Alternative Products Expo Field Trip! | CBD Payment Processing | High Risk | B2B Vault | Episode 151

Yo, what's up everybody? It's Justin live from B2B Vault, the payment technology podcast sponsored by Nationwide Payment Systems, hosted by this guy, the Don Manningly of payment processing himself. Allen Kopelman, and we'll be providing you educational information about fintech, business, payment processing, and the technology businesses are using in the world today. And in today's podcast, uh, we thought we'd talk about the state of CBD, hemp, and cannabis in 2023. It's always a pretty popular podcast, um, a lot of stuff going on. We, uh, went to the Alternative Products Expo which is the land of CBD, kratom, and Delta-8 THC pipes, glass pipes, every kind of pipe known to man. Um, a lot of different changes going on with CBD. Cannabis is still stuck in limbo, no real updates to talk about that. Um, but a lot of stuff happening with CBD.

Yeah, a lot of stuff, and like a lot of different new products. Like we saw mushrooms, mushroom-related products down there. We saw a guy selling, uh, grow— like, um, like you joined a membership and you learn how to grow marijuana at a booth. We saw people selling equipment, which was new, which we didn't see before, like to make your own edibles, like the manufacturing.

I mean, last year's show compared to this show was just like totally different.

Yeah, the vibe was different because they weren't passing out samples everywhere, right? So that was kind of like, maybe it was a little calmer, although there was a lot of DJs at people's booths.

It was really loud.

Yeah, it was really kind of loud with the DJs and everything, but it was an interesting show. And, uh, you know, kratom, there was a lot of stuff with kratom.

Yeah, it was kratom around. I mean, this time the show was like last year, we, you It was just like a free-for-all. You walked in there and, you know, you're being handed all kinds of samples.

Edibles, chocolate, coffee. Yeah, coffee, all kinds of stuff.

Yeah, energy drinks. And I mean, we had mentioned before in a podcast previously, before when we told you guys we were going, I remember reading last year about the Alternative Products Expo and Someone's actually like suing one of the companies or something that were giving away samples because there wasn't, you know, like a good enough sign or something, you know. I hope that that person suing loses. Yes, I mean, come on, man, you knew where you were going. Exactly. So what did you thought, it was a real regular chocolate? I mean, whatever.

How many of them are you supposed to also—

and then yeah, how many free samples did you get that day, bro? Like I mean, when I was there Sunday, just this Sunday, a woman passed out like right in front of me, you know. She—

too many samples.

Exactly. So I mean, that's, you know, that's your own fault, bro.

And I also thought it was weird, like they wanted you to taste the vape and then they put like a cover on. Oh yeah, no, I was not about to like do that. That was too weird, like sharing.

I did it one time because the guy, you know, I thought he was actually gonna give me the vape. Right, right. But then as I'm about to, you know, try it, he's like, no, no, put this on. And I'm like sitting there struggling with it. You're standing there with me, it was flying off. He's like, just hit it without it.

I looked at him like, yeah, right, man, are you kidding me? No way. I mean, dude, even before COVID I wouldn't be doing anything like that. No. Yeah, you're not sharing a vape with somebody ever. No, not— not— doesn't sound good.

No, I don't— yo, yeah, man, I don't— whatever, if you're teaching something. But yeah, man, I mean, this, this one was interesting. Uh, was that the Broward Convention Center?

Yeah, Broward. Yeah, it's like weird, it's like Broward Fort Lauderdale Convention Center.

This one was the Broward.

Yeah, no, no, I'm saying they changed the name of it.

Oh, that's right, that's right, that's what I kept saying.

I thought we—

whatever, right now I remember.

Now they changed it to From Fort Lauderdale to Broward.

Yes, so we were at the Broward Convention Center. I was there actually all weekend.

Uh-oh.

All right, all weekend.

Well, you had a friend in town, so—

Yes, I did. Yeah, he was vending.

