Profiles in Power: A different perspective

Q. Should growers and retailers raise plant prices for their customers to match rising supply and labor costs?

A. I think that we’re our own worst enemy in raising prices. We don’t think the consumer will pay it. We’re in competition for discretionary income, but we sell ourselves continually short on what we sell. We need to do a good job in the market to sell merchandise and sell the product at retail.

You can’t sell a bad plant for a lot of money, but you can sell a good plant for more. If retailers do an upscale display with nice plants and ask a reasonable amount of money for them (but still get the money they need), people will buy them. Price isn’t the issue.

People still spend money even in today’s economy. If they want it, they buy it. If you go to a good restaurant, sometimes on Saturday night you can’t get in, you need reservations.

People spend the money on what they want to buy if they have a need. All you have to do is create the need. It can be food; it can be anything we consume on a daily basis. If we create that demand, people will spend money. We’ve got a commodity; the consumer views us as a commodity, and we just keep downplaying the commodity. We need to get more money for ourselves.

Q. What suggestions do you have for garden centers hoping to increase their plant sales next year?

A. I think they need to help the consumer create a need and then supply the solution to fill that need, making people want to go out and buy something. I know it’s difficult to do in a marketing world where it would cost millions and millions of dollars to do a national marketing campaign. So if you do it locally, it’s basically one-on-one trying to create that need and plant that seed with the consumer that for that dollar you’re spending, you get $1.10 [in value] back.

Generation X is still only 10 percent smaller than the baby boomers. There are still a lot of people out there, but we’ve acted like the whole market has just gone away. It really hasn’t, [even though] it’s smaller, and it’s not increasing. You need to go out there and identify these people and give them some solutions and a shopping experience. Some retailers do a really good job of creating a shopping experience, and other retailers are worrying about cost and not charging what they should.

Q. What makes up a good shopping experience?

A. Good looking plants, well-displayed plants, some solutions in the store, little vignettes to give you ideas, solution-based displays, things that you see in general retail. Another thing we do as an industry is we make this thing way too complicated. We’ve got all of those botanical names out there, and the consumer walks in off the street, and just wants something that looks good. They want a solution for their yard, what grows in the shade, what grows in the sun, how big does it get, what can I do here? They’re not walking in there looking for some oddball plant. They may take an oddball plant that looks good and [fills] that need, but we make it way too difficult for them to buy plants. I think retail needs to be somewhat simplified.

When I was in Europe in the late 90s looking at garden centers with consultant Ian Baldwin, the garden centers were stocked with what looked good that week. They didn’t necessarily need forsythia in the garden center in July. If it wasn’t in bloom or didn’t really look good, they had none or very few. They had a few trees. It’s like the fruit in the grocery store — the seasonal produce that you can buy at a reasonable price that day is what you want sitting there. If the tomatoes aren’t looking very good right now, or there are very few tomatoes, they aren’t featured.

Q. What plants do you think will be most popular next year, that IGCs should be sure to stock?

A. I think they’re going to be similar to where they have been. It’s going to be about color for the most part — accent or replacement type plants. Perennials, hydrangeas, roses and so forth — people are looking for that color.

Until we change the paradigm out there and teach people that they need to actually tear plants out of their house and relandscape it … people plant a plant and think it should last forever. How old is your computer, your phone, your TV? It’s a throwaway society except for when it comes to plants. They put those down and think they’re going to last forever. We need to change the paradigm and we’ll change the marketplace, [teach them] that they can throw them away and replace them, that there is a value in relandscaping and dressing up your yard.

Q. Do you have any other thoughts on the green industry as a whole?

A. It’s going to be an interesting challenge for the next five years. We’ve got to learn how to adapt to the marketplace that we’re currently in, and that seems to be a challenge. Nobody seems to know what it should be, what it looks like, or anything, and how the consumer’s going to react, how they are going to shop.

We have to work on continually improving, creating that need and providing solutions for the consumer. You can criticize the box stores (we don’t sell to box stores) but in some cases they’re filling that need. You can buy some decent plants there.

It’s certainly not all about price there anymore at the box stores. The stuff isn’t all that cheap. They’re getting a decent margin for their products; they’re providing a solution; it’s easy to get in, get out. So that’s what the IGCs have to do. Other than that, if I knew any more, I’d be rich!