Alternative Products Expo 2024 | Biz To Biz Podcast | Episode 229

You are now watching the Biz to Biz podcast with Allen and Justin. Yo, what's up everybody? It's Justin live from B2B Vault, the Biz to Biz podcast sponsored by Nationwide Payment Systems, hosted by this guy, the Tommy Chung of payment processing himself, Allen Kopelman. And in today's podcast, we're going to be discussing, uh, CBD, uh, the THC craze, and payment processing in regards to payment processing. So how you doing, man?

I'm doing good. You feeling better? A little better?

Uh, not really.

Okay.

I'm exhausted.

You're recovering?

I am slowly recovering. Yes, as best as I can.

Yeah, it's a little crazy week. Last week Justin was out sick and ran down to go see a couple of trade shows, visit the alternative The Alternative Product Expo. Yeah.

How was it?

It was pretty— it was, uh, I got a little sticker shock when I went to park my car and it was $41 to park my car.

At least it wasn't $100.

No, at least it wasn't $100. Yeah, Miami Beach, they're charging without a Florida driver's license, uh, $100 to park your car.

And, uh, for the spring breakers. Yeah, spring breakers, they all come to Fort Lauderdale. That's what they're—

oh yeah, now it's like it's going crazy. Like, I have a couple of bars in downtown Fort Lauderdale. I mean, one of them did like $86,000 in sales the other night.

Nice.

Crazy.

Good for them.

Yeah, I mean, they're, they're making their— they're making a, making a mint down there. I mean, I see pictures of like you know, uh, Fort Lauderdale Beach, and then like the whole downtown area where, you know, where there's a few bars over there. Yeah, I mean, they have the streets closed, it's packed.

Yeah, my daughters went to the beach on Sunday for a couple hours and they got kicked out. They were shutting the beach down. It was super early, like it was— I don't even— they were back home by like 5 o'clock.

Well, they probably want to get everybody off the beach before it gets park.

That's crazy.

Either that or there was just too many people.

Yeah, I don't know. There was a lot of people. She said they got lucky and found parking, um, across the street over there by the firehouse.

Oh, okay. But yeah, yeah, the expo was pretty cool. A lot of vape products, tons of vape products, some A lot of, a lot of, uh, distributors there, manufacturers, but a lot of like just people who distribute. Yeah, you know, saw somebody that had like a franchise smoke shop. Oh nice, that was interesting. I've never really seen, you know, there's been some CBD franchises around and there was a—

but this, they were at a big booth set up Yeah, guys I know in Wisconsin, Milwaukee, has a franchise smoke shop called Knuckleheads. He's got one in Milwaukee, one in Madison. I think they got one in Green Bay now. We built it, we managed the website for them for a long time, but they switched to whatever. I don't know.

Yeah, it was kind of interesting. The other thing that was weird was there was a lot of, um, a lot of kratom. Products, which I thought was interesting. More than, you know, we've been to that show, what now, this would be the third? Yeah, the third year. And there's like way more kratom and kratom drinks and kratom gummies and kratom pills.

And you're talking about a lot of mushroom stuff too.

Yeah, there was a— yeah, there was some mushrooms, not as much as there was last year. Last year there was mushrooms everywhere. Remember, there was like a lot of stuff with mushrooms, and there was—

I love shrooms.

And there was, uh, there was a lot of— there was quite a few like drinks. It was funny, I was talking to a client of ours, and they have a— they make a drink, and they were telling me the big problem right now they're having is, is, you know, shipping the drink. This is so expensive.

What?

Uh, the freight, the gas. Oh, the freight. Like, someone gets a gas—

hella expensive right now, man.

So it's— and diesel's even more expensive. So they were just telling me, they were like, they're really trying to concentrate on their local, you know, where they're making it, so for local delivery, because beyond that it's getting pretty— it's getting too expensive. For people.

That makes sense.

Like, the freight is almost as much as the product.

Really?

Yeah. Well, you know, it's not like they're shipping—

yeah, making plenty of that, right?

I mean, I'm just saying, like, they're, they're not shipping like an entire truckload. You know, people that can move a whole truck, obviously it's much less expensive for them, right? Maybe they own the trailer, you know. So then if you're just shipping a pallet somewhere it can, you know, it gets kind of pricey.

I bet.

And, uh, you know, when I also— when I was there, there was a big booth in the front because apparently there's some bills that are being proposed in the state of Florida concerning vaping and nicotine products, and I wanted to read more about it. And it was— it makes sense. It's just more rules about, you know, are they selling this stuff to kids? And that's kind of the big issue.

