#43 TRAILBLAZES * (revised 6/5) "others buy...we select

“Give him a hat and a jacket and he will buy anything”

A fertilizer salesman talking about a garden store owner in Maine



Bottles and bottles, bags and bags, all lined up, all different, but really all the same. Most garden stores fill their shelves with too many products designed for the same plant problems. They are just get in the habit of ordering this stuff from their supplier buddies year after year. The guy shows up every Tuesday morning with a box of donuts for the staff.

Half of the bottles and bags stay on the shelves summer and winter. They have been cleaned and dusted so often that the words are fading and the labels are falling off. And really, how many brands of the same kind of shovel do you really need? How many similar fertilizers are needed?



Others Buy. We Select


At green garden gates, we search for and select a limited number of products for our stores that will give the best results for the most varieties of plants for the longest period of time. We select the best tools, the best all purpose garden chemicals, and the best fertilizers and stick with them until another more superior product can replace the items. We do not want to add. We want to minimize for maximum results. Of course, there will always be a place for some new product introductions and products that are popular in one particular region, but we are careful to limit these products.

The uniformity of our stores is important. the products we offer must be familiar and similar to any customer from any another area of the country.

And we do not forget the “old standbys”. Those products and plants that have stood the test of time for gardeners.

“Remember the KillerKane? It was the best darned thing I ever bought to get rid of dandelions in my lawn. It was just a simple three feet long green plastic tube. You pulled the cap off the top, filled the tube with water and dropped this Alka Seltzer looking pill into the tube. You walked to the dandelion, pushed/stabbed down on the tube kane into the center of the dandelion and let a little of this stuff right onto the weed.

It killed them dead, boy and didn’t touch my lawn, didn’t have to bend down, didn’t have to buy a bunch of fancy high priced cans, didn’t have to mess around with a sprayer. I wore that tube out over a lot of years. Now I can’t find the thing anywhere. They look at me like I have been sipping on that little green tube!”

“Each season, I would plant Lemon Drop Marigolds as a border to my walkways. They were small headed bright yellow and the shortest marigolds on the market. Now I cannot find them anywhere. A seed salesman told me one time that he has them but the seed is so cheap that he does not make any money selling them to growers. He likes to sell the expensive new varieties. All the garden stores have these hot shot high priced marigolds I want my lemon drops!”

The similar uniform selection of plants for all of our stores is also important. We choose about four hundred varieties from the categories of shrubs, trees and vines that are commonly used for planting, nationally. We add another selection of landscape plants that is used successfully in that particular region. Like our hard goods products, we leave room for a limited number of new introductions. We carefully select from the best growers available for these plants. We attempt at all times to replace rather than add to our selections.

#42 TRAILBLAZES/ (revised 7/28) "be exciting, be magic, be comfortable....

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars."

Jack Kerouac

Have fun.

It’s only plants.

“spring is busting out all over”

Don’t screw it up.

We are not searching for the meaning of life, or the cure for cancer. It's only plants. Our customers, who have been beaten and pushed around every day in their jobs, our customers who have been wrestling with their wild and unruly kids, come to us for peace, possibilities, and shelter from those day to day struggles. This is their time and their joy.

This is the money they want to spend for just themselves. It is not for the gas bill, or to get the car fixed, or pay the mortgage. This is for fun. We are a lot like Las Vegas. They know you are going to lose it, you know you are going to lose it, so let’s have a great time emptying the wallet!

It’s the experience that they want: springtime, the warmth of the sun, a light breeze moving through their hair, the smells of freshly dug soil and cedar bark, the mist of water, the color of new plants emerging from their pots, the touch of the foliage wet from the morning dew, the quiet corners where they are alone with their thoughts, a casual dress where nobody cares and the conversations with strangers, other gardeners, who are there yearning for that same feeling.

Too many garden stores are all about business, somber faces of overworked employees staring into computer screens, little signs that say “don’t do” rather than “do,do” and displays that are the dead zone.

green garden gates has the flavor of an old fashioned fish market; trucks arriving and unloading thousands of fresh plants, employees scurrying around moving, watering, sorting and displaying the new arrivals, customers watching the fresh trees being placed in the beds and the employees laughing with the gardeners as they help them with the selections.

Be Comfortable

What do you mean by "being comfortable"

Garden store owners can get just too fancy with their places. Too much "brass and glass "just shouts out to the gardener that he or she will always be paying too much for plants and products. Oh, we want our customers to feel comfortable. We just do not want them to be nervous about paying for some owner's Mercedes with just their purchase!

