Statuary and fountain tips

Selling fountains and statuary can be a challenge. They’re big, they’re bulky and they’re hard to merchandise.

But some stores have great success. How much do those stores promote the category? How much do they carry in the store? Here’s what a cross-section of retailers had to say about selling the category:

Draw out-of-season customers

Trevor Cole

Across the Pond, Huntsville, Ala.

One of the things we do for nontraditional sales is to run a 20-percent-off sale from Thanksgiving through the middle of December. What I mean by nontraditional sale is that it’s not typical to sell those products during that time of year. But when we do that, it drives sales.

We tie that in with the early-order programs that manufacturers have; we do the early order and take early delivery so we have brand-new product to sell at a discount in the winter.

We don’t discount them at any other time. I work on the principle that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

The main reason we sell so many fountains is that we have such diverse selection and choices, and we always have them running. Fountains will not sell themselves if you don’t have the water running and you don’t maintain them and keep them clean. This category requires attention and requires keeping them looking good.

We don’t stock deep; we don’t do 10 of anything. We might have two or three of the popular ones in different colors. So when someone buys something, it’s a little like an exclusive fountain.

We change the styles of fountains that we stock. Just because we sell one style today doesn’t mean that we add it back into inventory tomorrow. We may stock a different style so people see different fountains all the time and our inventory doesn’t become boring to them. We try to give the shopper a fresh experience every time he comes to the store, so rotation on these products is important to us.

For more: Trevor Cole, Across the Pond; (256) 859-0123; www.acrossthepond.biz.

Make use of the marquee

Sharon Carr

Arkansas Garden Center, Little Rock, Ark.

We do a lot of advertising on our marquees. That makes fountains move.

Plus, we have all of our fountains running all the time, winter, spring, summer and fall. If you don’t run your fountains, you can’t sell them. We don’t freeze that badly here, and if we leave our water running continuously, they won’t freeze up.

For more: Sharon Carr, Arkansas Garden Center, (501) 868-9933; http://argardencenter.com.

Self-promotion leads to sales

Gary Patterson

Gardener’s World, Phoenix

One thing we do is teach a class on water features, so people who are interested in water features come in and see all the different kinds of fountains. Classes are very popular. If you educate people, they will come. We even educate our wholesale customers; we have classes for them that they’re willing to pay for.

I write one article a month in a couple of newspapers, and I often mention water features. I also do a lot of TV -- the stations come out and interview me all the time. I’ve positioned myself as an expert. I wrote for Phoenix Home and Garden Magazine for 10 years, and I did a TV show for 12 years. So all the stations now use me as the local expert. It’s all about selling the pizzazz.

Statuary is not very popular in Arizona. I think that’s more of an eastern thing.

We do a spring sale, and between Thanksgiving and Christmas we put some items on special.

For more: Gary Patterson, Gardener’s World, (602) 437-0700; www.gardenpro.net.

Slash and sell

Mark Gauthier

Statuary World Patio and Fireside, Oklahoma City

I knock 20 percent off as often as I possibly can. We also run a 20-percent-off sale on all our concrete items at Christmas, and 50 percent off on marble and a lot of our glazed products.

If the weather’s bad and someone still comes out to buy a fountain or a piece of statuary, I tell them I’ll give them 20 percent off just for coming out in the bad weather to buy it.

For more: Mark Gauthier, Statuary World Patio and Fireside, (405) 478-7000; www.statuaryworld.com.

Subliminal message

Peter Vera

Mahoney’s Garden Center, Winchester, Mass.

In the background of every ad we’re running, whether it’s for poinsettias or some other kind of plant, we make sure there’s a picture of a birdbath or a fountain. Even though that’s not what we’re featuring, we make sure they’re always a visual part of the ad. So we’re doing cross-merchandising within the photograph.

At the beginning of the season, we set up all our fountains in one area, and we have them all running. We have a slate floor that we use where we merchandise all the fountains.

Although fountains and statuary generally are not impulse items, we have found that small statuary sells well during the holiday season. So we keep small birds, small frogs, rabbits and other statuary that’s under 10 pounds during that period of time; we do a repurchase of small statues in the fall for Christmas. We don’t purchase a huge number, but enough to make a nice display.

For more: Peter Vera, Mahoney’s Garden Center, (781) 729-5900; www.mahoneysgarden.com.

If they sell, don’t discount

Cathy Hough

Marina del Ray Garden Center, Marina del Ray, Calif.

We don’t do any special promotions for fountains and statuary. We don’t put things on sale, and we don’t discount anything. It’s a cliché, but our niche in southern California -- not just locally -- is our fountains, statuary and pottery. We have the biggest inventory around, and people know that. So we don’t need to discount, we don’t want to discount and we never have.

One thing we do is make sure we have things in stock. We take special orders, but we’re also well-known for our huge inventory. The demand is there, and the supply is here.

For more: Cathy Hough, Marina del Rey Garden Center, (310) 823-5956; http://marinagardencenter.com.

Modest self-sellers

Liz LeStrange

Chelsea Garden Center, New York City

We don’t get real deep into statuary and fountains, but we also don’t have to do any promotions to encourage their sale. They sell very well on their own.

For more: Liz LeStrange, Chelsea Garden Center, (212) 727-7100; www.chelseagardencenter.com.

Traditional ad campaigns bring ’em in

Su Morford

Gulley Greenhouse and Garden Center, Fort Collins, Colo.

We do a lot of local print advertising, and we advertise on our marquee. We run sales on those products from time to time; that’s what we advertise on the marquee.

Generally we don’t offer free installation, but if someone is having trouble installing something we’ll go out and give them a hand with it. However, most of the statuary and fountains we have are pretty customer ready; we’ve gone more toward resin products so they’re easier for the customer to handle.

For more: Su Morford, Gulley Greenhouse and Garden Center, (970) 223-4769; www.gulleygreenhouse.com.

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- Carolee Anita Boyles

Carolee Anita Boyles is a freelance writer in Tampa, Fla.

April 2008