New Jersey’s legal cannabis market is bloated, messy, and on the verge of collapsing under its own weight. With over 250 licensed dispensaries across the state, competition is fierce, margins are thin, and many operators are struggling to survive — especially in oversaturated areas like Atlantic City, where at least one retail shop recently laid off most of its staff after losing ground to newer entrants.
Industry analysts have pointed to a perfect storm constraining New Jersey’s cannabis market: rising wholesale prices, a limited number of licensed cultivators, regulatory friction, and local opt-outs that have created uneven access across the state. Licensed retailers are grappling with high costs and tight margins — all while the illicit and hemp markets continue to draw away consumers.
And while much of the market spins its wheels, at least two operators are quietly thriving because instead of following the typical playbook, they wrote their own.
The Operators Doing the Opposite
Jeff Miller and Dave Valese, the team behind HoneyProjects, and Dmitri Costello, founder of Coastal Herb Company, couldn’t look more different on paper — but they share a common strategy of rejecting the hype while serving the culture and surrounding community.
Miller, a Peabody Award-winning documentarian, and Valese (known by many as “Big Dave”), a 29-year veteran of East Coast cultivation, built HoneyProjects around a single premise: integrity or nothing.
“We visit every grow before we bring anything onto our shelf,” Miller said. “We’ve decided we’re not going to compromise on quality or values. It’s not that complicated — that’s our strategy.”
Costello, meanwhile, has turned his background as a legacy grower and automotive salesman into a business model that’s flipping the script in New Jersey cannabis retail. In addition to operating dispensaries, he also acquires and repositions them, targeting distressed assets in oversaturated markets and turning them profitable through hyper-local focus and cultural credibility.
“We took over our Atlantic City shop and made it profitable in under 45 days,” Costello said.
That’s not magic but rather knowing your market better than your competitors do.
Why Most Stores Are Failing
Both operators agree that most of New Jersey’s cannabis retailers were never built to last.
Costello noted how many of New Jersey’s dispensary owners came into the industry treating it like a liquor store play and following the corporate MSO mold without understanding the culture. “They neglected the due diligence that was necessary to make sure they were going to be successful,” he said.
That lack of cultural fluency, paired with over-capitalization and poor community engagement, has led to a rash of underperforming stores and a growing secondary market for licenses — which is exactly where Costello sees opportunity. His team, now positioned as an asset management firm, targets dispensaries that are “over-capitalized and underperforming” and rebuilds them around neighborhood-based loyalty and authentic brand voice.
In essence, he’s not playing the game most people in New Jersey are playing — and that’s the point.
Culture Wins Where Capital Fails
For HoneyProjects, community, culture, and local events are a big part of the brand and also part of the business model for both of their dispensaries HoneyGrove and HoneyStash.
While this includes collabs with the likes of B-Real & Sen Dog, DJ Rich Medina, local bands, and car shows, it also means upholding their integrity behind the scenes as stewards of the cannabis plant.
“We’re probably the only dispensary in the state that outright rejects remediated products,” Valese said. “That goes against everything we stand for. If we don’t believe in the product, it doesn’t go on our shelf.”
That kind of curation has turned HoneyProjects into an engine for small-batch brands. “We bring a mom-and-pop brand onto our shelf, and by the next day, they’re getting calls from a hundred other stores,” Miller said. “We’ve seen it happen again and again.”
Costello takes a different but parallel approach via high-frequency deals, community events, and a relentless drive to meet his audience where they are. For instance, he runs a 20 percent local discount for Atlantic City residents and isn’t shy about being unorthodox: “We negotiate prices with customers — just like their plug used to.”
That neighborhood-first mentality shows up in his events too, which blend cannabis with streetwear, music, and vintage culture. Costello describes the dispensary as a cultural hub, something that feels like it belongs to the people who walk through the door.
The Shelf as Strategy
Both operators take buying seriously, not just as a function, but as a narrative.
Valese said they turn down more products than they accept, based on a value system that their whole team stands behind.
Costello, meanwhile, dissects local buying habits down to the micro level. In his store, flower makes up 64 percent of revenue, with pre-rolls, vapes, and edibles trailing behind. Concentrates? “They don’t move,” he said flatly. “We’re phasing them out.”
Instead, he focuses on product velocity and loyalty patterns — partnering with vendors to buy up excess inventory and drop prices to $13.99 eighths. On “blowout” days, it’s not uncommon for the shop to move $7,000 worth of product before dinner.
The Beverage Wars Are Just Beginning
If there’s one product category both operators are eyeing carefully, it’s beverages — and specifically, the competitive threat of hemp drinks.
Licensed retailers across the state are watching hundreds of thousands of units fly off shelves outside the dispensary channel, mostly through alcohol distributors. One popular cannabis beverage company revealed that they are moving nearly 200,000 units of their hemp THC drinks per month in New Jersey alone.
Miller and Costello both describe it as a missed opportunity — and a regulatory paradox.
“We can’t even sell CBD products,” Valese said. “Meanwhile, liquor stores are moving THC.”
Still, both have held off from diving into the beverage space until they find products that meet their standards. Although Valese recently picked up a rosin-based drink that aligned with his values.
Costello expressed interest in nano-formulated products when asked, calling them “cool” and noting he’d be open to testing them — even white labeling, if the quality and brand support are there.
Still, he cautioned that products like these come with a cost. “There’s a cost to educating customers,” he said. “If brands don’t do that work, it doesn’t matter how good the product is.”
The Blueprint Is Already Here
While most of the state’s retail operators are chasing trends, these two are setting them.
They’ve chosen loyalty over gimmicks, education over hype, and cultural alignment over convenience. In doing so, they’ve built something rare: dispensaries that actually work — financially, emotionally, and culturally.
New Jersey’s cannabis market might be crowded, but its future isn’t unclear. The blueprint is already here. You’ll find it on the shelves of stores like these.
All photos courtesy of Zoe Wilder and HoneyProjects.
This article is from an external, unpaid contributor. It does not represent High Times’ reporting and has not been edited for content or accuracy.
