Why deal scoring matters
Las Vegas dispensaries list hundreds of products each, and many items are technically "on sale" at any given time. But not every sale is a deal worth buying. A markdown on an overpriced product leaves it overpriced. A "daily special" at $30 when three competitors sell the same product at $25 every day is not actually special. Without a scoring system that accounts for market-wide pricing, you have no way to tell the difference between a genuine deal and a marketing gimmick.
CloudedDeals exists to solve this problem. We do not just list products that are on sale — we evaluate every sale against what the same type of product costs across the entire Las Vegas market. The result is a 0-100 score that reflects genuine value, not just the size of the percentage-off sticker.
Our scoring system processes over 1,000 products daily from 30+ dispensaries. Every product goes through the same evaluation pipeline — no manual overrides, no paid placements, no exceptions. If a deal scores well, it appears on the site. If it does not, it is filtered out. This approach ensures that the deals you see are genuinely worth your money.
The scoring factors
Every deal is evaluated on four primary factors, each contributing to the final 0-100 score. Understanding these factors helps you evaluate deals even beyond what CloudedDeals shows you.
Discount depth is the most intuitive factor: how far below the regular retail price is this product? A deeper markdown scores higher than a shallower one, all else being equal. However, discount depth alone can be misleading — a dispensary could inflate its "regular" price to make the discount look bigger. That is why discount depth is only one of four scoring factors, not the sole determinant.
Unit value measures price per gram (for flower and concentrates), price per milligram of THC (for edibles), or price per unit (for pre-rolls and vape cartridges). This factor compares the deal price against category-specific benchmarks derived from valley-wide pricing data. A $15 eighth that contains 3.5 grams of quality flower scores differently than a $15 "value" bag that weighs 2.5 grams — because the per-gram value is fundamentally different.
Brand tier recognizes that a discount on a premium brand carries more weight than the same percentage off a budget product. The same markdown on Cookies or Connected flower (premium tier) is more noteworthy than on a house brand that already prices below market. CloudedDeals maintains a brand database with tier classifications — premium, name-brand, mid-tier, and value — updated regularly as new brands enter the Nevada market.
Category benchmarks establish what a "good price" looks like for each product type and weight tier. These benchmarks are derived from real menu prices across the dispensaries we track, not from one store's pricing. A $22 eighth might be a good deal at a Strip dispensary but merely average at an off-strip local store. Category benchmarks provide the context that makes deal scores meaningful regardless of which dispensary you are evaluating.
How the score is used
The score decides two things: whether a deal appears at all, and where it sits in the feed. The highest-scoring deals in each category come first, so the top of any list is the strongest value available that day.
We deliberately do not print the score, a badge or a percentage-off figure on the deal card. Several of the menu platforms we read never publish an original price, and where one exists it is often inferred rather than stated, so a discount badge would reward the store's software vendor rather than the deal. The sale price is the one number every store publishes the same way, and it is the one we show.
Scores of 85 and above are exceptional value. These deals are priced well below the market rate for their category and brand tier and tend to sell out first. If one matches a product you already buy, it is worth acting on. On a typical day they make up roughly 10-15% of the feed.
Scores from 70 to 84 are strong promotions: not the deepest price available, but meaningfully better than everyday pricing. They make up about 25-30% of the feed on a typical day. For most shoppers, one of these on a product you already want is a sound buy.
Scores from 50 to 69 beat everyday pricing without being extraordinary. Think of them as worth buying if you are already shopping at that dispensary: a modest reduction on a premium product, or a moderate one on a mid-tier brand.
Anything scoring below 50 does not appear on CloudedDeals at all. This is intentional — we would rather show you fewer deals that are all genuinely good than pad the feed with marginal discounts that do not meaningfully save you money. If a product does not pass our quality threshold, it is filtered out before you ever see it.
What the scoring system filters out
The scoring system includes hard filters that remove suspicious or low-quality deals before scoring even begins. Products priced below $3 or above $100 are excluded — extreme prices almost always indicate data errors rather than real deals. Discounts exceeding 85% are rejected for the same reason. Products with missing or implausible weight data are filtered out.
Category-specific price caps prevent obviously incorrect deals from surfacing. A flower eighth should not be priced above $22 on deal — if it is, it is not actually a strong enough deal to recommend, regardless of the stated discount percentage. Similar caps exist for every product category and weight tier, calibrated to Las Vegas market pricing.
Quality gate checks remove deals where the underlying product data is insufficient — missing brand names, implausible weight values, or pricing that does not match the stated product type. A "vape cartridge" priced at $3 is almost certainly a data parsing error, not a legitimate deal. These filters protect you from seeing deals that would be disappointing or incorrect in person.
After scoring, a dedup pass ensures brand and category diversity in the final deal feed. If one dispensary runs 15 deals on the same brand, the system selects the best 2-3 rather than showing all 15. This keeps the feed diverse and useful — you see the best deals across many brands and shops, not 50 variations of the same promotion.
| Filter | Threshold | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum sale price | $3.00 | Below this is almost always a parsing error, not a price |
| Maximum sale price | $100.00 | Above this it is not a deal worth driving for |
| Minimum discount | 15% | Default across categories |
| Minimum discount — edibles, prerolls | 8% | Thinner margins; a smaller cut is still a real cut |
| Minimum discount — concentrates | 10% | Between the default and the edible floor |
| Maximum discount | 85% | Above this the original price is almost certainly wrong |
Using scores to shop smarter
The most effective way to use CloudedDeals is to check the feed each morning and look at the top of the categories you buy regularly. Do not buy a product just because it is scored highly — a high score on a product you do not want is not a deal at all. Instead, use the scores to identify when the products you already buy are available at exceptional value.
Compare scores across dispensaries for the same product category. If you want a vape cartridge today, filter by the vape category and sort by score. The top results represent the best overall value in the valley for that product type on that specific day. This comparison would take hours to do manually by visiting multiple dispensary websites — CloudedDeals does it automatically every morning.
Track patterns over time. Some dispensaries consistently score well in certain categories — The Dispensary tends to have strong flower deals, Planet 13 runs competitive house brand specials, and Curaleaf rotates BOGO promotions across categories. Knowing these patterns helps you anticipate which store is most likely to have the deal you want on any given day.
Remember that deals refresh daily. A good deal today might be replaced by a better one on the same product tomorrow, or the promotion might end entirely. Cannabis pricing is dynamic, which is why daily checking is the single most effective strategy for saving money. CloudedDeals makes daily checking take 30 seconds instead of 30 minutes.