RALEIGH, N.C. -- Tony Avent hosted GCA members this week for a tour of his botanic garden and wholesale business, Plant Delights Nursery in Raleigh. Anyone who has met Tony knows that he's rather blunt. He loves plants. He loves his business, and if you don't like his business or his prices, then he doesn't mind telling you where the closest Wal-Mart is. Although, how any plant lover could quibble about prices after touring his botanic garden is hard to imagine. But he assured us they can and do.
Add to that the covers he chooses for his mail-order business. He uses cartoons, most of which reflect the current events of the day, even if it's politics.
As you can imagine, he gets some pretty ticked-off people, who send in hate mail. Avent responds by posting all that hate mail on his Web site. Take a look at what he's received, and you'll see what he means when he says that hate mail is a true art form.
On a somewhat related note, he asks that anyone wanting a catalog send in either 10 stamps or a box of chocolates as payment. He's gotten everything from the expected box of chocolates to empty wrappers from someone who couldn't resist eating the sweets first, accompanied by a note saying that the wrappers proved the sender's intention, and can a catalog be dropped in the mail anyway?
Call these ideas gimmicks if you will, but I think they reflect a businessman who's willing to be true to himself, even if it goes against conventional retail wisdom, and customers respond warmly to that genuine (if brash) quality.
-- Carol
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