What about cigarettes? What about alcohol? I mean, no, just to me, like, The powers that be with this whole CBD and THC thing is just so— I don't know, I say it all the time, it's just ridiculous. It just doesn't make any sense. Like, so we're gonna— I know for a fact my daughter goes to the store and buys tobacco products.

Right.

She's 16 years old.

Okay. Okay.

Like, I guarantee you if she asked for the the CBD or the THC vape, they'd sell it to him, right? Well, they don't, you know what I mean?

Like, yeah, I don't know. I don't know what's going on with that. I mean, I think like if there's an age requirement for product, then the state should just put a— make a law that businesses have to check everybody's ID and use a point of sale system that checks the ID and then, uh, do the best that they can. I mean, there's supposed to be rules against that. I know, like, where I, where I live in Coral Springs, like, they busted a bunch of smoke shops. They sent, like, underage people in there, the cops, and then they go bust the smoke shop.

My wife's school, they did that when she was working, uh, What's the name of that school? Anyway, she was working at a school and all the kids were going to this local smoke shop. And, uh, cause she was, uh, she was doing this, uh, anyways, they had like, every time the kids would come to school, they would check their bags.

Right.

And well, I don't know how they would check their bags or how, you know, someone would snitch obviously.

Right.

He's smoking or whatever. You know, these are young kids. So, and they, they had like a whole bag of vapes. And so then the police, the sheriff got involved and they ended up, you know, going into that smoke shop. It was literally right around the corner from the school. So I, you know, back when I was a kid, it was really hard Like, oh, you couldn't— I've been smoking weed since I was like 12, right?

Okay.

So when we started smoking blunts, like, to go to the corner store and get a cigar, right, was next to impossible. Oh yeah. Because for me, I had a beard by the time I was 14.

Okay.

So I was the designated buyer. Like, I could buy liquor. I could buy everything. But even then, it was still really difficult. So it's like, what has changed?

I think just the attitude of the people that own the stores and maybe the economy. People are a little bit more desperate to make money.

And they're just not IDing people. I don't think it's the attitude. I think it's the fact that the stores aren't operated by the owners anymore.

Yeah, that's true.

Because when you would go to the liquor store or the gas station, exactly, and they owned it.

Right.

They owned that store. And so they weren't letting the bullshit ride, you know what I mean? They weren't letting you, well, they were letting us stand outside, but. You know what I mean? Like, there was things that— there was just stuff in place like that. It's, it's, it's just, it's just messed up.

Yeah, they just, you know, they just like— but some of the stuff has to do with like the packaging, which we can't— like, when we get a website and somebody's selling CBD Lucky Charms vapes online or food with CBD in it, it can't be packaged up to look like it's candy. Like it's looking for kids, you know.

It still is though. When you go to this, when you go to the smoke shops. Yeah, but everything looks like it's a, it's bright, it's got cartoon characters on it.

Well, they've had to clean it up because the government like banned a bunch of products, and then now they have to, you know, the FDA has to approve any of these, uh, vape products. Flavored vapes and/or nicotine vapes. And that's, you know, the other issue is, you know, some of these smoke shops, the people that work there are teenagers, and maybe they don't know this product has nicotine in it, this one doesn't have nicotine in it, and things like that. I mean, it takes a lot of education. I was talking to somebody, they were telling me to work in the marijuana shop, you have to go to school, you know, dispensary. You have to go to school and you have to learn all the terms and you have to pass like a test and get a special—

in a dispensary?

No, to work in the dispensary. You have to have some special card if you want to work in the dispensary in Florida. Yeah, you have to learn all the terms of the sativa. I don't know all the different kinds, but you have to learn all of that and then you get a special card then that enables you to— that you're educated on the products.

Interesting.

So that, you know, that was interesting, you know, but I think like, you know, like I talked to a lot of owners of smoke shops and, you know, we know they sell everything in their convenience stores, sell everything under the planet in there. You walk into liquor stores, they're selling tobacco products, vapes, kratom and everything. I mean, there's not a lot you can control in the retail environment. Online, there's more to control. I think that the federal government has to step in on this whole issue of CBD and hemp, and they need to, they need to say, hey, the Farm Bill is the Farm Bill, and the states cannot go and change everything because now there's a whole bunch of states you can't ship like CBD to Louisiana You can't ship, you know, Delta products into some states.

Because how the hell, like—

No, you can buy it there.

