Ever since the 2018 Farm Bill opened the door for hemp products to be sold at brick-and-mortar retail—as long as the plant contained less than 0.3% THC by weight—convenience retailers have considered the option to have cannabis products on their shelves. 

First came CBD. But most shoppers were confused by the lack of an intoxicating effect from these cannabis offerings. 

Then came Delta-8. Intoxicating, yes. But to date, 17 states have banned Delta-8 and seven others have severely restricted sales because Delta-8 is synthetically derived and is not naturally occurring in the hemp plant.

With every state that has passed adult-use marijuana laws, often opting for a dispensary-only sales model, it seemed as though convenience retailers would not have a true opportunity to sell legal, intoxicating cannabis options any time soon.

Enter Minnesota. In 2022, Minnesota passed a law legalizing the sale of low-dose edible hemp-derived THC products at mainstream retail, including convenience stores. Last year, Georgia passed a similar law around low-dose hemp products.  

Since then, there has been an explosion of growth in intoxicating hemp beverages specifically. Beer and wine distributors have started embracing the category as an opportunity for growth. National retailers—including Total Wine and ABC Liquor—and delivery platforms like Door Dash have started selling THC beverages in states where it is allowed. 

This growth has occurred despite the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reiterating that under its current guidelines, hemp-derived cannabinoids like CBD and THC “cannot be marketed as a dietary supplement or added to food products without the agency’s approval,” but the agency has taken little action on enforcement. 

“The hemp beverage category is one that needs regulatory certainty. There should be clear rules on age verification, disclosure and labeling of potency and product safety,” said Jon Taets, NACS director of government relations. “Convenience retailers need to be allowed to sell these products. The convenience industry is far, far better than adult-only stores at verifying age. The state restrictions on who can sell these products are moving in exactly the wrong direction and will lead to more sales to minors, not less. That trend needs to be reversed.”

In the meantime, organizations like the Coalition for Adult Beverage Alternatives (CABA) have emerged to try to create a responsible and safe regulatory pathway for low-dose hemp beverages. 

“Our focus has always been to have these products sold where other adult age-gated beverages are sold,” said CABA chair Diana Eberlein, noting that CABA advocates for low-dose products (defined as 10mg or less per serving/100mg per package) to be allowed at traditional brick-and-mortar retail, reserving high-dose products for dispensaries. 

It’s a strategy that has benefited those in the alcohol space, like Jon Halper, owner and CEO of Top Ten Liquors out of Minnesota. 

“Alcohol is in a modest decline,” Halper said. “THC is a new growth opportunity.”

The question is, where does convenience fit? 

“For the retailers that do have it, it’s a game-changer for their cold beverage business,” said Tony Battaglia, who has worked with brands like Tropicana, JUUL and Pepsi and currently sits on the NACS Supplier Board. “The ones that don’t distribute it or are not taking it seriously may not know what they are missing.”

The Opportunity

Like many new categories, intoxicating hemp beverages have seen impressive growth. According to the Brightfield Group, a cannabis-focused market research firm, the total hemp beverage market (including direct to consumer and alternative channel sales) grew from $400,000 in 2020 to $382 million in 2024. Fortune Business projects total THC beverage sales will hit $81.44 billion by 2032. 

NIQ tracks traditional brick-and-mortar outlet sales (not direct to consumer or dispensary). Its growing data set shows triple digit growth year-over-year across all channels—including c-stores.

“For the latest 52 weeks, we have been tracking over 400% growth in c-store as the product is finding its way onto more shelves and into more chains,” said NIQ’s Vice President of North American Retail Jason Zelinski. 

Though promising, growth is to be expected in a category that had negligible sales five years ago. The true promise comes from the experiences of retailers who have brought in the products.

Halper added THC beverages to his Top Ten stores as soon as Minnesota allowed it in 2023. 

“We put an assortment in our stores and it immediately took off,” he said. “It’s now approaching 15% of our overall sales.” Halper added that there’s plenty of room for more growth as only 20% of his shoppers are currently purchasing THC products. 

Convenience retailers like Jigar Patel, CEO of Alabama-based Fastime and vice president of the Strategic Alliance of Affiliated Store Owners of America (SAASOA), have also been impressed by the category. Patel said he initially launched intoxicating hemp beverages in small countertop coolers near the checkout several years ago.

“We saw pretty good volume out of that small footprint,” he said, explaining that within a year, he upgraded to a larger cooler and started putting THC beverages in the cold vault and in beer caves where he had them. “This was a pretty good category and a very nice gross profit dollar contributor.”

The growth of hemp beverages reminds Battaglia a lot of the birth of the vapor category.

“The tobacco category was declining and the margins were shrinking, and here comes a new innovation, an alternative that consumers were looking for,” he said. “This category, I feel, is the same thing for the alcohol space.”

Except THC beverages don’t just represent an alternative for alcohol—Total Wine CEO Troy Rice recently revealed that approximately one third of THC drink buyers are new shoppers to Total Wine. 

“While there is an overlap with other BevAlc categories, THC represents a new, younger shopper with good repeat trip habits,” agreed Zelinski. 

In Halper’s experience, it’s not just young shoppers—in fact, he finds 35- to 65-year-olds are driving traditional THC beverage sales in his stores, while younger shoppers are going for newer formats like THC shots or other small single-serving options. 

Jack Sherrie, founder of Delta, a THC beverage company that has sold THC beverages since 2020, agreed with Halper. “Our core consumer base is adults 45 to 65 who are seeking healthier alternatives to smoking or vaping,” he said. “At the same time, we’re seeing momentum across a broad range of 21+ consumers who are turning to THC beverages to be present and tap into the moment—not to escape it.” 

