 Dundee Nursery and Landscaping—with locations in Plymouth and Hutchison, Minn.—is gearing up for its typical intense spring season. Kim Gaida, manager of the Plymouth store (www.dundeenursery.com), is ready to get the garden-party started. GARDEN CENTER: How will you kick off spring in your store? KIM GAIDA: Our Spring Expo is usually our biggest event of the year. It starts on a Saturday with a mini trade show. Our vendors come in with their new products, and our landscapers will create a 20- by 40-foot display garden. We also partner with a local restaurant to offer complimentary food to guests. And there are cooking demonstrations using infused oils, showing how to make pesto pizza. It’s a great way for customers to see what they can do with the herbs they’ll be growing in the spring. In total, we’ll host five seminars over the course of the day. Plus people will have coupons to use, including one that’s for 20-percent off your purchase. Even though it’s early in the season, we’ll have some kind of plant material on hand for people to buy. There are plenty of customers determined to walk out with at least a pansy pack. On Sunday is our Garden Party. For $29.99 participants get to plant up their own hanging basket using a variety of plugs. We’ll ship the baskets to our growing range to fill out, and customers will pick them up later in the season. We’ll also be hosting a silent auction with proceeds benefitting Interfaith Outreach, a local charity. GC: How do you personally get re-energized for spring? KG: This year I got to go to ANLA Management Clinic in January—which I always love to attend. And right at the beginning of the year is our local show, Northern Green Expo. That event is almost like a family reunion. Once you’re part of the green industry in this part of the world, you typically stick around for a long time. In March we also had some vendor-led training seminars. It’s another great way to get out of the office and learn. January and February are slow times—a lot of paperwork and prep time. We can’t wait for the first day you have annual packs on the benches and you get the first whiff of that wet-watered-soil smell. We might be tired of it six months later, but it’s exciting at that moment. GC: Which of your marketing initiatives are you most excited about? KG: We’re expanding our social media presence. We’re currently on Facebook and Twitter, and we’re adding Foursquare to the mix. This is a social-media game where you log in on your smartphone each time you visit a place. The person with the most “check ins” receives the title of “mayor.” We’re looking into giving prizes to whoever is “mayor” on given day. It’s another way of reaching out to the smartphone generation. But we’re also trying not to alienate our traditional shoppers who rely on the mail. We remain a very coupon-driven store. Over our 60-plus years in business our customers have been trained to look for these. We have customers who call the store asking about particular coupons we offer each year. GC: Describe a crazy incident you’ve dealt with during the spring rush. KG: Last year I stepped in as cashier to give one of our part-timers a break. A customer I was checking out went off on me for “touching” her plants. She kept carrying on and tried to get the customer behind her to justify her rant. The other customer wouldn’t agree with her, so she got madder. It was crazy. I was very happy it was me who had to deal with this woman—not one of my 16-year-old cashiers. They probably would’ve been in tears. But it didn’t faze me. GC: Tell us about your customer loyalty program. KG: Our Grow Club is still going strong. We recently updated our POS system, which should make recording and issuing rewards more efficient. Our policy used to be that for every $1 you spend, you get a point. Once you reached 500 points, we mailed you a $25 gift card. Now that we’re using Counterpoint [POS], everything is handled via computer. You attach the customer’s name to a sale, allowing you to track accumulated points. If enough have been earned, the customer can use them at that moment. We knew the new system would mean more redemption. So now for every 400 points you earn, you get $10 to redeem on your next purchase. GC: What do you like most about your job? KG: I’ve always liked being outside and not sitting at desk. And it’s never the same thing every day. There are even times when I get to jump on the Bobcat and do some loading! It gives you something to look forward to. |
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