But my point is like, yo, if you look at the weed, right? And you say, oh yeah, this is CBD. Right. How the hell does— You can't tell the difference between CBD, well, I can because I'm a veteran. But like, the CBD and THC, like, that's like when the sheriff, the sheriff from Florida, wherever his name is, he told the, you know, there's like a, there was like a whole news thing about it. Like he said, don't even waste your time if you smell weed because there's no way for us to differentiate the two.

Right. Oh yeah, that guy up by Orlando or Tampa.

And he's right. Yeah. Right? Like, so like, How the hell, like, you know, a friend of mine is starting a THC company, right?

That was— it was a lot of that there too, the THC.

I don't even know, it looks just like regular weed.

I know. So it's like, oh yeah, all the flower, it looks— it looked flat. You can see the CBD flower, hemp flower, it all looks pretty much like the same.

Now you have flower, hemp flower looks like the dirt weed you'd smoke when I was 12.

Yeah, I'm just saying it looks like marijuana.

It does look like marijuana. I mean, you can't— to a guy who's like never, you know, seen weed or something before, and yeah, I mean, they couldn't tell the difference for sure.

Yeah, I mean, you know, there's just, you know, I just think like, you know, they— the federal government just needs to have, you know, okay, these are the rules and that's it, and all the states have to follow the same rules. And, you know, the same thing we do. Like, we get people, they sell Delta products on their website. We're like, listen, as long as your report shows it's derived from hemp, right, and it's below the 0.3 or 0.03, right, on the THC level, you can sell all the Delta that you want on your—

what about the THCA?

Yeah, as long as it tests for below 0. 0.3 or 0.3, whatever people call it. You know, everybody calls it something different. As long as the tests test out, it's fine. It's, it's, it's the low, uh, low, low level.

I'm calling bullshit. I'm calling super bullshit.

As long as they have—

because I smoke some.

Yeah.

And I don't know what it is, right? But I was high as a kite.

Okay. Like, I'm not saying no, I'm saying there's apparent— I'm just saying, like, as long as everything tests for what it's supposed to be, you can sell it online. So, I mean, the, the, the retail, the people who are selling the stuff online and not putting tests on their website, they're selling it on Square, then they get kicked off Square and they contact us and I go, well, you have to have tests. They all have to be within 12 months.. And you have to, you have to test, you know, each batch that you do, you have to have tests for. And, you know, and you have to have the COAs on your site. Then they get mad. Oh, Square didn't make us do that. Well, now Square shut you off. There's a reason because you're either selling something you're not supposed to be selling on there, you know, things like that. So, you know, the other thing that's, that's I thought was a little crazy at the show, there was a lot of companies there with these machines. To make like different molds, you know, with food, you know, like Jell-O and gummies and chocolates.

Dude, the fact that people are at home making— listen, to all you Betty Crocker's out there, I'm gonna say it like, don't just be making gummies and chocolates and edibles and then handing them out to people because That shit is not okay.

Yeah, the thing that's messed up about the food products is the dosing. So you're making a big bowl of Jell-O, right? And you're mixing it all up, but then you don't know unless you're individually putting the drops of the CBD into it.

And I don't think you can do that, right?

No, you can't do that. That's what I'm saying, because I was watching a guy, he had a video, and I was like, well, Well, you don't know. One piece of chocolate could have all the CBD in it that you just dumped in there.

Your oven's a little cockeyed, all of that oil is gonna go this way. Right. And so the pan, the cookies or the brownies on this side of the pan are gonna be ridiculously potent.

Yeah, that's why the FDA is like seriously freaking out because the dosing is, is, is, is not accurate, and that's a problem.

It's very—

I mean, we, we— I mean, I showed Justin there was a sign at the, at the thing, and it said, oh, it's a sign, we're not responsible for, you know, be mindful of what you consume, right?

Because it's going to be potent, you know what I mean? We can't—

we can't guarantee the potency. Yeah, so be careful what you consume. And there was a very little amount of— from the first year to the second year to the third year, there is very little stuff being handed out. The first year we went, me and Justin ate a bunch of chocolate.

Oh my God.

And we were, we were high as a kite when we came back to the office.

Yeah, I was worried about driving home with you.

Yeah.

Because I mean, but it kind of hit us. At least it was just, it was just in Fort Lauderdale. Right. But that— I remember, uh, yeah, the people were like just falling out. Then last year when we went, the same thing happened to somebody. Someone else passed out. So I'm sure that's why Fort Lauderdale was like, we're not doing this.

