Open Register

Phat finds at the winter markets

The outdoor living crowd is spreading. Quite literally.

At the Dallas Market, Glenda Ray, v.p. of marketing at home-décor giant CBK, told me that designers have begun increasing the width of several of her company’s patio chairs. The move is to accommodate – how shall we say? – the continuing expansion of the nation’s waistline.

That said, I want to share some of the cool new garden-related products we saw at market this winter. Check out these, um, heavy hitters:

• Tad and Beth Featherman, well-known designers of home and garden accents, signed a license with home accent company IMAX to create a signature collection that includes mantel urns, a faux bois collection, whimsical garden follies, indoor/outdoor sculptural wall decor, fountains and more. Tad and Beth Featherman are the founders and designers of the Hen-Feathers Collection.

• Ferry-Morse expanded its Veggie Tales line with new Veggie Tales Pails, a fun and educational gift for the young seed sower.

• They’re the footwear you either love or you hate. Now you can dress up your Crocs to match the season, reflect your mood or support your college team. Crocs recently acquired Jibbitz LLC, a company that manufactures more than 400 designs in colorful snap-ons created just to adorn the holes atop those ubiquitous Crocs.

• From the Why Didn’t I Think of That Department: Customers can replace dull factory-issue plant hangers with Bead Sprouts, bejeweled plant hangers made of colorful patterns of elegant glass beads.

-- Kevin

A different type of customer service

I’ve found a book to add to my to-be-read pile. “The New Pioneers” by Wall Street Journal’s Thomas Petzinger takes a look at how several companies transformed themselves into better, more effective businesses.

I stumbled across the book when reading a “Fast Company” article based on the book. The article examined how Cemex, a Mexican cement company, went from a the-customer-must-conform-to-us operation to a customer-focused company.

Cement spoils after 90 minutes in the truck, and that’s a major problem when you show up to a building site on time and the crew isn’t ready for you. In response, the company turned to punitive fines and demanded customer compliance with company rules.

Then Cemex’s execs visited FedEx in Memphis and a 911 center in Houston and were amazed at the high level of coordination and efficiency. Cemex decided to internally streamline itself and dramatically changed their customer satisfaction rate and its profitability.

In contrast, garden centers tend to focus almost exclusively on the employees’ interaction with shoppers to improve customer satisfaction.

Customers are simple creatures, no matter how complicated the personality. They want enough healthy product to make a choice from, but not so much that they’re overwhelmed. Then they want to check out quickly and leave.

Maybe it’s time to look at internal systems and traffic flow at garden centers. When does product arrive? Where and when is it cared for? How is it restocked? How often is it restocked? How crowded are the aisles, are the carts easy to maneuver?

But a balance must be struck. It seems that the garden centers that are best at efficiency are also sterile. Is there a way to combine a garden center that warmly welcomes customers and be efficient?

-Carol

Lost in translation

What’s up with television commercials these days? Actually, what I want to ask is, where’s the beef?

I remember a time when I was a Pepper and you were a Pepper, and we were much the better for it.  Back in the day, you could have it your way or even have it in a combination of ways — great taste AND less filling. Yep, our commercials were the real deal, even if Parkay technically wasn’t butter.

Now, we get computer-generated robots that pound trucks that might or might not be tougher than the truck that beats the computer-generated Loch Ness Monster. Now, we do the Dew — or we would, if we could just figure out what the point is with the droopy drawers and the crooked hats. And don’t get me started on the so-called music that hip hops its way to an audience permanently perched in front of the 50-inch hi-def flat, remote control in one hand, video game player in the other.

I’m telling you: Someone should create a “Man Law” that says, “Enough!”

OR …

Someone should realize that the market — and the marketing — are changing. There is a new, younger demographic group that eventually will become the one on which you’ll have to focus your sales pitch. Of course, to connect with these people you’ll eventually need to learn their language.

I hear that it’s spoken fluently on television commercials.

— Yale

Is bulb planting a thing of the past?

Driving home for lunch the other day, I almost slammed on the brakes to do a triple-take. Was that flash of scarlet I saw in that yard really tulips? Nah, must have been fakes. Sure enough, there were at least a dozen red tulips in full bloom – in January! – in one of the established neighborhoods around town. It made me smile to think that the homeowner took the time last fall to plant tulip bulbs so she could enjoy their cheery display on a winter day.

But hard-core gardeners like that one apparently are a fading market.

Over at The Blogging Nurseryman, California retailer Trey Pitsenberger bemoans steadily declining bulb sales. “I know at our nursery and our last nursery, venture bulb sales have been declining steadily. I do believe that it’s the same reason that bare-root sales are declining. They are sold during a season that most people are not into gardening, fall and winter. In addition you have to plan ahead to get the beauty in spring.

Trey continues: “I wish more people were into bulbs, but the reality is they are not. I also think the chain stores have pretty much captured the low end of the bulb market. They buy and sell smaller bulbs, but at a very cheap price. Most people don’t know the difference between all the grades bulbs come in and how that determines the quality of the flower.”

How were your fall bulb sales? Up? Down? Unchanged?

-- Kevin

The price is … what?!

You know, once upon a time I was glad that Alex Rodriguez was acquired by the Texas Rangers. OK, I admit I winced, moaned and fervently declared he’d better be worth every penny of his exorbitant salary. A lot. Why?

