“We’ve got a good cardiovascular parking lot stride going and it’s bringing us right into the entrance.
So forget what those windows (or the store front) are meant to accomplish.
When they face a parking lot, if the message in the windows and store front is not big and bold and short and simple it is wasted!”
“Why We Buy”
By
Some owners get it. Others either haven’t got a clue or they don’t think it is important. Some of the finest garden stores look dismal when the customer approaches, half dead plants sitting sideways in beat up pots, a hodgepodge of crap just thrown out there and mixed up, or nearly nothing or absolutely nothing at all.
Some owners are determined that all of their plants, their property, needs to be on the buying side of the cash register, kind of locked down until the cash is forked out for the stuff. You know, it’s that stealing thing again. So we get back the radiator shop look. No adventure, no excitement out there. Good introduction to get the customer’s juices flowing and the money loosened up in the wallet, ain’t it? A absolute dead zone that is suppose to entice the customer into a world of springtime color!!
It is just not that hard to bring life to the front of the garden store, give the customers a reason to pull in and park. Even the smallest little business can do it.
We want our customers at green garden gates, whether they are whizzing by at forty miles an hour or walking briskly into our entrance, to see a plant, vision that plant in their garden and already own that plant. The rest is just mechanical, picking it out and paying for it. Any place where we can get “curb appeal”, we are all over it.
The front of our main store, like the show gardens near the street, is ideal for curb appeal. Here is our plan for the front
#1 This area is covered by a nearly flat awning of translucent fiber glass panels. We know customers need weather protection as they, especially when they exit the store with their purchases, readying themselves as they move to their vehicles or waiting to be picked up. Since the awning causes mild to deep shade, plants that tolerate low light are used here for display as well as plant care products that need shelter to preserve their packaging.
We see several vigorous vines covering the walls of the structure around the doorways and decorative pots with shade plants, We see some larger gardening products that are more difficult to remove and steal (we too, are concerned about theft!) such as a fancy wheelbarrows with a bags of fertilizers in it. all the display areas in the front will have working fountains or water features.
On the outer edge of the awning, where the light it better, there show the latest fresh plants, blooming small trees, rhododendrons and azaleas in bloom and a few apple trees with the apples forming on them. We see color banners, and flags in the entire front display as well as other props that create interest and excitement the gardener.
#2 The front display continues on in this area from the awning, with plants that are very sun tolerant, larger plants than could fit under the awning, with wide openings for customer traffic to the entrance and exit doors.
#4 and #5 This area is the entrance to one of our “show gardens” The area will be surrounded by a low decorative fence in keeping with the style of the store and the geography of the region. In New England, it may be a white picket fence. In the Napa Valley of California, it may be a grape stake fence. The plants will not be permanently planted, however, in order to change out and freshen the themes from time to time.
The area will be mounded with several examples of the bark that we sell. Plants will be hand selected and nested in the bark in appealing color and texture combinations. There will be a feature prop that is in keeping with the region. In this store in Oklahoma, the feature will be a Conestoga wagon used by the “sooners” in the historic land grab of the state. All the plants in these front entrance areas will be marked with descriptions and price as well as directions to locate those plants for sale in the store.
Since #4 is the driving pathway for our vehicles entering and exiting the indoor stalls, the fence, with no plants and bark in this drive lane, will be open on one stall always and a movable fence and plants on the other stall for the off season months.
#3 This is ideal for really big stuff, large B and B trees in huge decorative pots, large evergreen and deciduous shrubs, a huge fountain, waterfall, or another type of water feature. This area will be also surrounded by the low fence that extends from #4 and #5.
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