This Autumn has been fantastic and has, in some ways, helped to improve the plant sales for the year. Certainly it’s been a cracking August, September and October (so far!).
Now more than ever it’s important to have your customer flow, merchandising and POS looking sharp. Although a good October will never make up for a good May it can still be a very lucrative time of year with customers looking for bigger specimens and nice topiary perhaps.
So keep it sharp and tidy.
Don’t forget to contact me if you need a hand or advice!

Shop Around

In horticultural retailing the norm seems to be to visit other garden centres to try to learn from, or improve on, what they are doing. Although we all know that this is certainly a helpful exercise it does tend to limit your ideas from a general retailing point of view. Most good ideas don’t come from garden centres but from high street (or these days retail park) shops. Yet when have you ever heard of a group of garden centres descending on a group of non-gardening retailers en masse to try to learn from, discuss and apply what they are doing? I think it’s the exception rather the norm.
I this day and age it is no longer good enough to just look at the best retailers in gardening, we also need to look into the best retailers in general. For example when did you ever visit an Aldi or Lidl? Too proud to walk through their doors? I bet your bank manager and his missus aren’t!
Open your eyes to more retailers. Check out the most profitable and pay them a visit. I guarantee you will learn at least one important thing from them.

Quote

Came across this quote recently and thought you might like to read it.

“It’s not the critic who counts, not the one who points out how the strong man stumbled or how the doer of deeds might have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred with the sweat and dust and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes up short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause and who, at best knows the triumph of high achievement and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

(Theodore Roosevelt, 1858-1919, 26th US
President and 1906 Nobel Peace Prizewinner.)

A Rabbit Story with a Moral!

A while ago, when working with a garden centre with a pet shop I was dismayed to discover that for Easter, one of the busiest bunny selling periods, all they had for sale were a couple of large, plain, boring rabbits. I questioned the girl that was running the pet shop at the time and she informed me of the problem.
The policy at the time was to give suppliers as little as possible for their livestock so that the pet shop could remain as competitive as possible with a nice healthy margin.
Of course what this meant was that the suppliers would sell all their good stock to other pet shops who gave them more for their rabbits and left this place with whatever was left over.
We changed this around and gave the suppliers a fair price, and maybe a bit more, in return for the best they had and a guaranteed purchase of x amount of rabbits over the season.
Sales went up because we had beautiful bunnies (like the one in the picture here) and we sold tons of accessories.
I don’t think I need to point out the moral of the story. Do I? Nor does this only apply to bunnies!

Sorry I haven’t posted anything for a while. I’ve been a bit busy. Ye, I know it’s no excuse.

I was in Sofia in Bulgaria a week or so ago and I was struck by the contrast from shop to shop and person to person
There are high end shops selling the same items that available here and at much the same prices but also many shops selling basic stock at a fraction of the price for similar items here. It got me thinking about the contrast in some ex communist countries between the well of and the poor. Sure it’s in every country in the world but it’s incredible to see the disparity between rich and poor. In the Mall of Sofia you can buy a pair of sunglasses that are the equivalent of a months wages to some but only pocket money to others. Even inn the supermarkets there are big differences. I know that some of these places are catering for the tourists that are starting to roll in but it still seems strange to me. Any Bulgarians out there who would like to comment?

Last Hisory Lesson (for now)

The DIY stores or Sheds as they are called in the business (some what ironically seeing that most early garden centre shops started out as exactly that!) had one great pull for the customer. You could buy everything you needed for both inside the house and out in one location. With more people in a hurry and rushing from home to crèche then work and back it meant a saving of that most precious commodity of all. Time. The sheds were not in general any cheaper than garden centres, they carried less of a range and generally less full time horticulturists but that was not what the garden centres were competing against. Garden centres need another angle.
At this time, the early to mid nineties, garden centre operators in Ireland were travelling abroad more, especially to trade shows in the UK. On these trips owners and managers would often call into garden centres near the trade shows and by doing so they could see how the centres there had evolved into more than just a plant centre. They were full blown department stores selling everything from pets to gifts to clothing to hot tubs. We were all about to learn a new meaning for the word ‘destination’.
Destination centres have been around for a while, to put it simply, they are a places that when you get up on a Sunday morning and you need some retail therapy (as we all do from time to time, even us men!) you decide to go. Think of the in town shopping centres, out of town shopping centres and now of course, garden centres.
Suddenly garden centres realised that in order to survive, grow and differentiate themselves from the sheds they would need to expand into giftware, furniture, a restaurant, pet shop, christmas shop and many more departments and attractions. They also had to provide a better service and range than other retailers. Some of the best christmas shops and pet shops are now to be found in garden centres. The larger and more progressive centres are now competing not with the sheds but with, Liffey Valley, Blanchardstown Centre, White Water, etc.
It is fair to say that most of the bigger garden centres are the size and shape they are today not just because of the factors I have mentioned above but because of the wants and needs the customer. After all if they were not satisfying 95% of your needs they would not be in business.
However, one of the most important ingredients in any successful garden centre is a passionate, focused and driven group of people all working towards a common goal. The staff.
So next time you’re in your local garden centre, give one of the staff a squeeze.
Go on, feel the passion!

