Irony is a harsh mistress.

Namaste ($N) – the company I loved to laugh at through the Sean Dolllinger years – has done a deal with High Tide ($HITI) for direct to consumer sales. Their Cannmart subsidiary is an e-commerce portal $N’s been pushing since the dawn of time. It looks like they’ve found a commercial use for it.

We’ve ruminated on Namaste in the past and present, and $HITI’s acquisition of $META (along with July’s financial statements) sees them issue another ‘positive’ press release.

As to the deal itself, Namaste gets storefront representation and Raj’s foot traffic to sell weed to; Raj presumeably gets Cannmart’s patients through his turnstiles and make incremental margin. Not earth-shattering – or – as I heard more accurately, the deal was best summarized by a single word: “Saskatchewan”.

What it did prompt me to think about (aside from a holding of mine doing business with Namaste…..I’ve been teeing off on them long after they fired Dollinger) is: when will white label offerings begin emerging in retailers?

That very retail countertop is the point of contact between cash and the industry. And I’m reminded of a retailer I met a couple of years ago at our first trade conference. That person said to me at the time (paraphrasing here): “Producers think they own this industry. In 5 years, we (retail) will own it”.

A good dose of bravado to be sure. Yet as I think about the impact that disc jockey’s and programmers can have on the uptake of popular music, I’m sure retailers will be able to exert influence on trends, and perhaps exploit alliances with LP’s and extractors to margin up. And I’m thinking that white labelling by retailers is inevitable – whether Shoppers, or $HITI, or $FAF.

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As mentioned, $HITI’s has gotten positive press lately, while Fire & Flower ($FAF) just missed guidance….and removed 2 years of estimates around number of stores they expect to open.

When it comes to front offices, they think about the optics around those sorts of things.

Couche-Tard ($ACT) did indeed pony up and struck the first (A-1) tranche of warrants as promised, but Green Acre’s pricy bridge this spring was timed perfectly (by Green Acre) during some serious $FAF share price softness. $FAF shareholders are paying for it now, and will do so for some time.

Before you think I’m just pounding on $FAF – I say all this to get you to think about it from their perspective: they’ll want to put out some positive news, and they now have an enemy that can be identified with in $HITI.

Look for a ramp in $FAF’s investor relations/marketing department’s productivity, and look for more frequent announcements about store siting progress in B.C. and Ontario. Maybe some sort of supply deal like this will come about, or an ‘exclusive’ product or brand. It’s a competitive world out there, and if you aren’t seen to be in the race, people will forget you’re in it.

I’ve found most CEO’s I’ve met to be extremely competitive people. I’m expecting something very loud and shiny to come out of $FAF in the next month or two.

The preceding is the opinion of the author, and is in no way intended to be a recommendation to buy or sell any security or derivative. The author holds a position in $HITI.