You guys had it in Miami, but they were not handing out stuff at all. Like, you had to ask people. They didn't really— they weren't really giving out samples of anything. No, I'm sure they were, but no, it was like on the, on the low, on the low. You had to ask specifically, oh, can I try that?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They weren't like when we went, they were just handing out brownies and chocolates. There was a few people smoking, not, not a lot, not as much as in the past.

Yeah, last year when we went, they were smoking outside. It was, I mean, it was kind of a cool vibe, but the first year was definitely like a, it was a wild, wild west. That was a good turnout. The displays for the, you know, different products. I mean, companies. That was interesting to see how much money that they were putting into that stuff.

Oh yeah, there was definitely a couple of very big booths. Like Cake had a big booth and there was a couple other companies that I never heard of.

Was Cake done? Yeah, they were here.

Yeah, they didn't— not as massive of a booth because Wasn't in this.

Well, they're big. They're, they're pretty— they're mom-and-pop stores now. They're everywhere.

So there was, uh, but there was a lot of like vape people selling like the actual like vape pens.

I'm not hating on Cake. I just can't believe that they're getting away with that, their logo, because it's so close to Cookies.

Yeah, it's a little nuts. But the— but that— but there was a lot of companies there selling like—

was Cookies there?

Probably. Yeah. There was so many booths, you know, booths and— but a lot of different— but it was a lot of people selling all different kinds of—

because Cookies just launched their CBD website so you can buy like the Cookies brand, right? For all you kids out there. Never mind.

No. So, you know, so that You know, so now the FDA's get cracking down on all this CBD food supplements and all that. I mean, there was, you know, the other thing is, you know, now the vape products have to be approved by the FDA. So, you know, any stuff that's on like people's websites, you know, we make sure that they're on the list of the FDA-approved products now.

Really?

Yeah, because any smoking stuff. And yeah, they're cracking down on like on the, on the devices too.

For some reason there's like something going on with devices because those devices, they're like, there's like mercury— no, no, I can't remember what it is. There's something in the coil or something in the, something in the heating element. Yeah, the heating element, right, that's getting people sick, right? So I told all my kids, I, I don't, I don't vape. I don't use this pen or anything. I used to, but I remember one time I hit a vape and I'm like, tastes like metal.

Yes, some of that, that's why they're cracking down on. Another thing they did at the show, I don't know if they did it last year, they gave away that $100,000 giveaway.

Oh wow.

That, and it had it all piled up at the front of the thing when you came in. So all the vendors there had to put in, had to put in the kitty, and it was a huge thing. And then I was trying to find it on Instagram, uh, who, who won, but you had to be present, you had to have a store, and someone won $100,000 worth of inventory.

Nice.

That— I was like, wow, that's crazy.

For free?

Yeah, for free, just for attending the show.

That definitely was a game changer forever. Whatever.

If I would, I would have brought my whole family and registered.

If they let you, right?

Well, yeah, I don't know. I don't know if they— yeah, yeah, it was just like everybody who attended the show was entered in, and there were other prizes too. And they gave away the $100,000. Somebody who has a store won 100 grand of inventory.

That's dope.

Yeah, that was—

that was— congratulations to whoever won that.

Yeah, that was pretty cool. But it was, you know, it was quite— it's always interesting, you know, when you talk— there was like, we saw somebody there a couple years ago and they had like a special, um, container to put your, uh, product in so you could get it through the airport. Oh yeah, there was somebody else there with a similar type of thing. There was a lot of companies from—

put that shit in your bag and check it.

There was a lot. There was a lot. Apparently, like, I have some friends of mine from California, so like, oh, you leave California, you travel to another state, you can bring all the marijuana that you want.

That's not true. Well, but they don't care. The people in Cali aren't checking your bag for weed, so they're checking your bag for drug, uh, like hard drugs. Guns, pills, explosives, cocaine, fentanyl. Yeah, shit like that, right? Yeah. The homie who lives out west, every time he flies back home, you know, I mean, to Milwaukee, you know what I mean, he always brings a little treat. But so as long as it's not over like a quarter pound or whatever.

But they were telling me when you're traveling back, especially from Florida, no, no, they said you can't put put it in your luggage.

I left Florida last year.

Yeah.

And I didn't have anything with me, but I smelled like weed, right? The sheriff pulled me out of the blind, right? Almost made me miss my flight.

Uh-oh.

I was so pissed off. Like, they were checking my bag like I was Boston George. Like, word. I was like, what is this? What is this for, bro? I had a backpack, like, that's it. I pack light.

