#47 OUR FIRST STORE * (revised 6/4) "choosing the location"

“ I would walk to the end of the street

And out over the prairie.

With the clickity grasshoppers

Bunging in arcs ahead of me,

And I could hear the hum and twang

Of the wind

And the great prairie harp of the telephone wires.

Standing there,

With the total thrust of the prairie sun on my vulnerable head,

I guess I learned at a very young age

That I was mortal”

W.O. Mitchell

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It had been a long journey,

She clocked 120 days of freeways and back roads, 7000 miles, three oil changes, two flat tires, a fender bender, and enough Wendy’s hamburger wrappers to wallpaper a small room. Twyla unloaded the worn boxes filled with chamber of commerce pamphlets and reached under the worn seats for stray business cards and sticky notes that had slipped off the passenger seat. The search was finally over. Now comes the fun stuff.

The four had decided that the first green garden gates would be somewhere in the lower Midwest of the United States. They had followed the checklist Nick had written years ago in his brown notebook and the group updated the questions for any changes that had occurred since his writing. Twyla worked the checklist as she visited the states, cities and towns in this region and carefully answered each question.

All the data for each area was e-mailed the others, weighted and rated in order to make the choice. Finally, last night, after the long conference call, they decided. They general area and the specific property was chosen

The first green garden gates, the model for all the others to follow, the model that would tell them if their dreams could work, was to be located in Tulsa and Tulsa County, Oklahoma, just on the outer edge of the city of Tulsa, on the edge of our great American prairie

#46 TRAILBLAZES * (revised 6/4) "procedures, protocol, and order

We, at green garden gates, while having the appearance of a free wheeling marketplace for plants and plant care products, subscribe to a firm foundation of standardized procedures, protocol and order.

It is important that our customers move from one of our stores to another in any area of the region and the country and feel comfortable that they are able to shop and transact for their gardening needs in a similar manner, with little confusion and much familiarity.

Our employee training includes standard protocols for attending to customers, our procedures for purchases, returns and credits are the same, our promotions are similar, exchanges can be honored in the network at any green garden gates location, our advertising is recognizable throughout the store system, and the handling of the products is a standard system for all the stores.

It is also important that the stores have order both in procedure, and physical appearance. Signing is the same, the equipment for operation is the same, shopping baskets and checkout are the same, and forms and guarantees are the same. The appearance of the buildings and the look of the employees are the same, the colors of the presentations and the “feel” and atmosphere is interchangeable from one store to another.

We further understand that standardizing these operations can lead to a “wooden” or lifeless atmosphere in our stores. Every attempt is made to foster innovation, thoughtful decision making outside the box in each store and innovation that encourages customer sales and service, breaking the absolute rigidity that order and standardization often brings to a retail facility.


In other words, we want our customers to believe that we, at green garden gates, are a little bit crazy and freewheeling. In fact, we are well ordered and know exactly what we are doing at all times