Yeah, you know, one of the things with the, you know, you talking about like the regulatory, um, perspective on the CBD hemp industry, right? The Delta-8, 9, etc., etc., kratom and all that. It's crazy because, you know, before we went to the show and then after, you know, this all— I was looking at different news articles, you know, and they're just talking about how the FDA, Food and Drug Administration, is looking at this. And then I looked at a new list of states, and that's the other thing that wasn't I would say that's changed a lot from last year to this year. There's a lot of states with different rules. Like, I counted, I think, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 states where they made CBD like illegal, which is like weird. No, they don't allow the sale of CBD, but they have cannabis. And yeah, some of them have cannabis. Which is weird.

Illinois?

Yeah, yeah, there was a new list that came out and it didn't make any sense because some of it has to do with shipping it in and some of it is, you know, can't be like, can't be sold like over the internet and then shipped into that state, right? That's why most of those companies switch to like paint plain brown boxes. So that they don't have to deal with all that.

Well, that— I mean, in the cannabis industry itself, the, the government said that they had to take the labels off. Like, they couldn't make the packaging fun, right? So everyone, no matter what you are, you had to go to either like a standard white label, black, you know, whatever.

The same thing with vape. Like, with vape, we get companies that come to us and they want to get set up with a vape website, and then they'll have things on there that maybe appeal to young people the right cartoonish looking stuff, and the bank will say, hey, you got to remove these 5 products from your site. Yeah, we can't allow you to sell that online. And yeah, and there was a— and there was a whole nother thing I was reading where certain states are saying, oh, no CBD in food and drinks to be sold. But I don't know how often they're going into all these convenience stores, because every time I go into a convenience store You know, not like, not like a chain, right? But a, a privately owned one. If they sell everything—

if this is a different podcast, I would tell you a story about what I heard a gas station is selling in Milwaukee. Okay, I'm gonna say it, they're selling fentanyl. What? Owners of the gas station?

That's crazy.

They're using the gas station as a trap house.

Wow, that's nuts. Fentanyl can kill people.

Fentanyl is killing people every day.

It's killing too many people. Fentanyl. It's not good. But you know, there was all this stuff about the FDA, then the FBI and the ATF, you know, looking at all these vape products, and the DEA looking at products to see what— you know, if anybody's selling products labeled the one way but the, the potency is too high.

So it's a couple guys while I was at the show did ask me about seeds, and I did not have an answer for them because obviously the other 16,000 payment processors that were at the show couldn't do something with seeds either.

Yeah, seeds is kind of like in a gray area. And I did talk to a couple of banks and they told me they're trying to do seeds. And a couple of people have set up seeds under novelties, but it doesn't last long because once the bank sees that they're selling a ton of seeds, it's not going to work. But hemp is legal. Yeah, I know, if it's hemp seed, that—

but it is. Yeah, if it's labeled literally like hemp is cannabis, I know it's just the way you grow it.

I get it. But I'm saying as long as it's labeled hemp seeds, we can do it. We can do it. Like, we get— we have guys that have like a hemp farm, they sell hemp seedlings. Yeah, right. Okay, now I don't know what you do with those. That's what it says on the website, then that's what it is. So you know what I'm saying? That's what we go by. Yeah. So if someone says they got— they're selling hemp seeds— like, we had a guy who couldn't get a merchant account one time, and they were selling clothing made out of hemp, and nobody would give them an account. But we got the guy an account.

Nice.

Not a huge account, but they do some sales. And you know, the FTC, Federal Trade Commission, is always looking at everybody's advertising. And making sure their advertising doesn't have any kind of promises in it and all that. And, you know, and now I saw a news article today talking about how the CDC is starting to weigh in on cannabis and CBD.

Why?

They're just— they're—

what is the CDC?

CDC is the Center for Disease Control.

Is weighing in on Yeah, they're weighing in.

Like, they put out some kind of document talking about—

man, why don't you weigh in on tobacco use and alcoholism first and then come for cannabis, bro? Get out of here. This is so trash.

No, I'm just saying, like, that's another agency.

I know.

