Over 50 SQDC stores to stay open longer weekends from February
Posted December 16, 2025 6:47 am.
Last Updated December 16, 2025 12:10 pm.
About half of the Société québécoise du cannabis (SQDC) stores will have extended opening hours in the early evening on weekends starting Feb. 1, 2026.
Fifty-three stores will close at 7 p.m. on Saturdays and 6 p.m. on Sundays. The weekday schedule remains unchanged, with stores closing at 9 p.m.
This decision, announced Monday, is the result of a pilot project conducted by the SQDC in recent months. In July, the company began exploring the possibility of extending the opening hours of about 20 of its stores.
When launching the initiative, Jean-François Dulac-Lemelin, SQDC senior vice president of customer experience, explained that “the goal of this approach is to further counter the illegal market at a time of day when demand is high and illegal sellers are active.”
The pilot project also followed the adoption of Bill 85, which amends the regulation respecting admission periods in commercial establishments.
The experiment allowed the SQDC to observe “an increase in traffic during the last hours of operation, confirming the relevance of changing the hours.”
“Based on this experience, the organization has therefore extended the opening hours of about half of its branches, based on market analysis data,” the company said in a statement on Monday.
The SQDC also specified that, starting in February, “the hours of operation for a few stores with above-average traffic will also be revised to be similar to those of several neighbouring businesses.”
With 108 branches currently in operation, the SQDC plans to open two more stores by the end of March, including one in Amos, which is scheduled to open on Tuesday.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
