It's no secret that people are drinking, smoking and eating more as a result of the pandemic, and the Ontario Cannabis Store's major surge in sales is there to prove it.

The provincial cannabis retailer is reporting a major increase in online sales since the outbreak began, with purchases increasing by a whopping 600 per cent since the beginning of March.

According to a report from the company, prior to the week of March 9, OCS.ca received on average of between 2,500 and 3,500 orders per day.

Then, as social distancing measures began to be adopted throughout the province, orders doubled to 5,000, then to 10,000 before reaching a peak of 13,000 orders. 

"At OCS’s third-party distribution centre, this has meant staffing up and at the same time introducing new work practices to protect workers in light of COVID-19," notes the report.

"Measures include reconfiguring e-commerce packing stations to maximize the distance between employees out of an abundance of caution. Nevertheless, the distribution centre has grown its throughput in line with the growth in sales."

We are working hard to continue operations and taking extra measures to keep our customers and colleagues safe. Thank you to the team at the Distribution Centre! pic.twitter.com/qkGrZNNpea

— Ontario Cannabis Store (@ONCannabisStore) April 10, 2020

The OCS says more than 30 per cent of customers who've visited and purchased from their online store during COVID-19 have been new customers, which they say would be considered a massive success for any e-commerce platform. 

The company also says they've lowered prices on more than 240 cannabis products in the last month and launched free shipping throughout the pandemic to become more accessible and to match similar offerings from the illegal market. 

"Capacity of this courier service has grown from 400 orders a day to almost 5,000, with efforts underway to expand further," the report states.

The OCS also says they're working with their third-party distribution centre to get supply to retail stores to help them conduct curbside pickup and deliveries  — services that many of the province's cannabis retailers have newly implemented in recent days.