And then the states are weighing in. Like, every state is like weighing in separately now.

It's—

that's getting out of hand. It is.

It makes it really difficult. I can only imagine for like a, you know, a CBD or, you know, someone in that business, you know what I mean, trying to figure this all out. Because there are people— there's, there's people making millions and billions of dollars off of CBD.

Yeah, because they estimate the CBD market is worth over $4.6 billion, and they expect it to quadruple by 2026.

I'm in on it. Yeah, I'm, I'm, I don't— I talked to a lot of people this weekend, and I, so like, I've been trying to figure out what the big thing is about why do people choose CBD over cannabis, right? Okay, I am, I medicate. Allen knows this, blah blah blah. It helps me with my anxiety. It's a lot of different reasons. Um, but so CBD doesn't do it for me, right? And then so at this show I'm sitting here asking questions like, what makes it so popular, right? You know, and one common factor I got back off of it was that it's legal, right? No matter what, right? Like, it's legal. I know there's— it's these states, like you said, they've made it illegal.

No, no, they just have like version of what certain things that can—

like gummies are illegal in certain states. They can't be packaged in certain ways and stuff. Like, I get it, right?

Like, they have strict rules, right?

You know, I mean, I mean, what the—

I mean, it doesn't even make sense to me. Like, Florida has, you know, medical marijuana. Yeah. Okay, if you want medical marijuana, you go to a doctor, you get a card, say, I have anxiety, or I can't sleep at night. They give you a card and then you go to the store.

Well, it wasn't that simple, but it's pretty— that—

yeah, then you can go to—

when I got my card, it was nowhere near that simple, right? As for blood, urine, hair sample—

really?

Skin sample? No, I'm just, I'm just saying it wasn't, it wasn't like—

well, now it's pretty easy.

Super easy. My, my wife went and did it and it was like filling out a job application.

Yeah, they just get— they just give it to you. Yeah. You know, it's kind of a little bit of a money ring because that's exactly what it is.

It just turned it— that's what it turned into. It just turned into a money scheme. Yeah, because there's these doctors popping up out of everywhere.

And, uh, yeah, I was actually looking at this company. Somebody got— I get contacted all the time. Oh, do you want to create some other passive income?

Right.

So one of them was, oh, do you want to open up this like CBD store? Right? But it wasn't actually like a CBD store. It was a CB— the store would sell CBD in it, right?

Yeah.

But the other function of the store was to get people the cannabis, uh, medical cards.

And that was like 5 of them by my house.

It's crazy. And it was like the whole, a whole business. And I was like, oh, how? And the guy's like, oh, well, you know, we get set up, we find you a spot, you only need like 500 to 1,000 square feet, you know, blah blah blah. And I'm like, well, you know, then you got to get recruit like a doctor to come work there, and then, and then they make— that's how they do it. But it's crazy.

Yeah, I mean, I have the— I mean, so like back to the CBD and the difference between cannabis, so like what— when I was asking these questions, a lot of times people are just looking for— they would prefer to buy cannabis, but it's not legal in their state, so then they might consume CBD.

And then, well, also another thing, CBD, it's available like in, in like common places.

Like, well, right, that's what I'm saying. Like, it's not more so in like the black market states. Like, where I'm from in Wisconsin, there's no medical, there's no recreation, there's nothing. So people smoke CBD. There's hundreds of CBD shops in Milwaukee, right? And one thing that I was asking, like, my friend who, uh, who was down here vending, um, I said, so, you know, why is this so popular? He was like, who is this really popular with? Like, what types of people, blah blah blah, you know? I mean, that's the way I'm analytical that way. I want to know.

Yeah.

And, um, interesting. And he says You know, depending on which location— he has 30 different locations in Wisconsin. So he, he was like, you know, in the, the denser populations that are like Hispanic or Spanish, he was explaining to me how they use CBD because for the one main reason is because that's that it is legal, right? You know, and some of the Spanish communities, they might be undocumented or visas, and you know, that's just a— it's just something that they don't want to—

they don't want to get busted.