More History

It is also worth remembering that the late eighties was probably the best time for the availability of some of the more unusual garden plants. I guess for the garden centres the issue with these plants was that they sat in the garden centre for up to, and beyond, a year and required constant care and attention so that eventually they were not making you much, or any, money. Compare that with a quick selling line like Leylandii and you can see from a business point of view which item made the more sense to stock. The arrival and preaching of retail consultants in the nineties would hammer that home much to the disappointment of plants people, both in the garden centre and their customers
The nineties also brought about a great change in garden centres and the industry as a whole. From the very early nineties onward, the DIY stores and independent hardware stores could see the potential of gardening and started to include a garden section in some shape or form in their stores. When these businesses started selling plants as well as garden accessories it meant that garden centres were no longer competing with each other but also with a new breed of retailer. The key to their success was not necessarily price but another big factor. Convenience.

Bless us father for we have sinned!

During the eighties and early nineties period, the plants of choice in most garden centres were to become some of the most reviled vegetation ever to enter the average garden. This was the time of the Variegated Poplar, The Rose of Sharon and of course the dreaded Leylandii. Hundreds of garden centre owners must hang their heads in shame at the thoughts of what they built their businesses on. It’s a strange thing because if it weren’t for the Leylandii then we probably would not have the number of garden centres and nurseries we have today. For a lot of garden centres this plant was their bread and butter (Literally in many cases, it put the food on the table!). I won’t go into the gory detail of it’s march through suburbia, suffice it to say that Napoleon didn’t cause the same anguish, heart ache and gnashing of teeth in his trips to the corners of Europe that the Leylandii caused in it’s assault on Ireland and the UK.
Then came the Variegated Poplar. I would swear that at one time in Ireland in the late eighties every house had at least one and many had more. People could not get enough of them and the sight of those wonderful cream, green and pinkish-orange leaves fluttering in the wind on a June day still makes me cringe. My mum still has one in her garden which has survived many threats and curses (by me) but she loves it!
The British visitors to Ireland also loved it and we sold them to tourists with glee. As if the planting a few VPs in every garden in the UK would make up for a different sort of planting that happened here centuries ago! A reverse plantation that in the right light would look like Tricolour trees flying all over the “Auld Enemy”!
The Rose of Sharon was the last of the great plagues. This small innocuous looking plant with its pretty yellow flowers was soon swallowing up rockeries and borders with tough roots and rust prone leaves. Up to last year it was still being requested in garden centres but luckily in the nineties garden centres developed a conscience and were better educated about how rampant the plants were. Most stopped selling them or at least advised customers on the problem they could become.
The assault was over.

Garden centres in the Eighties

The garden centre of the 80’s varied greatly from town to town but they all had one obvious key obvious element; they all stocked plants. Everything else tended to vary from garden centre to garden centre. Some had small sheds that housed a collection of chemical and the odd tool, some stocked a little paving, others some pond products. Very few had a coffee shop or restaurant. Apart from one or two large garden centres this meant that each garden centre tended to specialise is something. One might be famous for its pond section another for its tree collection and so on.
Far from being the almost social gathering place that many garden centres now are, most garden centres were places that you visited when you needed something. You went there to buy your hedging or fruit trees. You called to get the chemicals you needed to spray your roses or the hose to water your plant. Gardens meant work.
Gardening wasn’t sexy, like it was to become in the late nineties and noughties, which meant that garden centres were far from the in places to visit or be seen in. Younger people avoided them; gardening was something your parents and grand parents did. I can remember being almost embarrassed telling people where I worked, as a career in horticulture had, dare I say it, a certain “sissy” quality to it that it has thankfully lost!

