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!
