Green Thumb’s 100-Store Bet Landed in Minnesota

Green Thumb Industries opened its 100th and 101st RISE Dispensaries on November 23, 2024, in Carson City, Nevada, and Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. Founder, chairman and chief executive Ben Kovler called it a historic day for a chain that began in Mundelein, Illinois, and first used the RISE name in Carson City in 2016.

The 100th shop got the anniversary language. The 101st was a medical counter in a Minneapolis suburb, and that is the store the 2026 accounts now explain.

The 100th Shop and the Quiet 101st

Green Thumb’s November 22, 2024 release said the 100th and 101st RISE Dispensaries would open the next day. Carson City on US Highway 50 was the 11th Nevada shop. Brooklyn Park was the eighth in Minnesota.

The Nevada store sat at 3060 US-50 E and ran 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, with RYTHM flower and vapes, Dogwalkers pre-rolls, and incredibles gummies and chocolates on the shelves. It was the second RISE shop in the capital, and the company already had a production plant in Carson City plus two in Las Vegas.

Brooklyn Park opened at 8016 Brooklyn Blvd., about 20 minutes north of downtown Minneapolis, with roll-thru service and a medical-hours slate of 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Minnesota was still a medical market. The company had been in the state since 2021 and already ran a plant in Cottage Grove.

It is a historic day at Green Thumb as we open our 100th and 101st RISE Dispensaries, serving more patients and customers on their journey to well-being than ever before. The first RISE branded dispensary opened in Carson City in 2016, so being back here to open our 100th store is an extremely special moment.

Ben Kovler, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Green Thumb Industries, November 22, 2024 release

Grand-opening profits were pledged to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Western Nevada and to Metro Meals on Wheels in the Twin Cities. That was the ceremony. The wager sat in the Minnesota permit.

Brooklyn Park Waited for Minnesota Adult-Use

Green Thumb had spent three years on medical patients in Minnesota when Brooklyn Park opened. The eighth shop filled a metro gap around stores already running in Baxter, Eagan, Mankato, New Hope, St. Cloud, St. Paul and Willmar. Adult-use was coming; it was not open yet.

On September 15, 2025, the company said adult-use sales would start at 9 a.m. on September 17, 2025, after an 8 a.m. ribbon cutting. First-day profits were again directed to Metro Meals on Wheels, with Balanced Veterans Network added. President Anthony Georgiadis called it a historic day in Minnesota and said medical patients would keep curbside pickup and priority parking at select shops.

Five of the eight stores sold adult-use on the first morning. Brooklyn Park was on that list, 298 days after it had opened as a medical shop.

MINNESOTA ADULT-USE, DAY ONE

• Brooklyn Park: 8016 Brooklyn Blvd., the 101st national shop, medical from November 23, 2024, then rec on September 17, 2025.
• Eagan: 1340 Town Center Drive, already in the 2024 Minnesota set.
• Mankato: 201 Sioux Rd, Suite 100, south of the metro.
• New Hope: 7700 N, Suite A, 42nd Ave, another Twin Cities medical holdover.
• Willmar: 1413 1st St. S., the western shop on the first-day list.

Baxter and St. Paul were listed as launching soon, with dates still to be set. St. Cloud was slated for the week of October 6, 2025. The company still describes eight RISE Dispensaries across Minnesota plus the Cottage Grove plant. That medical map was the inventory Green Thumb carried into rec, not a chain it had to build after the law moved.

What the Rec Launch Did to Green Thumb’s Sales

The score arrived in the second quarter 2026 results for the period ended June 30. Revenue was $306.7 million, up 4.6% from the same quarter a year earlier. The release said that growth was driven primarily by retail sales in Minnesota after adult-use began on September 17, 2025, with more help from Connecticut, Florida and Ohio, and with price cuts and heavier competition pulling the other way.

Q2 2026 AGAINST Q2 2025

Retail revenue rose 3.6%. Consumer packaged goods gross revenue rose 3.7%, also tied in the release to the Minnesota launch plus New Jersey and Ohio, again offset by price compression. Cash at quarter end was $283.6 million. Operating cash flow was $29.0 million. Total debt was $283.0 million.