They don't want that problem, right? They don't want those problems. Um, and then he said the older generation, older white generation, specifically your age group, um, it's really popular with because once again it's legal and they're afraid of the— the new weed gets them too high, he says.

Right.

But I gave my dad one of those edibles with the Delta whatever, A-T-H-C, right? That guy was passed out for like— yeah, no, I mean, so I'm not an edible guy, but yeah, some of them have like for sleeping and stuff like that.

I have friends of mine, they take edibles where they get CBD specifically to help them go to sleep.

Yeah, no, it works really good for that. I take it all the time. Yeah, so, you know, but yeah, I mean, and then I can't remember of the, uh, like one or the other, but those are the two main, you know, like reasons. Like, it's, it's legal. It's not like, uh, it, you know, it's not because people are afraid to do the black market. They don't want to buy weed from some guy standing at the corner at some bodega.

Yeah, tell my son, he has a medical marijuana card. I'm like, get it at that medical marijuana place at least you know what you're getting. You know, there's no pesticides on it.

Yep, yep. He mentioned that too. He said you got a lot of like old school heads who, you know, who just want to know the quality and where it's coming from and stuff like that. So I mean, yeah, it's pretty interesting. Shout out to Highly Edible. Um, you can find them in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Atlanta, uh, he's got a store in Atlanta, Georgia, and another store like a brick and mortar, um, in Milwaukee, and then he's in 30 different other locations sprinkled throughout Wisconsin. So Highly Edibles, The Hemp Cartel. Mike McGee Jr., man, it was a pleasure seeing you. Uh, that's all I got. Your wife Maya, I love y'all. I can't wait to see you guys again. Looking for the spot, man. I ain't forget what you told me.

Looking for it. Looking for a spot to open a store?

Yeah, he wants, he wants, uh, he not wants it, it's he said to me to go find a store so that he could open up a store.

Okay, so I'm not big on it.

And he said, uh, he wants to use Nationwide Payment Systems for the payment processing. All right, you're not big on what?

I'm not big— me, I'm not big on the retail business. No, it's— listen, everything's location, location, location, right?

No, you're not lying about that. But you know, you gotta have a good look. Those are, those are one of those, you know, drugs sell themselves.

That's true, but you got to be in a good spot where you have—

I hate to call it drugs, you know, but it's not a drug because it's a plant. But you know, in, in the true hustler spirit, drugs sell themselves. And those types of products those types of products sell themselves, you know what I mean? You don't need— you do a good location that's able to get foot traffic, you can see it from the street, that's, you know, that's going to be very imperative. But I don't know how important that is right now. Like, the thing I would say is don't open your CBD shop when there's a dispensary across the street and then 14 other gas stations or smoke shops near you because they're all selling the same products.

Exactly. That's kind of the problem is for a while, like with vape, it was an oversaturation of vape shops. Like you would go past every shopping center, vape, vape, vape, vape.

I mean, it's still the same, isn't it?

No, a lot of them went out of business, vape stores, because they got busted when a lot of them were making their own juice.

All the vape juice.

Yeah, they were making their own vape juice and then they were putting pimp juice.

You cannot make your own vape juice, player.

And they were, yeah, they were also putting nicotine in it. And then a couple of places, there was one that was down the street from the office over here, and, uh, they were actually putting, uh, cannabis, actual, you know, cannabis in there. And somebody must have told somebody who told somebody, and then that place got raided.

Well, and, uh, I mean, that type of stuff, man, I'm, you know, you should be doing it on the up and up. You shouldn't be messing with people's lungs, you know.

And what's weird is, is like some of the— it's like some of the cities, you know, started to get smart and limit, you know, what people— you know, how many of these stores they're going to allow, which is good because then they don't get oversaturated and then people go out of business. Because no one— I agree— see some people go out of business.

