At the provincial level, retail licensing guidelines caused a massive "land grab" as competitors realized they needed to secure locations to meet licensing application requirements. During location scouting, Dyck observed that commercial landlords were receiving multiple bids for the same retail locations and so quickly increased their lease rates by three to five times the normal price per square foot, significantly affecting industry business models." In addition, landlords revealed that they would not permit firms to break their lease despite the uncertain regulatory environment. This meant that each cannabis retailer had to decide how much risk they were willing to accept, based on the number of leases they were prepared to sign before knowing whether their retail licence would ultimately be approved