Georgiadis said the wholesale book helped, and he put Minnesota on a short list of states where Green Thumb brands held the number one share, alongside Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Maryland. Kovler, on the same call sheet, said the team was still growing the top line “despite persistent pricing pressure in many of our key markets,” and that consumers still choose cannabis.

Income tax expense fell to $12.5 million from $21.6 million. The company tied that drop to the Justice Department’s final order moving state-legal medical cannabis to Schedule III, which ended Internal Revenue Code Section 280E for portions of the business effective April 28, 2026. That is a medical-side tax change, not a Minnesota rec story, and it is one reason GAAP net income flipped from a $0.6 million loss to $4.9 million of profit while EBITDA declined.

Green Thumb Now Counts More Than 120 RISE Stores

The 100-store club did not freeze the map. Green Thumb said on March 3, 2025, that RISE Henderson on Boulder would open March 4 as the 12th Nevada shop and the 102nd nationwide. By the Minnesota adult-use notice on September 15, 2025, the company counted 108 retail stores, 20 manufacturing plants, 14 U.S. markets and about 4,800 people.

HOW THE FOOTPRINT MOVED

1. 2016: First RISE-branded dispensary opens in Carson City, Nevada.
2. November 23, 2024: Carson City on US Highway 50 opens as store 100; Brooklyn Park opens as store 101.
3. March 4, 2025: Henderson on Boulder opens as Nevada’s 12th shop and the 102nd nationwide.
4. September 17, 2025: Adult-use sales begin at five Minnesota RISE shops, including Brooklyn Park.
5. July 13, 2026: Adult-use sales begin at RISE Paramus in New Jersey.
6. July 31, 2026: RISE Hanover opens in Pennsylvania.
7. August 18, 2026: RISE Sparks opens as Nevada’s 13th shop.
8. August 22, 2026: RISE Port St. Lucie opens as Florida’s 24th shop; the company puts the national count at more than 120 owned and managed stores in 14 markets.

Port Charlotte had opened on August 10, 2026, as Florida’s 23rd shop. The Florida stores still serve medical patients. The company also launched adult-use at Paramus and kept opening in Pennsylvania after Hanover. People who watch the RISE directory have been logging extra Pennsylvania listings that never got the usual store-opening release, which fits a chain that is filling remaining permits in states it already knows rather than staging another 100th-store day.

On September 21, 2026, the board authorized another $50 million share repurchase, to run from September 23, 2026, through September 22, 2027. In the second quarter the company had already bought the equivalent of about 7.9 million subordinate voting shares for $48.3 million, at an average $6.11. Cumulative buybacks through that quarter were about 29.5 million shares for $203.4 million, at an average $6.90. The September 21 notice put headcount at about 5,000.

Carson City Now Anchors 13 Nevada Shops

The 100th store was a homecoming on purpose. Kovler’s 2024 line went back to 2016 in the same city. Georgiadis used the same memory on August 18, 2026, when Sparks opened as the 13th RISE location in Nevada.

We are proud to open our newest RISE Dispensary in Sparks, our 13th location in Nevada. It’s been nearly 10 years since we opened our first RISE Dispensary in Carson City, so this is a nostalgic moment for us.

Anthony Georgiadis, President, Green Thumb Industries, August 18, 2026 release

Sparks sits at 1530 S. Stanford Way, near I-80, with 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. hours and home delivery on orders of $50 or more. First-day profits were pledged to the Food Bank of Northern Nevada. The menu is the same family the 100th store carried: RYTHM, Dogwalkers, incredibles, Beboe and &Shine.

Nevada is the older half of the 2024 pair, and it is adult-use. Minnesota was the delayed half. Both were bets on staying put in states Green Thumb already manufactured in, then adding doors. From 11 Nevada shops in November 2024 to 13 in August 2026 is slow next to Florida’s run to 24 medical stores, but it is the original RISE market still getting new keys.

Comps Dropped While New Shops Carried Sales

Same-store sales are the part of the wager the 100-store speech did not mention. In the second quarter of 2026, comparable sales for stores open at least 12 months fell 1.1% on a base of 103 shops. Retail still rose 3.6% because new doors, and Minnesota’s rec conversion, more than filled the gap.