“It’s men, women, older people … it’s some of everybody,” Halper said. “The reality that a lot of us are discovering is why this is such a good, important category.”

The Case for Convenience

Most of the $382 million hemp beverage sales Brightfield tracked did not come from convenience stores: liquor stores and direct-to-consumer channels have dominated sales thus far. 

Begging the question: does convenience have a place in this new market? 

Bump Williams, a beverage alcohol industry consultant with over 45 years of experience, believes convenience represents the best opportunity to bring any new beverage—including THC—to the masses thanks to the sheer volume of stores and the number of customers served daily. 

“If you want to generate trial, drive brand awareness and get your product into the hands of tens of millions of potential customers, my advice has always been to launch in convenience first,” Williams said. “There are thousands of daily transactions of single-serve beverages in convenience stores across America every single minute of every single day.”

The THC beverage companies CABA’s Eberlein works with recognize this kind of access to consumers with trial-friendly sizes (i.e. singles) is key to launching a new category.

“There’s the opportunity to have a lot of access to consumers very quickly,” she said. 

Convenience also offers access to a consumer base needed to truly grow the intoxicating hemp space: consumers who do not currently or have not ever used THC.

“Convenience brings additional exposure and normalization,” said Eberlein. “It’s an opportunity to win over consumers very quickly through a channel where inherent trust exists.”

Halper said 98% of his THC bev- erage four-pack sales are at the 10mg dosage—new consumers, theoretically, would seek out lower dose options in the 5mg or even 2-3mg range. The prevalence of 10mg sales, Halper believes, “means we haven’t expanded the audience to the masses.”

By comparison, the NIQ data—which is admittedly still early—shows that the majority of convenience hemp beverage sales (35%) are in the 5mg dosage. Bev–erages with 10mg represent just 9% of convenience sales tracked by NIQ. 

Delta sales tell a different story: its top-selling products in convenience are 10mg and 20mg cans, with the 10mg format launching in a major convenience retail chain at the end of summer. “Realistically, I think people are a little bit more educated about THC than we realize, and when they read the directions on the back of the can, it makes it easy for them to know their own tolerance,” Sherrie said. 

The hemp beverage category also represents a new opportunity for retailers as the historically core categories of the industry shift.

“Let’s roll back a few years to when we were basically the gas, cokes and smokes model: times have changed a lot,” said Patel, noting the need for new profit-drivers. “Hemp could be one of those categories.”

Patel saw firsthand how THC beverages could drive profits not just with his existing customers, but with entirely new customers coming in to buy hemp products. 

“That was the best thing about the category,” Patel said. “This was a customer that shopped somewhere else, who was now coming into our stores.”

Not So Fast…

Readers may have picked up on the fact that Patel speaks about the hemp beverage category in the past tense. That’s because in May, Alabama passed a law that limits THC sales to over 21 locations … except for large grocery and pharmacy. Meaning convenience was the sole off-premise channel locked out.

“I think this was one of the worst sessions we’ve had, because they singled out the convenience store industry on this legislation,” Patel said. “We showed the data. We do tobacco, we do beer, we do wine, we card more IDs than TSA does. We are very responsible as an industry.”

Unfortunately, Alabama was not the only state to block THC beverage sales at convenience: Tennessee and Kentucky passed similar 21+ laws (which, somewhat ironically, include vape shops). 

Eberlein believes the adult-only channel laws being passed have more to do with a lack of education and understanding about THC from regulators, who view 21+ only channels as a solution to their concerns about access to minors, than with the industry’s ability to sell age-restricted products. 

“I would take any regulation for 21+ stores only as a stepping stone to getting wider, improved upon regulations,” she said, explaining that the top concern she hears from regulators is keeping products out of the hands of kids. “We know that convenience stores are great at age-gating products, but there’s a fear factor for people who don’t necessarily know these products.”

The hope is that as consumers and regulators alike become more educated and comfortable with THC beverage sales at liquor stores, it will become easier for convenience stores and other channels to lobby for the right to sell.

But the industry does have to take a unified stance. 

“I would recommend retailers in other states that are looking at this on the horizon band together so that they’re not caught off guard like we were,” Patel said.

It’s an important message for retailers in hemp beverage now, but equally important for those who might like to be in it one day.

“Some folks are jumping in, but others are waiting,” Battaglia added. “But by the time they make that decision, it could be too late and they could miss thousands if not millions of dollars in sales.” 

What’s Next?

Though the 2025 session has come to a close, make no mistake: intoxicating hemp beverages will be on many state agendas in 2026. Eberlein noted that the liquor channel is already lobbying—if convenience wants to have a more active voice in those potential regulations, the state industry associations need to get involved. 

“It’s very difficult to advocate for multiple retail channels when you have a very active liquor lobby saying, ‘we will take it’…and no one fighting it,” she said. 

“The industry needs to put this on the agenda as one of the things that they are lobbying for  before they lose it to specialty stores, liquor stores and cannabis shops,” agreed Battaglia. 

Eberlein hopes that states like Minnesota and Georgia—as well as more restrictive but still regulated states like Alabama—will serve as case studies as more states seek to regulate the category. “Hopefully we can look at those states, cherry-pick what’s working, and really put that to use next session.”

As for what’s next in a regulated market that allows multiple channels to sell? The sky could be the limit.

“If we do the right things, it’ll probably be 35%-40% of my sales,” Halper estimated. 

No one category is ever likely to get to that dominance, but Battaglia believes hemp beverages could become a star of the cold vault based on what he is hearing from retailers that sell it.

“This could be the top-selling item in their entire cold vault,” he said. “It’s here—it’s an ambiguous space but we should embrace it the best we can.”