"I had a friend who had a spot of land on a highly traveled commuter road in the Pacific Northwest. He brought the plants in each spring covered them with bark, stuck up a hand painted sign, and opened his gates. He was always busy, made good money and sold out each season.

One year, he thought that if he made the place pretty with fancy walkways and fountains running, he would do much better. So, he worked all fall and got the place ready and it was beautiful.

People came from miles around and were so thrilled walking around experiencing the joy of gardening.. Some spent hours on the benches reading books and gazing at the beauty. They didn’t buy anything but they sure enjoyed the place.

The next spring, he ripped up all the walkways, pulled down the fountains and waterfalls, set the plants down and covered them with bark.

The buyers started to buy again".

Cindy Holbrook

Oregon

green garden gates is a magic place.

We must "emancipate our minds"

Deng Xiaping

"Paramount Leader" of China

His paraphrased remark on how China must change

We want green garden gates to:

Be a little bit disorganized,overwhelming and a little bit "nuts"

“I can’t keep track of all the new arrivals, plants are coming in so fast”

“We don’t know what is on that truck, but it is good stuff”

“ You better get those plants now while they are still here”

“Come with me
And you'll be
In a world of
Pure imagination.

Take a look
And you'll see
Into your imagination”

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Have employees who feel the excitement of spring for our gardening customers

“I love these new plants, Let’s go take a look”

“How did your garden work out last year?”

Be the store for the hottest plants and products at the right time

“I saw this in my gardening magazine and here it is”

Have the hustle and bustle of an old fashioned fish market, a produce stand or a busy flower stall

"Stay hungry, stay foolish"

Back of the cover of the last issue

The whole earth catalog

#41 TRAILBLAZES * (revised 6/4) "buy local...be local"

We believe that the American consumer is looking for connection, community, familiarity and dependability when they are purchasing plants and plant care products for their gardens. It is important that we express those values in the look and feel or our stores and what we offer our customers.


Connection and Community


The look of the stores, although virtually the same in design, has a distinctive presentation that reflects that community or region of the country. Display areas are set aside for local history and local events of the community. Local employees are hired from the area and their community roots and local involvement in activities are highlighted in our stores. Gardening groups are encouraged to gather in our stores. Local fundraisers are encouraged on the property.

Customers who purchase new plant introductions help fund local causes with donated portions of the sales of those plants. Other plant introductions are named for local people in the community. Staff members of green garden gates are given financial support for volunteering in efforts of the communities. We continually search for connection to the community and region.

Likewise, we search for employees and special events community members you are regarded as “gardening experts". We sponsor their events in the area as well as promote clinics and workshops for them at the store.

We encourage local growers and producers. During the spring planting season, we provide areas for them to display their plants and plant care products. We purchase from local growers and suppliers and label those products as “locally made” or "locally grown". We showcase their history in the community with pictures and comments about their work. We partner with them to donate a portion of the proceeds of the profits to local causes.

Our website and other Internet technologies, such as Facebook and Twitter, include these local growers, suppliers, gardening groups and gardening experts as part of the promotion of green garden gates.


Familiarity and Dependability


Wherever gardeners travel, wherever they are relocated, they are at home at green garden gates. Although the “look” of the store changes slightly from one region to region and our plants and products include regional preferences, the store is familiar to the gardener. National products, flowers, shrubs, trees, and vines are positioned in similar locations.

We want to move a gardener easily through the shopping experience whether he or she lives down the street or a thousand miles away. Hours of operation are similar, employee uniforms are easily identifiable from one store to the next and company policies and daily operational practices are the same. We honor returns and credits and redeem gift certificates and gift cards from any green garden gates.

#40 TRAILBLAZES * (revised 6/4) "reduce..re-use..recycle"

Reduce, Re-use, Recycle

We strive to be the “green” of green garden gates.

We are committed to purchasing products, equipment and materials that have been previously used. We want to continue to re-use them beyond their initial intended use in our stores. We will recycle them properly when they are no longer of value to us.

Our goal is to acquire 50% of our company purchases from re-cycled products. In addition, we want to re-use 30% of those recycled products for additional uses after their intended use is no longer viable. When we are no longer able to re-use products, our goal is to dispose 80% of them for further recycling.

This commitment holds the promise of some real benefits. First, the cost of initial construction, ongoing maintenance as well as daily operating costs can be significantly reduced.

