Hey crew,

Sorry I missed you last week. We’re so freaking close to finishing a full refresh of the Halara brand and packaging, and I’ve been absolutely buried in it. It’s been a sprint the last 60 days—6 a.m. mornings and weekend hours to get this finished. We almost spent $100k on a design agency, but ended up pulling it off ourselves with a lot of elbow grease (and a little Canva magic and lot of friends weighing in). Next time I’ll give you a sneak peek of the new look, but the good news is I’m about to have a bit more free time again.

Anyway, I just realized last time I wrote was that rough week in end of October. Well, quick update: we ended October with the biggest sales week on record for Halara, despite that rough start where METRC decided to randomly quarantine us and half the state for a morning. METRC can’t hold us!

Fast forward to this week. Remember how I said I’d tell you the good and the bad? This week was another roller coaster but doesn’t look like it’s goign to end as well. Fresh off wrapping the packaging project, we planned to launch in New York this week.

Over the last few days, we’ve brought on a sales team in New York, signed a distribution company agreement, and dialed in market pricing. Then yesterday…we hit a snag.

We had just set up our distributor portal and were loading in the products we’re launching with when we discovered our testing lab hadn’t unlocked the results yet. We spent two hours harassing them for those results. They were supposed to be ready Friday, but it turns out New York labs take way longer to turn things around than California labs.

We got so close, but at 2 p.m. yesterday we missed our pickup window with the distributor (a single tear rolls down my face). So our New York launch is delayed from Friday morning to probably next week (yay, Thanksgiving!) or, if the holidays slow things down, the first week of December.

I’ll update y’all the moment we get the approval.

I’m sharing this because it’s not all sunshine and rainbows growing Halara. Delays like this happen all the time. Honestly, these are the ones that hurt the most—you just watch the time slipping by. I promised I’d share the ups and the downs. Here’s hoping next week is an “up” update.

Onwards and upwards,

-Malcolm

P.S. As promised, our winner from the Halloween costume submission was Alex, who made me laugh out loud. I present to you: TOWELIE!

Alex, I’ll be reaching out to get you some of the new merch that’s dropping.

For the rest of y’all—keep an eye out for future submissions to win Halara / Dealer’s Diary merch coming soon.

This one came in early November and it made Nick’s whole day. It also highlights one of our biggest issues: stores not restocking us once we sell out, which leads to some very disappointed customers.

Calling all shops from San Diego up the coast—I’ve got a wild idea for you….

Think you’ve got a better review? Reply with your submission on our Reddit feed! Nick will critique 😂

Wicked Apple. Get it before it’s gone!

It’s been our top seller the last month leading into the holidays. We just made the last batch this week. Think Apple Fritter.

This is a great one to maybe smoke at a certain the movie theatre…

(There may be a collectors card in there fyi)

Tune in and enjoy. Tracks I’ve been listening to this week. My girlfriend and I watched K Pop Demon Hunters last week. Cue a week of singing these songs under my breath. If you haven’t watched K Pop Demon Hunters yet… you should.

Some of my favorite things since the last newsletter (note: I don’t get paid to recommend anything here):

If you enjoyed it, share with a friend! I get a little spark of joy every time I see our crew grow. If you have other ideas for this newsletter lmk! Or check out our website for more info.

Halara · License No. CDPH-10004369

Santa Rosa, CA · USA