Crain’s Headlines: Pot Sales Slow After New Law’s Debut


After selling like gangbusters on day one, legal marijuana transactions dropped off a bit, as expected, on day two.

New data from state regulators indicates that marijuana sales dropped about 30% on the second day of legal sales in Illinois. But people were still waiting in lines to buy it. Second-day sales totaled $2.3 million statewide.

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Sales for the first five-day period following Wednesday’s legalization totaled $10.8 million.

Marijuana companies expected opening day to be unusually busy and that crowds would be smaller as time wore on. Meanwhile, retailers are warning that supplies, particularly of smokable buds or “flower,” would be tight. Some shops ran out and are hurrying to restock their product.

In other Chicago-area business news:

Ford Motor Co.’s fourth-quarter U.S. sales fell more than expected. Bloomberg reports that the decline in deliveries of the automaker’s redesigned Explorer was a key reason for the decline.

Explorer sales plunged 15% in the fourth quarter, a disappointing result in what is otherwise the hottest segment of the U.S. market. The Explorer’s poor fourth-quarter showing follows an even steeper decline in the third quarter, when sales dropped 48%.

Bloomberg analysts say Ford has struggled to launch the redesigned Explorer at its Chicago factory, resulting in costly production delays. But the pace picked up in December, which analysts hope means sales will improve in the first quarter of 2020.

And finally, the owners of a 19th-century mansion in Hyde Park are seeking a record price for the neighborhood.

Originally built in 1899 and now an 8,000-square-foot, six-bedroom mansion, the house in the 5500 block of South Woodlawn Avenue is priced at $4.2 million. The highest anyone has paid for a home in Hyde Park – and in fact, for a home anywhere in the city south of Roosevelt Road – is $3.75 million.  

We’ll be watching to see what the property ultimately fetches.


Crain’s Headlines is a joint production between WTTW and Crain’s Chicago Business. It airs every Monday through Thursday on the WTTW News program “Chicago Tonight.” 


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