WHERE THE 100-STORE BET LEAKS

• Comparable sales: Down 1.1% on 103 stores open a year or more.
• Gross margin: 45.0%, down from 49.9%, with RYTHM licensing fees of $15.8 million in the current period and price cuts cited beside that drop.
• Reported EBITDA: $53.1 million, down from $69.1 million, even as Normalized EBITDA, which adds those license fees back, rose to $84.3 million from $82.7 million.
• SG&A: $117.9 million, or 38.4% of revenue, after a planned pay change Georgiadis said was meant to keep people.

A 103-store comp base against more than 120 shops means a large group of doors is still too new, or too newly rec, to sit in that same-store number. Minnesota’s lift can show up in total retail while the mature stores still take lower prices. That is the shape of a chain that won the right to open shop 100 and then had to sell flower in markets that are no longer scarce.

Investors who follow the stock have been treating the cash pile and the buybacks as the adult argument, and the negative comps as the live objection. The company is still adding stores in Florida, Nevada and Pennsylvania, and it is still buying its own shares. It is not getting a free ride from the stores it already had.

Virginia Adult-Use Opens July 1, 2027

Kovler’s second-quarter letter pointed at the next version of the Minnesota trade. Virginia authorized adult-use sales beginning July 1, 2027. Green Thumb has been in the state since 2021, holds one of five vertically integrated medical licenses, runs six RISE dispensaries and a grower-processor, and sits in a state he described, with Texas, as about 12% of the U.S. population. He also cited a conditional license under Texas’s Compassionate Use Program.

He argued that hemp policy is turning toward the licensed channel, with Ohio pulling most intoxicating hemp products off general retail. In his telling, that shift favors operators that already have scale, brands and shelf space. Green Thumb is making that case with more than 120 stores, number one branded share in five states, and a Minnesota rec book that showed up in the 4.6% revenue gain.

The 100th store in Carson City was the anniversary. The 101st in Brooklyn Park was the inventory. Adult-use sales in that suburb, and in the four other Minnesota shops that opened rec on the same morning, are what the company now cites when it has to explain why the top line still rose while comps did not.

Green Thumb will release third quarter 2026 financial results on November 4, 2026. That print will show whether Minnesota is still carrying the math, or whether the newer Florida and Pennsylvania doors have to.

Frequently Asked Questions

When did Green Thumb open its 100th RISE dispensary?

The 100th shop, RISE Carson City on US Highway 50 at 3060 US-50 E, opened on November 23, 2024, the same day as the 101st shop in Brooklyn Park. The first RISE-branded store had opened in Carson City in 2016, and the company’s first shop was in Mundelein, Illinois. The Carson City grand opening included giveaways for the first 100 guests, a ribbon cutting, and food from Bus Boy Mobile.

When did RISE start adult-use sales in Minnesota?

Adult-use sales began at 9:00 a.m. on September 17, 2025, after an 8:00 a.m. ribbon cutting, at Brooklyn Park, Eagan, Mankato, New Hope and Willmar. Baxter and St. Paul were listed as coming soon with dates still unconfirmed in that September 15, 2025 notice, and St. Cloud was expected the week of October 6, 2025. Green Thumb entered Minnesota in 2021 and still names Cottage Grove as its in-state plant.

What hours did RISE Brooklyn Park keep when it opened?

At the November 23, 2024 medical opening, Brooklyn Park was listed as 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, with roll-thru service. The menu named RYTHM, Dogwalkers, incredibles and Beboe. Those hours were the medical-era schedule in the 2024 release and may differ now that the shop sells adult-use.

Which nonprofits received RISE grand-opening profits from the 100th and 101st stores?

Carson City’s first-day profits were pledged to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Western Nevada. Brooklyn Park’s were pledged to Metro Meals on Wheels, which later also shared first-day adult-use proceeds with Balanced Veterans Network. Sparks, the 13th Nevada shop in 2026, named the Food Bank of Northern Nevada for its own first-day profits.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting and analysis of Green Thumb Industries and its RISE dispensaries, and it is for information only. It is not investment advice, a recommendation to buy or sell GTBIF or GTII shares, or medical advice about cannabis, CBD or any product sold in a dispensary. Readers who are considering an investment should consult a licensed financial adviser, and readers who are considering cannabis for a health condition should consult a qualified clinician, before acting on anything described here. Store counts, hours, financial figures and legal status are taken from company releases and filings as dated in the piece and can change with later openings, earnings and regulation.