Second Contact

My next and more permanent contact with garden centres happened a couple of years later. I had gone to college to study computer programming but after a few months I knew that it wasn’t for me. I dropped out with the idea of doing industrial design the following year. I decided that I had better get a temporary job to pay my way and my mum suggested that I try the local garden centre as they had recently moved and might be looking for more staff. Looking back I’m surprised she didn’t apply herself, she seemed to live there anyway.
I spruced myself up as much as possible and arrived at the garden centre early one morning. After waiting a moment or two at the tills a lady appeared from the office to see if I was all right.
“I was wondering if there was a job going at the moment?” I asked rather nervously.
“There might be,” the lady said, “Where are you from?”
“Crettyard.” I said, “I think you might know my mum, Ena Kelly?”
“Ah yes,” she said after a moments thought,” She’s in her quite often isn’t she?” No kidding, I thought, nodding in agreement.
“Can you start Monday?”
“Sure. No problem” I said.
So started my career in horticulture and retail which has spanned over 20 years so far with many highs and also the occasional low.

My First Contact with a Garden Centre

My first contact with a garden centre was on a dreary Saturday morning in mid 1980’s. I was awoken from a deep and comfortable sleep by a hammering on the back door of my mum and dad’s house in rural Ireland. Bleary eyed and still somewhat comatose I unlocked the back door to find a man waiting impatiently at the back door.
“This if for ye. Keep it away from the dog.” He said, handing me a clear plastic bag with a pale brown powder in it.
“What?!” I blurted out. Before I could get an explanation from the enigmatic, hurried man he had headed for our gate.
“The plants are out the back. Tell your mother sorry about the delay” He shouted as he leapt into a small white van with a huge red rose printed on the side and sped off out of my life.
I stood stunned for a moment or so and tried to comprehend what had happened. Plants? Brown powder? Had this been a drug drop to the wrong house or worse still the right one?
I gingerly stuck my head around the back of the house and saw, lying against the wall, a collection of green plants and bare trees. They had tags that said “White Beam” and “Sky Rocket”. Although I had lived in the country all my life and knew most, if not all, of the native trees these names were new to me and sounded more like the latest offering from Ford or Opel.
I had a vague recollection of my mum and dad out measuring, discussing and gesticulating on the newly planted lawn in the front half acre of our site. At that stage of my life I was more interested computers, TV and reading to bother with what was happening in the front garden. The last time I had “worked” in the garden was picking potatoes, years previously, in the drills that formed an excellent hiding place from my older sisters and picking the buds of my mum’s pink roses, which were planted closer to the house. I don’t think she knew it was me. She thought she had a strange new bug or bird which would pick and peel the buds leaving them scattered in the potato drills. Little did she know that no amount of sudsy water was going to solve the problem. (I guess I’m in trouble now!)
The brown powder turned out to be Bone Meal of course and my mum and dad dutifully put a handful of it under each plant as they planted the first “real” plants we ever had in our garden. My mum hasn’t looked back since and to this day, although the house has changed, her passion for plants hasn’t.

After I left my job back in December I decided to take a couple of months off where I wouldn’t look at retail, just to decide where I wanted to go with my life. I’d just chill out, spend time with my family and take it easy. Sounds simple doesn’t it?
It worked for the first few days but after a while I noticed that I was becoming more aware of the shops I was visiting. When I was working, I guess, other retailers didn’t affect me so much as I was too busy concentrating on my own thoughts and ideas for the business I was running. Sure, you would take on board an idea another retailer was finding success with and you would occasionally, when time allowed, visit other garden centres. On your days off you tended not to let it sink in as you were always in a hurry.
Suddenly I began to notice a change in myself. I began questioning how or why the retailers around me were doing the things they were. From the largest supermarket to the local coffee shop I was suddenly curious about everything they did. This was much to the annoyance of my partner who would have to drag me away from Tescos POS equipment when they had their shutter up and I could see their printing machines and signage. I didn’t just want to know how the did things, I NEEDED to know.
Then it struck me that although I had tried to leave retail behind it still had a firm grip on me. I think it’s the same for all of us. It gets into your system like a virus and you have no control over it. There is no antidote, but maybe that’s not a bad thing.
I know now that retail was never going to be in my past. I was foolish to think it would be.
So, I’ve now embraced it again. All be it from another angle.

I guess I’m saying these things to give you an idea of where I was and where I am now. I can’t get enough of it now. From web articles to books to getting out and about. I love it. It’s a passion.

Anyone else out there with a passion for retail?

The start

This is the start of my blog on all thing retail. please feel free to comment or disagree with anything I say. I might not agree but I won't mind!