Second, this pledge of sustainability to our customers may further hold their loyalty to our stores, as well as serve as a source of pride for our employees. Finally, our example to the industry may move other garden stores closer to the concept of “reduce, re-use, recycle"

In addition, we want to offer products for the gardener that will produce a reasonably effective outcome with as little as possible harm to the environment. We pay attention to how our purchased plants are grown, the chemicals used for production, and any efforts our growers are making toward a neutral environmental footprint. We monitor our suppliers of consumer use fertilizers, fungicides, miticides and insecticides to be certain that their ingredients are the safest in the marketplace for the gardener.

We ask these questions.

Can we reduce the consumption of a product?

Can a used product be acquired and have nearly the same effectiveness as a new product?

Can that product have other uses for our company after its intended use is no longer needed? Can that product be recycled for further uses after it is not needed in the company?

We have developed a list and continue to expand on the list of possible products and materials for initial purchase and continual re-using.

Fencing

Signing

Lighting

Window treatments

Doors and windows

Framing lumber

Framing steel

Flooring

Gates

Awning and covering fabric and materials

Electrical supplies

Heating and air conditioning equipment

Used vehicles

Lifting carrying and moving equipment

Hand tools

Desks, chairs, table and counters

Display equipment and fixtures

Rebuilt printers, cash registers, telephone and alarm equipment

Recycled paper products

Re-filled printer inks

Recyclable plastic pots and trays that the can be re-used in the operation.

Soil from plant pots

Broken bark and soil bags

Plastic pallet covers and greenhouse roof plastic for tree and shrub wrapping

Used pallets for bench framing and possible fuel

Recycled asphalt for the parking areas

Alternate sources of energy

Cardboard and shipping materials

#39 COMMENTS* (revised 6/10) "scooping shit"

“Gosh, it was a pretty garden store, very New England with grey clapboard, shutter, iron and cobblestone. It had been designed by the owner who had a love for form and place. Even the store signing appeared in garden industry magazines for elegance and beauty.

But it all ended at the front door............

You see, the son had taken the place over and we all knew that he did not want any part of it. Each morning he would greet us with a snarl, brushing past us toward the stairs to his office. The rest of the day we only heard him on the walkie-talkie yelling at us as he stared from his window overlooking the nursery.

One day at lunchtime, he and his cronies upstairs ordered food. When they were finished, he bundled all the leftovers together with half eaten sandwiches and dropped the bags at the bottom of the stairs for the employees to eat and rest and clean it up. Brother!

But the last straw was the worst, It was a busy hot Saturday spring day. The only two toilets for the customers and the employees had been broken and out of service for the past couple of days. (The owner had a private bathroom upstairs). We all had to walk near those toilets to punch the clock. The stench down that hall was awful. Customers were forced to leave their baskets and run to the nearest store to find a bathroom. Several children just wet their pants waiting in line for checkout. The guys working there would pee in the bushes. The girls would tear out of the parking lot to a gas station down the road. He didn’t care.

The toilets remained plugged for several more days until we couldn’t take it any more. Two of us volunteered to wrap used cloth towels around our faces. We found some old dirty plastic aprons and wrapped them tight over our uniforms. With trowels and buckets, soap and Lysol, we entered the rooms and started scooping as fast as we could, emptying the bowls overflowing with layers of dried and wet shit and soggy toilet paper. We washed the walls and floor that had tracked brown globs all over.

He wasn’t embarrassed, He wasn’t upset. He was just pissed off that we were not out in his nursery selling his plants.

His answer to the plugged toilets was,
“why don’t those people go to the bathroom before they come to my garden center.”

I quit that day.

An ex-employee
gladly driving away from the worst store ever

The exact same incident occurred at a Midwest garden store on a similar busy Saturday morning with very different results. The owners, husband and wife, arrived at the store early that morning to discover that road construction crews had accidentally cut the sewer line. All the toilets and sinks would probably be inoperable for the entire weekend.

They knew what would happen. A young mother shopping for their plants would have a fistful of dollars in one hand and her young boy tugging her other hand, jumping up and down needing the bathroom. She would have to make and choice and her choice would be to put the dollars back in her purse and drive away mad and upset looking for a toilet. She may never return.

They swung into action. They called the local portable toilet company and paid the premium price to have six units positioned conveniently at the store. They got the best ones, with the hand washing running water compartments as well as a large handicapped accessible unit.

The wife walked over to a neighboring business and arranged for their customers to use those facilities during the outage. The husband began to clean the bathrooms from the sewer line backup, not allowing any of his employees to help.

The bathroom problem was posted on signs in the nursery directing customers to ask the staff for the location of the temporary facilities. Each customer using the portable toilets was given a coupon for one free geranium plant when they checked out from their plant shopping.

It was a record sales day at their store and an uncomfortable incident was made as pleasant as possible.