Yeah, no, I mean, no one wants to walk outside and go to the grocery store and you've got 47 CBD shops and vape shops Kratom shops. Yeah, you know, I mean, it—

I—

there should be one. And this is not just that, I mean, there should be one liquor store, one, you know what I mean, like, yeah, exactly, tobacco shop. There shouldn't be 14 liquor stores within a 5-block radius, right?

There shouldn't be needed.

No, it's not needed. It's just, it's just tearing the community apart, you know.

Yeah, exactly. It's just, it's not good for the for business owners. And you know, the cities, some are greedy and some aren't, you know. And then some have way too many restrictions. Like out where I live, you can't even— like, the gas stations can't put the price out on the street. You want to show some of the products?

I forgot to show the products. I have a whole bunch of products.

You did tell me that one of them was really dangerous.

This right here, it's cereal. They call it Berry Bud Crunch. Dude, I— if you eat this in the morning time, man, I don't know how— you're not gonna make it much. You ain't gonna make it.

You ain't gonna make it, man.

I mean, I, I suggest you purchase some Berry Bunch Crunch, whatever.

Maybe some Cheerios, and then just a similar cereal.

Yeah, you can make you a little mix, a little mix in there. And then do it that way because this is actually 5 servings. And don't be a fool like me and turn it into one. Um, yeah, they got some Doritos, oh, nacho cheese chips, some Cheesy Buds. The chocolate chip cookies were really good, and they make all them themselves. Like, it's cool. Yeah, the wife Maya, she made these. These are really good. They got vegan gummies. My dad had one of these things. I'm not an edible guy, so I don't really get into that. Got more gummies, got the flour.

Oh, it's very interesting when we went there to see the different products people had.

Oh my God, you know, it's came a long way, dude.

Yeah, it definitely—

my favorite of all though is the, the hot.

Oh, Jacob's going to like those.

Yeah, no, these are— they're really good. They're like really good. This is way too sweet for me, the Happy Stick, uh, like a candy. Yeah, it's candy. I can't do it. But again, good, whatever. But yeah, man, highly edibles. www.cartelyelo.red. And yes, I am going to be working on your website and fixing that for you because that is ridiculous, sir. Uh, people should be able to get this stuff online. It's good, it's high quality.

So yeah, that's the thing, like with highly edibles, that's the thing. Like somebody sent me a CBD website the other day, right? And then I said to them, I go, where's all the COA, right? They're like, we have to put all that on there? I'm like, yeah man, it's— you have to have that on your site and they have to be— you have to keep them up to date. To be compliant because these states that have rules, right? You don't want one of them or somebody buying stuff—

you want—

the consumer wants to feel comfortable, right? And so they want to know. They want to go review the test to see what's in the, you know, what the— see what's in the product, you know?

I mean, I'm—

and you got to have a product label too showing like what's the ingredients of like the Cheetos. Like, I'm sure if you pick up the bag— oh yeah, no, he does. He Right, it's got the— it's got a full label on there and all the nutritional value.

He, he spent the money. Yeah, it's high quality.

You can tell the packaging is good. The— it's got all the ingredients on there. Then he's— does he have— let me see the back. It's got the barcode. Yeah, he's got the barcode.

He's got the Delta 8 nutrition facts. He's literally have everything in there. He's got the food and drug Uh, yes, yes, statement, right?

Yeah, that's what I mean. It's all done, all done correctly. Yeah, because you want to do things, you want to make sure everything that you do on your website, that it's all legal, it's all put together, you have all the legal mumbo jumbo.

And then how often do you have to do that? Every year?

Well, no, you have to keep your— every time you put out a batch, you're supposed to upload a new test. When you do a batch. Sure they do. Yeah, they probably don't, but they're supposed to usually. So, but usually the batch of the—

so this, because I'm— I just need a better explanation so I have— so I can explain this to—

yeah, okay, customers.

So they have a website and they have their COA, it's called.

Yeah, for each product.

So for this product right here, they have to have a COA, right?

Each one of the products on the site. You got 50 products, 50 COAs. Some people put them all on one page and then just put a link under each product. Some people actually put the link to the COA.

