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It’s been a bumpy first few months for cannabis retailers in Canada, with product shortages and regulatory uncertainty dominating public discussion. As Ontario’s first wave of bricks-and-mortar stores get ready to open on April 1, the Financial Post’s Vanmala Subramaniam spoke to four people on the front lines about what’s working, what isn’t and the biggest lessons they’ve learned so far. The following interviews have been edited and condensed.

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Krystian Wetulani, a former grey market operator, is the owner of City Cannabis Co. and runs two licensed cannabis stores in Vancouver.

What’s been the biggest problem you’ve encountered so far?

We are kind of spoiled here in Vancouver because we have some of the best cannabis in the world. Bringing in new types of products that were grown in large facilities, they haven’t caught up yet. The quality of the product hasn’t been there. We know which LPs are providing quality stuff and which aren’t. So we’re going to throw it back onto the licensed producers soon and make sure they are stepping up their game and giving us quality product. We are actually creating our own kind of scoring sheet based on customer feedback — how it smells, how it burns, etc, so that when customers come in to the store we’ll show them our score.