Cannabis dispensary menus have a ghost problem. Almost one in four products listed on cannabis dispensary menus can't be bought. The longer the menu, the more of it is out of stock.
Key findings
- About 3.8 million of 16.3 million menu lines (23.1%) were out of stock on November 5. In the US the share was 24.1%.
- Flower goes dark most often (27.6% of lines) and edibles least (18.4%).
- Out-of-stock shares range from 7.0% in Texas to 44.9% in New Jersey.
- States with longer menus carry more ghosts: 16.1% out of stock under 700 lines per store, 24.6% above.
- Canadian menus flag products as low stock far more often and run out far less.
Open a dispensary menu in the United States and scroll. Roughly one listing in four is a product the store does not have. It shows a name, a price and a photo, and it can't go in the cart.
We counted. On November 5, Trees.Cloud read 16.3 million menu lines at 11,970 stores in the US and Canada. 23.1% of them were marked out of stock, which is about 3.8 million listings for products nobody could buy that day. Another 22.2% were marked low stock. In the US alone, the out-of-stock share was 24.1%.
We call these ghost listings. This issue looks at where they pile up, what kind of menu produces them, and what they tell retailers and brands.
Flower haunts the menu most
Every category carries ghosts, but not equally. 27.6% of flower lines were out of stock, against 18.4% of edibles. Pre-rolls, vapes and concentrates sit between 24% and 26%.
The split follows how each product is made. A flower listing is tied to one strain from one harvest, and when that batch sells through, the line goes dark until the next one. An edible is made to a recipe from shelf-stable inputs, so the same product comes back on a schedule. Edibles still run low often, 23.1% of lines, but they run out less.
Your state decides how honest the menu is
Across 31 US states and territories with at least 50 stores on the network, the out-of-stock share runs from 7.0% in Texas to 44.9% in New Jersey. Mississippi (33.9%), Vermont (29.7%) and Colorado (27.5%) follow New Jersey. Michigan and Oregon sit at 20.0%, and Florida at 18.9%.
New Jersey stands well apart. Close to half of its flower, pre-roll and concentrate lines were out of stock, and the state's figure was almost identical in our October 31 snapshot (44.7%), so it is not a one-day blip. We are checking whether the way some New Jersey menus report stock contributes to the number, and we will report back.
Long menus, more ghosts
The pattern that surprised us most was menu length. When we set each state's out-of-stock share against the average number of lines on a store's menu, the two moved together.
In the ten states where the average store lists fewer than 700 lines, an average of 16.1% of the menu was out of stock. In the 21 states with longer menus, the average was 24.6%. The correlation across all states is 0.44, and it barely moves (0.43) when New Jersey is left out.
That makes sense once you picture the back room. Every extra line is another strain, size or flavor that has to be reordered, received and counted. Stores with short menus can keep most of them stocked. Stores that list two or three thousand lines are advertising more variety than any buyer can keep on the shelf, and the menu keeps showing the product after the last unit is gone.
Exhibit 6: What a ghost listing looks like by state
- New Jersey: Menu lines per store: 1,843; Out of stock: 44.9%; Dead lines per store: about 830
- Washington: Menu lines per store: 3,111; Out of stock: 23.8%; Dead lines per store: about 740
- California: Menu lines per store: 2,011; Out of stock: 26.3%; Dead lines per store: about 530
- Michigan: Menu lines per store: 2,086; Out of stock: 20.0%; Dead lines per store: about 420
- Florida: Menu lines per store: 647; Out of stock: 18.9%; Dead lines per store: about 120
- North Carolina: Menu lines per store: 210; Out of stock: 8.4%; Dead lines per store: about 18
The per-store numbers make it concrete. The average Washington store lists about 3,100 lines, and about 740 of them are ghosts. In New Jersey it is about 830 of 1,800. A North Carolina store lists about 210 lines and is missing about 18.
Two menu cultures
Canada's menus behave differently. In Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta and Manitoba, only 12% to 14% of lines were out of stock, but 42% to 47% were marked low stock. American menus show the reverse: more dead lines and fewer warnings.
Part of that gap may come from how menu sources in each country report stock, so we would not read it as Canadian stores being better run. What it does show is that a menu can flag a product as running low before it runs out. A shopper who sees a low-stock flag can still buy the product. One who sees an out-of-stock listing has already lost it.
The cheapest flower disappears first
Among the ten largest subcategories, the two with the highest out-of-stock rates are both value flower: smalls (30.0%) and ground flower (29.1%). Both come from what is left over after the top buds are sold, so supply is limited by the main flower harvest, and price-sensitive shoppers buy them quickly. A store can't simply order more smalls the way it can reorder a cartridge.
What it means
For retailers. A ghost listing costs more than one missed sale. It wastes the shopper's search, it can send them to another store's menu, and it teaches them that the menu is not reliable. The stores with the longest menus have the most to gain from hiding or flagging out-of-stock lines, and from asking whether every line earns its place.
For brands. The 16% to 24% of lines marked low stock in every category is a live reorder list. A brand that watches its own low-stock and out-of-stock lines store by store knows where to send a sales rep this week.
Our view: a long menu looks like selection, but past about 700 lines it mostly adds listings the store can't fill. A shorter menu that stays accurate is worth more to shoppers than a long one that is a quarter fiction.
Coming up
- Ghost rates by brand. Which widely carried brands go dark most often, and in which states.
- How long listings stay dead. Average days a product stays out of stock before it returns or comes off the menu.
- Holiday stock-outs. Whether out-of-stock rates climb into Green Wednesday on November 25.
- New Jersey. The result of our check on how New Jersey menus report stock.
Data and methods
All figures come from Trees.Cloud menu data, snapshot November 5, 2026: 16,330,078 menu lines at 11,970 stores in the US and Canada, network-wide only. A menu line is one product listing at one store, so a product sold in several sizes counts several times. Out-of-stock and low-stock shares are the share of all menu lines carrying each flag. Not every line carries a stock flag (in the larger categories, 15% to 32% carry neither), so the share of lines with a known status that are out of stock is higher than shown. Some menu sources do not report low stock, so low-stock comparisons between states are weaker than out-of-stock comparisons. State figures cover the 31 US states and territories with 50 or more stores. Store counts per state are the largest count in any one category, a floor, so per-store figures may run high. Store coverage changed between the October 31 and November 5 snapshots, so we do not compare them as a trend. Correlations in this brief are not proof of cause.
About Trees.Cloud
Trees.Cloud reads dispensary menus across the US and Canada, more than 16 million menu lines at about 12,000 stores, and turns them into market data on prices, deals, brands and inventory. This research brief publishes weekly. Follow Trees.Cloud for next week's issue.