So then when I run out of this inventory, yeah, and I replace it with new inventory, right, I'm supposed to put a new COA on my website?

You're supposed to. Well, you— the COAs on your site cannot be let more than a year old. And also, let me show you this. So also, you want to make sure that you're showing your product info on your website. Oh, okay.

Right.

You want to show that on the website too. A lot of people don't do that with the ingredients and everything, especially with food products. You know, you want to make sure that you're doing that because you have to legally do that. Yeah, I mean, even like rules, even like, like it amazes me sometimes when I go to a restaurant So like, let's say you just go to a local, local spot, right? They don't have to put the calories on there. But when you go to a chain like, whatever, Yard House, okay, they have to show the calories for every single item on the menu. But when you go buy things online like a nutraceutical product, vitamins and all that, they have to show the product labels. So a lot of people that try to take shortcuts They go, oh, what do you mean I have to have the product label? I'm like, you gotta have the product label. The FDA wants to see your product labels. You think they're coming to— you don't want them in your warehouse, so just put it on the website. Otherwise you might get a visit and they're going to come over to the web.

Yeah, no thanks.

And come see everything going on, and then you get a letter from them saying, hey, you're, you know, obviously someone's not selling a ton of stuff they're not going to get reported, but get reported or get targeted. But I, I see it all the time, uh, FDA warnings to CBD companies and FTC warnings when they go to the— when they, they go to their site and they go see, oh, there's no product labels on there. And then the merchant gets a letter and they go, oh, you're— you don't have a product label on your website for blah blah blah, you know, for this product or that product. So you have to make sure you have all your product labels on your, on your site, you know.

Indeed.

And that's—

you got any other advice for CBD clients?

You know, also make sure you don't— you know, see how you can maybe shorten your name up to not contain the word CBD and hemp so that when you're when people— when you're processing, when you're processing cards, you're going to get more—

like, this would be a good name, Highly Edibles. That's a better name than CBD. Highly Edible CBD, right?

Exactly.

Yeah. So, yeah, yeah.

So you don't want to, you know, you, you don't want to have— you don't want to have name— you don't want to have a name on there that's gonna— like, we try to take the word CBD off Yeah, in their name, say get rid of that. Don't put the word hemp because you're just looking for trouble. Because what it is, is there's these, uh, whatever, the credit card issuers that issue the credit card to the consumer, they'll see that name come across and then they might have in their database, well, we're not approving those transactions. Now I don't agree with that, okay? I'm not in agreement with that. I think if you want to buy CBD or hemp, you should be able to buy it as long as you're in a state where it's legal, right? You should be able to buy it. So I don't think they should tell people what they can buy and what they can't buy. That's a little bit too much Big Brother.

I'm seeing this stat right here. He says 46 states have some sort of legal cannabis. Yeah, since when?

Since recently. There's, there's, they have some, they, they either have They either have legal cannabis, recreational cannabis, or CBD. But it's weird because they allow one thing and don't allow something else. They allow this but they don't allow that, you know, right? That's the whole thing. And then there's a bunch of states now voting, like Virginia is voting on some CBD laws. Oklahoma's— which I don't understand, Oklahoma already has marijuana. Now they're voting again on marijuana in Oklahoma. And, you know, the, the Congress needs to stop, you know, kicking the can down the road on the whole cannabis thing. You know, they need to stop doing that. The SAFE Banking Act, it's being tossed around like a hot potato. You know, we had the thing where Biden passed that one law which is basically worthless, saying they're going to pardon people who had a marijuana conviction, but it's only for federal. So nobody has a federal marijuana conviction. That's— I mean, they're really— they're going to probably free a dozen people from that. And they tried to slide the SAFE Banking Act into two bills recently and then got slapped out of there.

Yes, it did.

