#13 CONVERSATIONS* part four (revised 6/10) "is it all over for them?"

Is it all over for them?




Sarah

Can independent garden stores succeed in America or is it all over for them?



Nick got up from the little yellow table and moved to the coffee pot. He did not drink much coffee these days, but the questions she was starting to ask demanded a fresh cup. He seemed to think deeper after a shot of good black coffee. He could sip a little on it and ponder the answer for a while. He sat down again, putting his hand on the brown notebook, moving it closer to him


Nick

You know, ten years or even five years ago, there was no doubt in my mind that it was finished for the little guy and his garden shop. The families running these places better look hard at selling the land and getting out fast. What I am seeing now is a change which might, just might give them some real hope for a good business that could go on for years ahead. Let me tell you about what I think is happening and some of my reasons why life could be good for them again.

The first big change is the big superstores and their love affair with gardening. The marriage seems to be on the rocks. I think some big shot behind the shiny corporate desk in New York City has been looking at the numbers and she is not happy. The garden shops of Home Depot and Lowe’s are looking pretty bleak these days. When they were high balling in the eighties and nineties, those places were crisp and exciting and full of great plants and products. The employees had a fair amount of knowledge of gardening, the prices were shamefully low and the parking lots were full.

But they took their eyes off the ball. Now those stores are shop worn and tattered at the edges. The employees often are one or two kids with rings in their noses and an old man who have been pushed into that department as some sort of punishment. The lumber stacks that are always near the garden area are moving closer and closer squeezing into the plant displays and the change over to all lumber stacks in that area in the off season gets shorter each year.

The gardeners have been slowly watching these big boy places go to pieces each season when they pull up to the entrance. Yeah, they will always make the rounds to these stores, but their excitement is gone for filling the car with big boy stuff. No, I think the love is gone for the bigs and gardening. The turn of dollars for each square foot is king and gardening is not cutting it any longer. I don’t see it coming back for them.

Another reason is that this whole “shop and buy local” thing is sweeping the country. If you put that together with all the hype for gardeners and homeowners to “go natural” for the environment, an independent garden shop, always there sitting in those towns , could be a nice welcome mat for these shoppers. The owners of these stores are going to need answers on how to “go green”, what works and was doesn’t work. Gardeners, sure as hell, are not going to get them from the kid with the ring in his nose!

Gardeners and homeowners are getting a little suspicious about the trees and shrubs shipped into their towns from thousands of miles away. They are thinking about locally grown a lot these days.

Nick squeezed on the notebook as he talked


I don’t believe that the independent garden stores can operate like they used to in the old days. It will take a lot of thinking and planning for a garden store to make it.

I do believe that they can have a going business again that can be a pleasure to work and a lot of coin can be made.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Return to the Clan"

"I have been worrying these days about how my little garden store can survive these terrible economic times in America. We all pulled together some years back and weathered the storm of the big stores all around us almost giving plants away. But now this collapse is probably going to be much tougher.

But then, I am also wondering if this awful recession could be a new beginning for my store instead of hanging out a 'going out of business' sign. Are we crossing into a new era of a 'return to the clan' for the American consumer?

This might be the turning point where 'community' is the central theme; when people who live and work together support each other like no other time in recent history.

Perhaps they have grown tired of or simply cannot afford to accept products that fail with no solutions from the faceless and nameless. Maybe people are finally frustrated with unanswered questions and hours on the telephone seeking relief from far away places.

Will they return when they can to their communities for the comfort of knowing that 'locally purchased, locally fixed' is a wise investment?

There is no better pathway to success for the gardener than the little plant place in their communities. We know plants and plant care. We can help them be successful. We are, as Malcolm Gladwell points to in his book 'The Outliers'. We have the 10,000 hours of practice of plant care that separates the average from the experts in our field.

We have beat this drum of 'expert knowledge' and 'proven plants' for many seasons and it really has not stopped the long lines from forming at the big corporate garden departments.

Could this economic tragedy in America move those gardeners back to a community place where they feel safe and secure about their choices?"

Time will tell.

Sharon Hasbro

Garden Store Owner

New Mexico