A cannabis company is ending operations in Michigan, sparking concerns of an oversaturated market.

In June, TerrAscend announced that it plans to exit the Michigan market later this year, impacting 236 jobs. The company operates Gage Cannabis, Cookies, Lemonnade and Pinnacle Emporium stores, along with cultivation and production facilities.

It’s part of a larger trend of consolidation in the cannabis industry, says John Cakmakci, president of United Food & Commercial Workers Local 951, which represents 10 employees at Pinnacle Emporium’s Buchanan location. “When it was approved to be sold recreationally, I think a lot of people got involved in the business, and I think what you’re seeing now is a reorganization of the players in that business,” Cakmakci said. “You know, kind of the strongest survive, so to speak.”

That means smaller “mom and pop” shops either sell out to larger companies or go out of business.

Cakmakci said Buchanan alone used to have five or six dispensaries. “I know they were picking up some business from Indiana, et cetera, and from Illinois across the state line, but still, that’s a lot,” Cakmakci added.

So, he said, it wasn’t a surprise to see those numbers start to shrink. “There’s fewer and fewer of them,” Cakmakci noted. “We’ve noticed this over the last three to four years. You know, we’ll no sooner organize them and get a contract, and the employer will call us, sometimes in as little as less than a year and say, ‘Hey, I’m unfortunately going to have to close my shop. I can’t compete.’”

In a June press release, TerrAscend Executive Chairman Jason Wild called Michigan an “extremely difficult market” and said the exit would let the company concentrate its resources in New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Ohio. TerrAscend said it plans to sell or divest all of its Michigan facilities.

Cakmakci said the union would help its members who are searching for new jobs.