You know, I think that these bills, especially something big like that, it's They just need— they need to just decide like, hey, we're gonna do it and just do it. Um, you know, the cannabis on the stock markets having a lot of ups and downs. Some of the companies are doing very well, some are, you know, whatever, moderate, you know, up, down, up, down. And then, you know, cannabis sales— I mean, here we're talking about like over here we're talking about the CBD industries, $4.6 billion. Okay, the cannabis industry is somewhere between $33 and $50 billion. I mean, that's in sales a year, and that's crazy because I think the CBD might be low at $4.6 million or billion. $4.6 billion. It might be $10 billion. I don't know, it's estimated. But you know, when you combine like those two industries together and you go, you know, here they're doing $40, $50 billion a year. Can't— I mean, on the CBD they're collecting, you know, people are paying taxes. But on all this cannabis, only the local, you know, the states and the cities are collecting taxes. There's no taxes collected on a federal level on most of these cannabis businesses. Some of them, some of them pay taxes, right? But the really, really big ones, some of them pay some taxes because there's income to the owners, you know, because of however it's set up, and then they're paying taxes, but the actual companies are not paying taxes. So that's kind of weird, you know. And then for, you know, for merchant accounts like CBD, kratom, you know, it's very difficult for new companies to to get merchant accounts for that. Like, very few banks are open to new, new companies, right? So they'll take existing companies. That's like what we were talking about. There was a whole bunch of payment processors at the show, and yeah, they're just swapping customers back and forth, and, you know, and then trying to get the price down. But the price is not going to get that— you know, the price they pay is not going to get that much lower unless you're doing a ton of volume. And your compliance is top-notch, you know, you have the better, you know, like the website is set up, the better, like all the tests look clean, you have all the labels on there, you know what I mean, you're going to get a better deal from the bank because they see that that business is taking care of business versus somebody whose site is a complete mess.

So You need some help with your CBD merchant account, hit up Allen or myself. We can help you out. Well, you know, direction, we could consult. Getting you hooked up may be an issue.

Yeah, and we have— and for retail, we have a really good deal. We have this one company now that has, has a really great deal for the point-of-sale system in the CBD stores. If you do the cash discount, it's only $200 a month. No, one time to buy that, you get the point-of-sale system.

I know someone that's paying $500 a month for, for payment processing for point of sale for CBD. Yes.

No, we can get them— they buy it, they buy the system one time for $200, and then as long as they're, you know, doing the dual pricing where you charge the customer 4%, then they give you the system for $200, and then it's a flat fee. Then on the monthly fees, it's $19 up to $39 depending on what kind of reporting like employee time clock, loyalty programs, um, you know, you can do all—

all that. I'm definitely gonna— we're gonna have to get Mike and them set up, man.

So that— yeah, because it's a really good program. We just set up a couple of smoke shops and they're doing, you know, the smoke shops, they're like shocked when I tell them. They said, that's all, that's it for the whole point of—

like, GoDaddy's still a no-go on CBD.

Yeah, GoDaddy's not— a lot of companies are no-go. It's weird. We have a bunch of companies, they'll do CBD on the website but they won't do retail. And then place that does retail, guess what?

They won't do the website. That's just—

so it's funny, you know, but they won't do— but the funny thing is, is they'll do it but they don't want to do— they want it to— they don't— they'll do like the smoke shops that sell CBD as long as there's no CBD, you know, they don't want it in the name. So as long as the place is named like Smoke and Vape, okay, or, you know, something like that, right, that, you know, and they see the inventory and it's not just 100% CBD, they take, they take it all day long. Interesting. But it's, it's funny how they, you know, they have these banks kind of like this, you know, they look at, you know, I look at it that way too because, you know, look at somebody like Publix, Walgreens, CVS. They all sell some kind of CBD, right?

Right.

And then you go into, you know, convenience store and they sell CBD and who knows what else, bongs and everything else. And some of these places you go into, you know, the non, you know, the non-chain, right? You don't go to Wawa and they got a display of bongs.

7-Eleven was trying, they got knocked down. The Governor DeSantis said no way, Jose, to 7-Eleven. 7-Eleven had a, uh, I don't know, we talked about a couple months ago, there was like a deal that they had struck with some sort of CBD company, and the CBD company was going to put kiosks in all of the 7-Elevens in, right, the United States. And Governor DeSantis was like, yeah, no.

