Weekend Reading 12/20/24

Welcome to Garden Center magazine's Weekend Reading, a weekly round-up of consumer garden media stories meant to help IGCs focus marketing efforts, spark inspiration and start conversations with consumers.

This week: How to help your customers create native landscapes, ideas for creative plant containers, updates from one of your big box competitors, why department stores are abandoning the "retail inventory method" and PayPal raising prices for merchants.

How to create a native landscape in 2025 – experts reveal eco-friendly gardening secrets to transform your plot, Homes & Gardens

Gardening experts share tips on how to create a native landscape — and you can share these tips with your customers.

If it can hold dirt, it's a flower pot, The South Reporter

Felder Rushing shares some creative options for vessels to hold plants, from buckets to a saxophone — more ideas to share with your customers!

Lowe’s debuts marketplace, plans store fleet growth, Retail Dive

An update from big box competitor Lowe's: It plans to open 10 to 15 stores annually in the coming years in fast-growing U.S. markets to attract new DIY and pro customers. The company also plans to also expand its rural product assortment — selections that appeal to the farm segment, including pet, work apparel, automotive supplies and utility vehicles — to 150 more stores, bringing the format to almost 500 locations overall. It's also launching a home improvement product marketplace.

Nordstrom and Macy’s abandoned the ‘retail inventory method’ after using it for decades. Here’s why, Retail Dive

The accounting practice, embraced by department stores in the 1920s, is outdated, skews key metrics and fosters bad decisions, analysts say, Retail Dive reports.

PayPal to raise prices for merchants, Retail Dive

If your IGC utilizes PayPal, here's a heads-up: It plans to increase fees U.S. merchants pay for some of its services, including buy now, pay later options, starting next month, according to Retail Dive.

Enjoy your reading and have a great weekend!

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