This is our story of green garden gates, the most successful group of 746 garden centers in the United States. Follow our adventure building our first store which starts at entry #1, A little Zen, some Zip Ties and a lot of Zinnias! We welcome your questions and comments by posting to this blog or by contacting nickhudson@earthlink.net
(copyright: nick hudson 2008)
Thomas Mundy is not in your garden store to pick up a pack of pansies or a can of bug spray. His mission is to find any violation of the American Disabilities Act and haul you into court.
Mr. Mundy’s career is to make you miserable. And it’s a great living for he and others like him who scour small businesses for these violations. It has been widely reported that in California, Mundy, the wheelchair bound paraplegic, earns about 100,000.00 a year from your checkbook for his efforts
“Mundy is trolling for barriers to his patronage — a threshold too high for his wheelchair, a parking lot with blue-striped access lanes narrower than eight feet, a public restroom where the coat hook on the back of the door, if there is one, is above his reach.”
“He might as well have had a gun and asked me for $1,000 when he came in,” Paul Venetos, owner of Anaheim’s Varsity Burgers, said of an April visit by Mundy that led to a lawsuit over a condiments counter that was half an inch too high. The burger joint’s security camera recorded Mundy wheeling in, looking around for a few minutes then leaving without perusing a menu or attempting to order, Venetos said. He believes Mundy came in only to look for a chink in his ADA armor.
“Confined to a wheelchair in California?”, another California attorney advertises, “You may be entitled to $1,000 each time you can’t use something at a business because of your disability.” If someone in a wheelchair has been doing laundry once a month for a year at a laundromat where the paper-towel dispenser is too high, “you’re entitled to $12,000,” the lawyer advertises.
Garden stores can be lucrative targets for these characters. We are not always free of obstacles and debris. Many of our facilities are temporary in nature, and our outdoor areas are just not always equipped to handle the requirements of the American Disabilities Act.
At green garden gates, we have developed a checklist for ADA compliance in order to avoid people like Thomas Mundy. Section leaders are responsible for their areas to insure that customers with disabilities have a smooth and unfettered shopping experience.
Parking areas
Are the disabled parking stalls;
Of the proper widths and length for ADA compliance? Marked and signed properly? Surface paint bright and recently painted? A smooth and even surface free of obstacles, grades and steps? Located the closest possible to a handicapped accessible store entrance? “Access route” signed properly and that route to the entrance is safe and convenient? Ramps leading to the entrance of the proper grade and skid free surface?
Bathrooms
Are these areas signed properly? Are the entrances and exits to these areas wide enough to accommodate wheelchairs? Is the hardware on the entrance and exit doors easy to operate, free of difficult twisting and turning? Are the toilet stalls wide enough for adequate maneuvering space? Are the coat hooks positioned low enough? Is the bathroom mirrors full length to accommodate disabilities issues? Are there grab bars in the toilet stalls? Is the wash basin and towel dispenser low enough for wheelchair customers? Is there an emergency alarm light and emergency lighting installed in the bathrooms for all customers?
Convenience Areas
Are the refreshment machines accessible to the disabled? Are the water fountains and paper water cups positioned low enough for easy access? Are any tables, chairs and counters inaccessible or obstructing wheelchair movement? Signing Is all signing positioned to be easily read by the disabled? Does the signing include braille for convenience areas? Checkout and information areas Is come part of the checkout counters low enough to accommodate wheelchair bound customers? Can the purchasing and the checkout at the counters be easily transacted by customers with disabilities? Are the cash registers positioned to be easily read by the disabled? Are the checkout lanes wide enough for smooth accessibility?
Shopping
Are the shopping aisles wide enough with no dead ends? Are the products easily accessible for wheelchair customers? Are there small shopping baskets available? Are the shopping surfaces free of obstructions; holes, garden hose, products?
We, at green garden gates recognize the exciting and revolutionary internet networking forces at play in today’s world economy. We want to be a player in this informational phenomenon.
Information and advice for the American gardener, although plentiful and mostly reliable in every medium, is scattered and haphazard. “Gardening gurus” are everywhere.
Our goal was to bring “gurus” together under the shade of our green garden gates tree and provide to the gardener a central informational network. We want to introduce those gardeners to the benefits of shopping at our stores in their area.
We enlisted the help of retired men and women who have, in their former careers, been active as owners and managers of successful garden stores in the country. We believe that these retired owners and managers have a wealth of experience and knowledge of gardening that they are able to share to the new gardeners in the marketplace. This is how it works.
Each of the gurus’ log on to the network at any time of his or her choosing and log off at any time at their personal convenience, all from their home, while traveling, or elsewhere. (We understand this retired population wants the freedom of personal choices and they do not want a commitment that interferes with their retired activities)
The person fields questions from the American gardening public at any topic related to plant and plant care, suggests solutions and offers incentives to the customer to purchase those suggested plants and plant care products in our store in their area or through national green garden gates internet sales enterprise. This cadre of experts is provided with the latest inventory of the area store in real time, varieties, products, specials, informational digital literature, photographs and amounts on hand. Gardeners using this informational network are given additional discount on those product and plant purchases.
