The elephant in the room

You can stock the best and most interesting products in your garden center, but without adequate merchandising, customers may walk right past them without a second look, ignoring them as they might ignore a so-called "elephant in the room." In this issue, we share some of the best merchandising techniques we’ve seen in our travels, as well as asked some industry experts about what’s worked for them. The elephant on our cover and shown again here is a great example of an eye-catching way to show off an otherwise not as eye-catching product. We found this gem at Petitti Garden Center's Strongsville location, sitting pretty in the containers section.

We kick off our merchandising special section with a piece of Germany in the cover story. Dinger’s Gartencenter in Cologne regularly draws customers from up to 125 miles away with high-quality, thoughtfully merchandised hard and green goods. We come back to the U.S. to look at how a tiger named Kaline drummed up business for one independent garden center in South Carolina, and how one grower-retailer developed a thriving farmers market stand - and how you can apply these tips to small spaces within your store (Make the most of nooks and crannies). Lastly, don’t miss the photos of the creative succulents combinations and displays we saw in our travels this year.