I don't—

yeah, I got stuff back in Milwaukee, so I don't have to travel, you know what I mean, all my stuff. So it's like, yo, like, dude, I'm, I'm trying to get on my plane. He's like, I don't know, and he said something, and next thing you know, there's another person over there. They're swabbing my laptop. I'm like, dude, Whatever. That's what made me go get my medical license.

When I was with my mom going to the airport, my mom takes like 100 vitamins a day, right? So my mom has her carry-on bag, in the carry-on bag is like this lunch bag, and then the lunch bag is baggies full of pills. Breakfast baggie, lunch baggie, dinner baggie. I am not a thing. No, she's like, she's taking like 100 pills a day. So she's got, you know, she's got all these bags.

Supplements.

Supplements, yeah. So they're unpacking the bag, they go through the X-ray, they're like, oh, please step to the side. Then that, and then my mom had a pacemaker and she had pins put in her hip, so she can't go through the X-ray machine. My mom's cracking jokes, she's like, oh, you don't, you don't know the last time I had pat down. Come on. And they're inspecting, they're like rubbing, they're checking all the pills.

I ain't gonna lie, the last time I got pat down, I felt hella violated inside of Fort Lauderdale.

And then my mom was like, please, she told the lady, why do you have to do this? Good for her.

I remember the guy, I looked at the guy like, dude, are you serious? Right now?

Yeah.

Like, are you serious, bro? Like, I'm not— I was getting upset. Like, my wife had to come over to me.

Yeah, you know what?

She could see it in my face, like I was about to snap.

The last time I traveled, I didn't know this, so I went through the, the X-ray machine, and then they're like, oh, you got to go back through again. And then the guy's like, because I had like drawstrings pants on, he's like, oh, put the drawstrings on the outside because it was setting off the machine. Like it looked like I was trying—

I had travel belts, the belt that you don't have to take off.

Right.

Like I had every, like I am, 'cause I don't like that, right? Right. I want to get where I'm going.

Exactly.

That's one of the main reasons I hate flying is that I'm not a security risk I am not a drug smuggler, right? Or a smuggler of any sort. So like when I go to the airport, I have my stuff, my bag is packed very cleanly. It's all rolled nicely organized. So when I have to undo that because of whatever.

Oh, they undid my mom's whole like lunch thing. Then my mom's over there explaining to them what all the pills are and all this stuff. Yeah, my dad used to— And I was like, come on. And they're taking the little swab and they're swabbing the inside. Like, what do they think, my mom's carrying like fentanyl?

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Maybe she's a mule. Yeah.

She doesn't know what she's doing.

She doesn't know what she's doing. She's got a whole thing of pills.

Somebody convinced her to get on the plane.

Then I had to—

Her grandson said, hey, Grandma, take this on the plane for me.

Yeah. And then I had to get my— then my mom didn't want to do the wheelchair, but I had to get her to do the wheelchair because she was walking. We had to go so far in the airport, and I was like, you know, you're not gonna— she was getting tired, so we ended up—

well, anyway, traveling with weed is ridiculous. Yeah, last time I left Florida, I had some weed and it was all good.

So, haha, TSA, watch out for Justin.

Yep.

No, so it's just inter— you know, I just, I just don't understand why the federal government just doesn't make set rules, you know, make set rules already. Set rules on cannabis, set rules for the, for the, for the, you know, CBD hemp industry, and just make everything set on a federal level.

Exactly. Just make this shit legal in all the— what is it, 50 states? Yeah, in all 50 states. I don't know why I was going to say 52. What does that mean?

Now people get confused because you have the 48 states, and then you have Alaska and Hawaii makes 50.

I know, so it's like, I want to say 50, that's why. Anyway, that's why some people just make this shit legal in every state and nobody wants to take their stuff, right? Then you go to where you're at and you'll try what's there and it'll boost the economy.

Exactly.

But what do I know?

Yeah, just make it, you know. And they're also, I think, trying to vote in Florida too to bring recreational Oh, it's happening. Marijuana to Florida. Yeah, definitely.

Everybody I talk to is like, they're actually ramping up for that. That's one of the reasons why my friend is launching the TACA company.

Right.

So he can already have like a foothold, you know what I mean, in the game. So it's smart. I think it's a good idea. I mean, Florida's— just how much money you think they could have been making there Spring Break right now. They could be repaving every road, fixing every bridge.

Exactly.

Repaving the—

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