missouri bonus offers.
If bettors wanted to snag the maximum value of the offer, they would have to deposit $7,500. Otherwise, they get 20 percent of whatever they deposit, i.e., deposit $100, get $20.
New users must be physically present in Missouri when signing up at BetMGM to take advantage of this welcome offer.
How to sign up for BetMGM in Missouri
Select your bonus offer.
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Fill out your login details.
Enter the BetMGM bonus code NYPDM1500
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What our Post expert thinks about Missouri vs. Alabama State
Alabama State has already dropped its two power-conference tests by an average of 32.5 points, and its defensive profile hasn’t suggested much resistance.
The Hornets bring two of the SWAC’s top scorers in Asjon Anderson and Micah Simpson, they are giving up 81.4 points per game and allowing opponents to shoot 45.3 percent from the floor.
Missouri’s rebounding edge should matter — the Tigers pull nearly 40 boards per game while Alabama State is giving up 37.4 a night and just surrendered 18 offensive rebounds to UT Martin.
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Why Trust New York Post Betting
Sean Treppedi handicaps the NFL, NHL, MLB and college football for the New York Post. He primarily focuses on picks that reflect market value while tracking trends to mitigate risk.