Because I knew that I’d be paying for that salary. I totally expected the increase in ticket prices, souvenirs, parking, concessions. Yep, I saw it all coming and I took the plunge and believed.

We won’t talk about that.

Now, a couple of years past that debacle, I’m still paying (along with a ballpark full of other Rangers fans). And we will do so for quite some time.

Lesson learned. Or is it?

I’m sure you’ve heard about the Bob Nardelli-Home Depot severance saga. $210 million. For six years of leadership.

How many hammers do you think they’ll have to sell to make up that money?

This is the sort of stuff that really gets to me. I didn’t ask him to quit and I didn’t ask the corporation to give him such a great parting gift. But I know eventually, in some way, I’ll be paying for it.

--Jennifer

Testing, 1-2-3, testing

When your wholesale nursery sales rep comes knocking late this winter, how do you know that the plant he’s pitching as “the next Endless Summer” is truly an endless seller or an endless headache?

Plant-developer extraordinaire Mike Dirr has an idea: a national testing system that would put new plant varieties through a battery of field tests in sites across the nation. The way Dirr envisions it, the system would be engineered and overseen by wholesale growers, with buy-in from national, regional and state associations as well as botanic gardens and arboreta.

Dirr, who was speaking at the Western show in Overland Park, Kan., over the weekend, says the national testing system would allow retailers to call up an Internet site and read reliable, unbiased reports on a plant’s performance before placing that thousand-dollar order. Dirr already has an Internet address in mind: www.plantevaluations.com. (We just checked, Dr. Dirr. That URL is available, so let’s get busy.)

- Kevin

Could “gardentainment” captivate the next generation?

Check out this discussion on RetailWire (free registration required) about how “eatertainment” attracts children.

Apparently, kids are flocking to cooking classes in droves inspired by onscreen heroes like Emeril Lagasse and Bobby Flay. Parents are shelling out big bucks to send wannabe chefs to culinary summer camps. Private lessons and birthday parties with culinary themes are becoming popular, too. It seems most parents are pleased with this trend. Cooking classes hearken back to time spent with grandma, putting together a home-cooked meal.

Parental units are lured in by the nostalgia. And kids are captivated because it’s…cool. Just check out the cosmopolitan troupe gracing the airwaves of Food Network. (Well, except for Rachael Ray, maybe. But we’ll save that topic for another blog.)

Wouldn’t it be great if we could build this kind of buzz around gardening? It’s also a hobby reminiscent of the good ol’ days. But what it lacks is the coolness factor. We need a hip personality to penetrate public consciousness. Anybody up for the challenge?

--Sarah

Cruising the consumer garden Net

I took a look at what the consumer press was writing about today. Here are the highlights.

Southern Living editor Steve Bender is horrified by painted poinsettias and calls for his readers to unite and arise against the scourge.

Garden Design writer Joanna Fortnam has some cool photos and commentary from the Chelsea Flower Show.

Better Homes and Gardens has an interactive rating system for its own test gardens. I wonder what it means that only 1 person has bothered to rate them so far?

Only the folks at Martha Stewart Living would fuss over the proper way to clean terra-cotta pots. But I have to admit it has the best online plant info of any consumer magazine.

People, Places and Plants is gathering info from its readers on what they want from landscaping services in this survey.

Sunset has an article on what it touts as “no fail” houseplants. There aren’t a lot of surprises on the list, but the writers did pick reliable plants.

The National Gardening Association has added a “Home and Health” section to its Web site. From what I saw, though, the articles listed didn’t give me much an idea of how NGA is defining home and health -- a personality profile, Quebec gardens, orchids and squash and melons.

--Carol

First in line

For those keeping score at home, I was the very first customer to eat at the Asia Garden Super Buffet restaurant that recently opened a few miles from my home. Consider, for a moment, what this means: I wasn’t second. I wasn’t third. I wasn’t one short of being “the lucky millionth.” I was first, baby!

While the feat might not register dramatically among man’s greatest accomplishments, I find it somewhat gratifying that there will never be anyone else who can claim that he/she ate Asia Garden Buffet’s first-served meal. Indeed, I think it’s something to moo-goo gai pan about!

Face it: We love to be first — in the race, in space, in the poll, to the goal … OK, I wasn’t the first to write like that. Dr. Seuss was, and you remember him because of that.

Hopefully, you remember, too, that Branch-Smith Inc. was the first horticulture publishing company to move its printed material online — to the acclaimed Web site, www.GreenBeam.com. And, hopefully you also recall that BSI became the First Family of weekly e-mails, introducing regular, viable news reports that have helped you do your business better for more than a decade now.

Speaking of now, we at Branch-Smith Inc. are now at the forefront again (translation: we’re first!). With this missive, we are introducing a new retail blog, The Open Register, which will highlight trends, news and helpful hints that will be of benefit to retail garden center operators.

The Open Register will feature contributions from yours truly, as well as from a number of Branch-Smith Inc. staff members — and hopefully from you! In fact, we would love to have you become our partners in blog. Please check in every few days, and if we write something that tweaks a nerve or tickles a fancy, let us know.

Wait! Strike that! It should read, “Be THE FIRST to let us know.”

Yeah, that’s much better! Now, if you’ll please excuse me, I have a fortune to amass. At least, that’s what the note inside the cookie said.

--Yale