The Site Gardener Blog

Garden Centers and Nurseries will have an added challenge thanks to our wonderful banks. With banks closing or reducing operating  lines for small business’s, cash flow is going to be the big problem this spring. This is going to affect the wholesalers and  the consumers. If the retailers hold back and do not  buy direct at least in the spring,  consumers will have limited choices as retailers play it safe and will shop elsewhere or wait.

Here are a few things you can do to avoid this.

• Talk with your suppliers:  .Though it’s hard for small business owners to ask for extended terms. Talk with your sales reps or growers you may have a long history with.  They will be glad to go to the grower on your behalf. They are there to help and want you to be successful. Truth is,nurseries are already bracing for slow payments. Believe me, they want  their plants in your garden center or re wholesale nursery vs. throwing them on the burn pile.  My nurseries are going through the same things and believe me they are not judging anyone who is late in pay. Don’t avoid getting the product you need.

• There will be traffic this spring, but customers will not overpay. You will not stay competitive unless you buy right. Inventories are going to stabilize a bit this year. Some varieties of trees and shrubs are going to be short by the mid year due to major reductions in production. Just ask the liner growers. Many growers do not have anything smaller than 2 1/2″ trees on their nursery. Some  have not planted anything in 3 years. Growers have been cutting container production for three years in a row. There seems to be an over adjustment happening. The $4.00  18″ birdsnest spruce and spirea days may be coming to an abrupt halt.

• Don’t cut advertising and get a marketing plan in place to bring early . It can be difficult, but getting those early customers can really help your cash flow. Use eMarketing for weekly special.

• Seminars: I know of a garden center in Ohio. Rob Cowie from  Suncrest Gardens  has regular seminars on Hydrangeas  for one. He gets a great turnout , gives out coupons, refreshments and has a great sale day.  Fruit trees and vegetable gardening would be a great seminar for early spring. If you do not feel comfortable with public speaking, ask your sales rep or local hort professors. I do them all the times for my clients.

These are just a few ideas. Some are obvious but still work.

We are sitting around Christmas evening watching the fifth movie and something reminded of an experience I had a few years back. My family at the time used to get three trees for various rooms and levels in our house. Since we sell nursery stock to some of the local garden centers through our parent company ” M. D. Bolin & Associates”I decided to share the sales around and get my live Christmas trees from my top three Garden Centers in my area.

What an interesting night. While I have always observed how a business takes on the personality of it’s owner. Friendly accommodating owner equals friendly staff and vice versa.

We are naming them garden center A,B,  and C.

Garden Center A has two locations. I have always seen even a stark difference in the two locations.

My night started at thisfirst location. We get out of the truck and start browsing the trees.  They were priced a bit higher than the box stores  and quality was fine. We were there for 20 minutes and not one sign of anyone coming out of the office.  Actually if i had not seen someone look out of the window of the office. I might have thought it was an over site.  We left with no tree, never speaking with anyone

We then proceeded to garden center B

We pull into the lot get out start brousing. This time we do find an 18 yearold boy and girl out there. No greeting form them. I was ok with that. We find the tree we want and ask him if we can get it bundled. I get an annoyed look. You can imagine when I asked about cutting the bottom of the trunk of the tree. He managed to hand me a saw. I reallt was not excited about asking for rope. He found a box of sical twine. After I got the cut tree tied down I paid him and we were on our way.  My wife actually started laughing. By the way we were the only ones there at the time.

We went back to Garden Center A but the other location. There we did get help and paid more than we should have. It was not really bad service but it wasn’t really good service. They did everything they were supposed to and were pleasant enough.

Now we get to Garden Center C.

We get approached immediately by a young guy with a smile, asking me if I need anythin g. The trees were about the same price, actually a few dollars less. I pick out the tree and pull my SUV up. I go in to pay. I come out ready to deal with the Christmas tree only to find it baled, trunk  cutin the process of loading it on my car. On top of that, they ask me about the type of stand we use. They actually drilled a hole in the bottom.my family was blown away at the whole experience. By the way, We were not the only ones being taken care of by a long shot.

Here is the best part. No one ever really knew I was there. It was like being a secret shopper.

I was dying of curiosity on how everyone did with Christmas tree sales.

Garden Center A did not do very well at the first location. It was blamed on the economy and the trees not being brought in cheap enough.

Garden Center B told me they were getting out of the live Christmas tree business. People were no longer loyal to the Garden Centers and were buying from the box stores. They said there was nothing they could do to stop the trend.

Garden Center C. Told me they sell about the same amount of trees and sold out for the most part. No talk of box stores,bad trees or dis loyalty.

I think many of us can be like A and B more than we want to admit. I really have asked two of my most trusted friends to be brutally honest with me and it is not so bad after the first few revelations. Ouch!  I am actually getting less defensive and more receptive every time,. I might start looking forward to the self exams. Who knows.

I recently attended the 3rd IGCS Trade Show www.igcshow.com a few weeks ago. From what I understand the attendance was up almost 40%. I spent three days talking with attendees. I am always amazed by how people in our industry look for the positive side of things.

The overall feel was of unsureness of the future. No one seems to know where we are going as a country. The funny thing is, this is the same overall feel everyone had this last winter.I thought after the positive spring we had, garden center owners would have at least be assured spring is going to be there and customers will be in. I must say though, How does the small business owner make decisions on spring purchases when all they keep hearing over and over from the media and administration about how bad everything is.
I do know this.Without exception and I mean not one. The garden centers that were stocked with fresh product had a good spring. Those that didn’t had a disastrous spring.
I hope they learned form it but I was a bit concerned about how some of them were blaming everything else even when it was brought to their attention.