While there’s no denying that cash is king, sometimes the easiest transaction is tapping your phone and letting the merchant figure it out. However, for the last 10 years of quasi-legalization, we’ve been stuck shopping at the dispensary with whatever cash is left in our wallets. In that same time frame, we’ve seen so many payment solutions pop up for everything else that if I run into someone at the ATM at 3 p.m. on a Thursday, I just assume they’re taking out cash to buy weed, too.
Chris Trummer didn’t sit back while the Cannabis industry was treated like retail’s awkward younger sibling. Weed is a billion-dollar business, and we should be able to pay for it like any other product or service. That’s why he and his partners started Purs, which focuses on community-centric commerce and provides local businesses with payment solutions to help grow sales and cut costs. As Chris puts it, “Cannabis businesses don’t like the card networks because they’ve neglected our industry, and Visa and MasterCard have publicly opposed Cannabis-related payments. So why should we work with them now?”
Purs has taken the Venmo-style peer-to-peer transaction model and set up a similar model between banks. Paying for your goodies is as seamless as possible: Snap a QR code, connect your account and you’re good to go at any spot that takes Purs as payment. Chris adds proudly, “You can go from never having heard about us to securely completing your first transaction in 60 seconds.” This sure beats the sort of cashless workaround we find at many dispensaries that hit you with multiple fees and sometimes have you leaving with an awkward amount of change and general confusion on why the clunky transaction was even necessary.
While the reality of a mostly-cash business hurts consumers, the cost to dispensaries is even higher. There’s the added risk of handling and transporting cash, making them a target for theft, plus the inconvenience of transactions that slow down sales, frustrating both staff and customers. Not to mention, it’s tough on customers who end up spending less per visit — not because they didn’t want that pack of edibles, but to avoid the annoyance of extra fees. So, any way we can reduce that friction is great for consumers getting what they want, and if the small businesses we support are paying less in Visa or Mastercard fees, that’s the elusive win/win/win.
Outside the Cannabis industry, we’ve seen countless payment options emerge — from Affirm to Zelle — so why are we still stuck in the past? Purs is changing that by bringing together banks, tech and community to create a slick, easy way to handle Cannabis transactions. Long overdue. Nearly a decade after legalization, we’re still paying with cold, hard cash like we did in the black market days. With Purs, we’re finally normalizing Cannabis purchases, shaking off the stigma, and treating it like the billion-dollar industry it is.
