From the sales floor to the back office, Planet 13 is now running high on efficiency.
Problem
First, imagine running a 24/7 retail business. But not just any regular storefront—it’s a 40,000-square-foot floorplan, the largest of its kind in the world. Your core product neared $31 billion in global sales for 2021, roughly 41% more than the previous year. This store isn’t selling clothes or scented candles. It’s selling cannabis. For Planet 13 Holdings, Inc., this scenario has been a daily reality since it opened in 2018. Planet 13 faces many of the cash management challenges retailers do every day, including high-frequency transactions and reconciliation. But unlike most companies, Planet 13 relies on an immense amount of cash on hand. Geno Vildósola, Director of Operational Excellence at Planet 13, said the limited financial assistance forced his team to run a highly manual, error-prone process. Before switching to a more efficient solution, employees managed thousands of bills across as many as 80 tils, leaving plenty of opportunities for mistakes.
The large cash volume made complete reconciliation a multi-day endeavor. The delay is less than ideal, especially when inaccuracies could compound into much larger problems. “The whole process became reactive instead of proactive,” he said. Not having access to essential banking and credit services created another problem: safety. His team moving, counting, and storing large quantities of untraceable cash at offsite locations is an enticing opportunity for internal and external theft.
Solution
Finding a more efficient way forward required a little homework. A Planet 13 sales manager researched many options before discovering Revolution Retail Solutions, which provided the ideal balance of security, user-friendly design, accuracy, storage, and price. Beginning at the Las Vegas location, Planet 13 opted for Fortis™ Series cash recyclers, Revolution’s flagship option for large retail footprints that feature the largest note capacity on the market (up to 19,200 notes). Revolution and Planet 13 integrated the solution in about a month, and after a week-long training session, every employee was ready to roll. The lack of a learning curve, paired with incredible sales and customer service, put Vildósola at ease almost immediately. He cited the support services as a huge security blanket, knowing he could have a reliable on-site technician in no time to help avoid as much downtime as possible.
Results
Vildósola said he noticed a difference right away: “The performance was crazy.” Employees could now work faster and with more peace of mind. Not only did he notice immense time savings during the reconciliation process, but he also saw a more streamlined process overall. With improved till analysis and optimization, he could ensure budtenders had optimized, accurate tills throughout the day, which meant fewer trips across the sales floor. And when employees needed to end their shift, they spent less time checking their tills and waiting in much shorter lines—an important consideration during a pandemic—leaving cash safe and secure.
Beyond process, Vildósola said the upgrade came with several bonuses. The cash recyclers drastically reduced the number of envelopes needed for cash management and absorbed cash handling responsibilities from drivers transporting money. In addition to the operational efficiencies for both the cashiers and the cash office, Planet 13 is now using Evention Reconciliation centralized cash reporting and reconciliation across their growing base of dispensaries. With cash recyclers both dispensing tills to cashiers and receiving end-of-shift cash sales, cash accountability across all locations is critical. With Evention, Planet 13 can monitor cash inventory, track cash sales, and see detailed reporting down to the cashier level. Planet 13 is also automating its daily cash reconciliation by integrating the LeafLogix POS responsibilities into Evention, meaning comparing what’s posted in the POS to what’s dropped by the cashier is done automatically. Now, management can spend less time in the back office and more time with their customers.