The gardeners can initially contact this network on all the popular networking sites; Facebook, Twitter, texting and other sites as they emerge or gain in popularity. Skype service and instant messaging, and email communication are employed for the gardener to converse with the guru in more detail.
The gardener is provided with a reference number of the contact. An e-mail is then forwarded to the gardener listing all the specific suggestions in the conversation so a record is provided the gardener for the visit or internet order.
When and if the gardener visits one of our stores and purchases plants and products from our store or through our internet sales enterprise, that reference number is provided and the guru receives a percentage of the sales for those particular plants or products that were suggested in the contact. (The stores or internet enterprise can access the suggestions with the reference number at the point of purchase)
This “Twitter Tree” network has exploded in popularity with green garden gates customers and American gardeners since its inception. We how have over one thousand gurus active and in the network during the spring gardening season in every geographical location in the United States.
Although this category returns just a mere 2% of the total sales in a garden store, it plays an important role for customers.Our goal is to be the plant care experts in our communities and regions. Insect and diseases need to be tended to immediately. We must be that reliable source of information and provider of products for plant health in the homeowner’s landscape.
The world has changed with insecticides, fungicides, and miticides offered to the home gardener. First gone is much of the “good stuff”, which gave results fast for the ailing plants. Oh yeah, they were not particularly good for the health of the customer or the environment, particularly when tons of the stuff were poured on agricultural farm crops. The amount of active ingredient in off the shelf retail garden stores, in our view, was so small that any harm to anyone or anything was ridiculously miniscule. But, we have to live with these losses of effective products.
Another change is the explosion of “ready to use” products for the homeowner. The bottles and little built in pump sprayers are easy and mess free. However, the active ingredients have been diluted so badly in these convenient applications and the price for coverage is so expensive. Are we really doing our customers any favors by loading up our shelves with them? We want ready to use in our lineup but we also want a full selection of concentrates to save our customers time and money.
Also, there has been a dramatic turn to “organic” plant care products.This emphasis in a garden store can be dangerous. The customer wants the bugs killed and the disease killed, period. The customer wants to treat the plant only once. Kill dead is the only reason for the visit to the garden store. If a garden store owner sells the customer some “touchy-feely” organic that does not do the job, He or she may not be back again for any reason. Make sure the organics are effective and will do the job now.
We have observed that most garden stores have a bewildering selection of garden chemicals, with most of those bottles duplicating each other in remedies for plant care. Garden store owners get loaded because suppliers offer nice discounts for volumes of purchasing and it is hard to turn away a supplier buddy. We believe that in most garden stores, half of those bottles can be eliminated.
“I never had a customer walk from my store because we did not have a particular brand of garden chemical. They are relying upon my experience and my recommendation and that is all my customer cares about.”
Nick Hudson
From his notebook
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Finally, very few retailers know what they are talking about with garden chemicals. Most of them scurry under the baseboards when the lady holds up her infected plant. There is a serious lack of knowledge which leads to disappointed homeowners spending lots of money for cures.
What are some important elements for successful sales of garden chemicals at green garden gates?
The most important ingredient is knowledge. We hire a person for each store who has a depth of understanding about plant insect and disease problems and the products that will solve those problems. We add an assistant to this employee who tracks that person learning the ropes in plant care. The chemical “guru” may be the section leader of the garden building, but we prefer that not be the case.
Before we order and stock this category, we contact as many local “experts” possible, gardening clubs, hobby gardeners and media commentators about the products that we need to carry in our store, products that they have found the most effective for maladies that effects plants in that local region.
Are you concerned with the cost of the products?
Of course, but cost is not the driving factor. The effectiveness is more important. We are willing to pass up “volume discounts” from suppliers and purchase only a few products from their lineup. We believe that in the long run, we save money by not loading the store with a lot of duplicates. Our goal is to have a minimum number of plant care products that give us maximum problem solving for largest number of plants in the landscape.
Who does the buying of these products?
The local store manager has buying control. There are many products that can be purchased for all of our stores in the network and we do make a mass buy for the savings with these products. Any regionally important chemicals are purchased by that store manager.
Some larger garden stores have private labels for some of their plant care products. Do you do this at green garden gates?
No, we do not. We believe that customer loyalty to our stores is related really to our knowledge of our plants and products. We want the flexibility to change to a more effective product at a moment’s notice. The manufacture and marketing of a “private label” line limits our ability to be flexible with products that arrive on the marketplace all the time. An added problem is that private labels piss off suppliers who we cultivate as our partners in our success. It is not at all worth it.
Do you evaluate your chemical lineup?
Yes, we evaluate big time at the conclusion of the season and watch the sales all during the year. If there is a better product for lacebugs, we run out the old and bring in the new for the next round of buying whenever that may happen. We absolutely have no loyalty to brands or suppliers and particular products. We want the best for our customers.
How do you market garden chemicals?
Usually, the chemicals are stored in neat little rows in the BUG SPRAY AISLE.The area usually stinks with chemical smell and in usually located in an area with no ventilation. That area of the store becomes the place of death that customers avoid.