Well, kiosks is kind of, you know, unless you have some kind of way where you're doing facial recognition some kind of driver's license. How can you control what someone's getting out of a kiosk?

No, you're not.

So it's like a vending machine for cigarettes.

You—

Wendy's— the last time you saw a vending machine for cigarettes?

It's been a while. Yeah, I mean, they're still around. I went to a couple of bars, right?

You see it in a bar.

That's it.

Where— yeah, but it's— you won't see it like, like when I was a kid growing up. You'd go to the bowling alley, you would be in a You would be in a restaurant and they would be selling cigarettes everywhere, right? Cigarette machine. You would see a cigarette machine in the lobby of a hotel, right? Now they only allow cigarette machines in businesses where it's 21 and up, right?

Right.

So those kiosks don't belong because what, you know, what if a 12-year-old goes in there, he's got Apple Pay on his phone, and then he goes and buys a bunch of edibles? Not good. You know, that's not a good— that's why they don't want that. And yeah, no, I understand, you know.

So I mean, I got kids, I don't want them going in there and whatever, you know. But yeah, man, so CBD, yep, still stuck. Come and holla at us.

Yeah, figure it out. We can, we can help you out. We got several different banks. We even talked to a bank that wants to work with us. They say they want to They're taking the mushroom products, they're taking kratom. So that's pretty cool, you know, that they're open to those types of products. And like, if you have a cannabis shop and you need an ATM machine in there, we can put ATM in, dispenses cash, armored car comes, loads it up, safe for your business. Indeed, everything's safe. And, uh, you know, we're working— we're also talking to a couple of companies now about how to do a smart safe for different types of businesses with cash— cannabis businesses and other businesses.

Technology.

Yeah, it's really cool technology where money goes into a safe and it's counted, and then you can choose to either have it picked up and then deposited into your account or electronically deposited. But it's pretty cool. But I think the government, you know, listen, who are we? Me and Justin, we're just two— got two 2 guys, but I'm sure most people think that cannabis should be legal and everybody should be able to buy cannabis. Just go in with your driver's license, right? And I think they should, you know, whatever the, you know, the state should just put a limit on how many ounces you can buy a month.

I say let everybody grow plants themselves, whatever. But that's, uh, that's what we got.

That's what we got. It was enjoyable. Shout out to the people from Alternative Products. Fired up!

Pass the To the left-hand side.

Yeah, shout out to them. We enjoyed going to the show. Maybe you guys all reach out to us, you want to come on the podcast sometime.

Absolutely. Alternative Products Expo was another thumbs up, thumbs up, thumbs up.

Yeah, we've been going to, you know, the one thing we've been going to a few expos and most of them have been very well attended.

Yeah, much more than the past couple years for sure.

Yeah, definitely. Much well attended on the expo.

Check us out on YouTube. Don't forget to like and subscribe to the channel at B2B Vault. Check us out on all the social media platforms at B2B Vault. Catch us on every DSP digital streaming platform that you can possibly imagine. Even the ones that you just made yesterday or this morning, we're already on there because that's how powerful we are. So yeah, man, check out b2bvault.info. You can get all the information that we were just talking about. Click the book appointment button, get in touch with him or myself. There's a guest questionnaire if you wanted to be on the podcast. Um, and also if you're looking for a merchant account, hit the get a merchant account button that's up there on the top right corner. What more can I say?

Yeah, and you can see on that website the smoke shop page, read about what—

on nationwidepaymentsystems.com, right?

Read what we do for smoke shops. We can put it in the put it in the podcast link. Yes, the link to that specific page.

Absolutely.

We can send you the info out, the PDF that explains about the system. It's really, really slick and good for smoke shops because the important thing in business today, build loyalty with your customers so they come back to the shop.

I can dig it.

Peace out. Carpe diem. B2B Vault.

Peace.