We understand that chemicals have to have a home that it is convenient. However, we also move samples of the selections away from that aisle, close to the plants that will be needing those products. We have had great success with this strategy, bundling the plants with these plant care chemicals.
How about your product selection of fertilizers at green garden gates?
Our model for our fertilizer offerings is similar to garden chemicals for our store. We are determined to find a minimum selection of the best fertilizers that will do the best job for the largest number of plants.
Garden stores have often gone over the top with the selection of plant fertilizers, rows and rows of similar formulas and not a dimes worth of difference among all of them. We know that. There are pretty boxes all in a row; the rhody food, the azalea food, the evergreen food, the tree food, the holly food, and on and on. Gardeners end up with a garage full of these boxes and bags. Mostly, this is a shell game to harvest money from gardeners. We understand that there are some specific requirements for some plants, but these marketing differences are way over the line.
We are determined to sell multipurpose fertilizers, both in liquid and dry form, suited for the geographical location and soils for that area and region. Our goal is to have one or two great liquid foods and several kinds of dry fertilizers, economically priced and that is it! Often we look to the farm Ag market for these fertilizers, bypassing garden store suppliers to get the best bang for the buck.
How about the nationally branded fertilizers. Do you carry them?
We are not concerned with fertilizer and plant food brands. We are concerned with results for our customers. There is one exception to this philosophy and it is a HUGE one; the Miracle-Gro company and their subsidiary, Scotts Lawn products.
This company has successfully created massive loyalty with the homeowner in America and their products cannot be ignored. A garden store without a nice selection of Scotts and Miracle-Gro is like a convenience store without bottles of Coke. You have to have them, like it or not. In the history of garden products, no company has created brand loyalty like these guys. We carry those brands, we price promote the brands, being careful to offer their common products under all of our competition and we take the hit in profits. We believe that they will always drive additional sales of other products in our stores.
Do you have private label fertilizers and plant foods?
As in the case of garden chemicals, we want to turn on a dime to always carry the best products. We do not want to be stuck with marketing our own brands when another is much better and more economical for our customers.
How about applicators for these products?
The same can be said for applicators. We pick one good applicator for each type of application. We do not want a corner in the store full of different spreaders and sprayers. We want the best for the most uses for the largest number of jobs in the home landscape.
We have chosen the ferti-lome no mix hose end sprayer and the Miracle-Gro liquid-feeder for liquid plant foods, Several high quality Hudson pump sprayers and a Scotts drop, hand held and rotary spreader for dry fertilizers.
The tradition practice of loaning to their customers, applicators and preparation devices has gone by the wayside.We believe that it was a valuable service to the homeowners and we have brought this practice back in our stores
Each green garden gates has a small supply of this equipment;lawn spreaders, hand fertilizer applicators and lawn rollers. They are loaned out free of charge with a two day maximum time limit, for those who purchase our fertilizer and soil amendments. A deposit on the customer's charge card that covers the cost of a new replacement is taken at time of checkout and credited upon return of the items.
It is a small service, but important to our customers who need to get their work completed.
How about the dry applications of weed and feed, crabgrass killers etc?
We have chosen Scotts Lawn products for these combinations as well as the applications of insect and disease controls on turf. They are just an outstanding company. Because these products are not price promoted as much in the marketplace, we are able to get an acceptable profit margin for them.
Do you have an organic fertilizer or combination weed killer line?
If it works and works in an acceptable amount of time for the homeowner, we will carry the organics alternative. The problem with organics is that the customer is used to rapid immediate results which the organics have been unable to deliver. We want the organic alternative and watch closely for better performance from them.
How about the elements for plants growth, like sulphur, copper, iron and the minor trace elements for plant health?
We try to find only one supplier that has a broad range of offerings for these elements. When it comes to larger quantities, we move into the Agricultural farm market to get the best price and products.
Isn’t it more difficult to sell these sometimes offbeat products without brand recognition and adverting supports from suppliers?
Yes it is more difficult. It is easy to just load the store with familiar products and stand by the register as they leave with the items. Our key is and always will be our knowledgeable and committed employees who believe that these products, no matter how obscure they may be, are the best product for our customers. Once they believe and once the customers bring back tales of their success with their gardens, we are off and running. Our customers, if we do our jobs right, will not doubt us again.
Bagged goods
In addition to the larger bagged goods of nutrients that we carry, Iron, Sulphur, Copper, etc, we sell a range of other amendments for the garden and landscape. They include builders’ sand, vermiculite, perlite, pea gravel, manures, and a wide selection of decorative rock and bark mulches.
With the bark mulches, we try to distinguish ourselves in size, quality and variety of these mulches. We attempt to sell 3 cu feet bags of mulches rather than the standard 2 cu feet sizes. We also attempt to secure some different mulches for our selection such as redwood bark and coastal douglas fir. Sometimes that is not possible because of the cost of transportation to some of our stores. We insist on screened bark for our customers and bark nuggets rather than random strings of bark. We believe that our customers will pay more for these premium barks and come to our stores season after season for this quality look for their homes.
Thomas Mundy is not in your garden store to pick up a pack of pansies or a can of bug spray. His mission is to find any violation of the American Disabilities Act and haul you into court.
