Is extended trading hours the answer to the garden industry decline?

On March 10th, the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) introduced a private members bill into the House of Lords, demanding that garden centres should be allowed to open for longer hours on Sunday's and even open on Easter Sunday.

David Gwyther, the Director General of the HTA, argues that time is too short for garden centres to sell their wares and by extending the opening hours - previously set in 1994 - it would give business the opportunity to increase takings by millions of pounds.

Although the bill, which will receive a second hearing on the 16th May 2008, seeks to allow longer trading hours countrywide, the final decision still rests with the local authorities who will have the final say in issuing licenses.

Barking up the wrong tree

Is this a typically short sighted approach to solving a problem that does not exist? whilst any business is never immune to a drop in sales, the solution is not, in my view, to extend trading hours.

The key to improving sales and margins within the time that is already available is to improve the quality of the produce that is being sold.

Only this week, industry veteran, keen gardener and horticultural photographer Richard Loader, hinted that the industry might be in crisis because of the way in which garden centres treat the plants.

In a scathing dig at garden centres, Richard uses a very hard hitting line "Plants go to Nurseries to grow - Plants go to Garden Centres to die.", explaining that the garden centre is optimized for people where as a nursery, the key ingredient in the life of a plant, is geared up to produce and care for plants.

I have covered this before on and I will say it again. This is now the time to get back to basics and start sending the industry to where it started and that is proper in house grown plants.

By all means create a chain of nurseries but give that nursery it's own identity and use the plantsman's knowledge and skill to produce the best plants possible.

If you are a true gardener you will be happy to pay double what a nursery is forced to sell to the garden centres for and still get a discount on the price the rip off garden centres are selling for.

I think Richard Boyd sums up what most of us feel in a straight to the point post over as Real Oasis.

I am a believer that the traditional garden centre is a dead concept and what big retailers have done,by buying up these rural business's with temporary structures and agricultural rates, is set up very lucrative out of town stores, to sell items that were previously available on the high street.

What are your views on this, do you think extending the opening hours for garden centres is the key or do you think, improving the quality of what they sell is the answer?

Comments

[Richard Loader]

Hi Phil - Just a note about the quote from my item on AtWaG.
I can't claim credit for being the first to use it, in fact I first heard it at a conference from the mouth of one of the trainers. He was trying to stimulate debate about the issues that Nurseries have in getting their plants merchandised effectively on the Garden Centre sales benches with a view to increased sales and less wastage.
That was at least 10 years ago - I've never forgotten the line because I do believe it encapsulates the problems that exist in plant retailing in Garden Centres and even more so in the 'Sheds'
I don't want to appear anti Garden Centre, although I am pro Nursery and pro customer. It's important that when the public buy plants they understand what goes on behind the scenes. It's all a bit like the debate in the UK about Farmers returns from supermarkets where the retailer seems to have an unfair advantage.
I look forward to hearing more views.....

[Mike Gilmore]

Garden Centres can not be written off so quickly, but as the owner of a private garden open daily to the public (which has a rich and informative website as Philip knows), it is no surprise to me that visitor numbers are falling. Since it has been many years since I sourced a plant from a garden centre and the reasons for this are straightforward.
Garden centres have rather lost the plot over the years and the variety of plants offered is no better than some DIY shops which have more buying power.
When I want a plant or gardening equipment I don't wish to wade through crowded areas of glassware, pets corner, clothing, home-made crafts, fishing tackle, restaurant and coffee shop, conservatory furniture, fudge counters and the like before I can even reach a disappointing range of plants!
I tend to agree with Philip that GC's need to get back to basics, as otherwise they are the author's of their own demise. They certainly don't need longer opening.

[Helen G]

I agree with Mike Gilmore. As someone with only a few years of gardening under her belt, I hadn't until recently realised the difference between garden centres and nurseries.

I have watched a popular, thriving local nursery turn into a popular, thriving garden centre, meaning a huge expansion in all the items that Mike mentions, and I hate the fact that, as you walk through the door, you're greeted, not by the smell of plants, but the intense synthetic aroma arising from gift soaps and the like.

I don't want soap. I want a wider variety of plants.

But, that apart, only since actually thinking about the quality of the plants I've bought - the lack of figs, the death of a cherry tree - have I twigged that all might not be well with the garden centre.

The result has been that when I needed a bramley this year I turned, for the first time, to a specialised nursery and now have a tree that, even without leaves, seems to be oozing vitality.

I used to look forward to a trip to the garden centre. Now it seems like a waste of time. And that extra hour or so on Sunday just isn't going to make the difference, to me or the merchandise.

[Philip Voice]

Some great points made above by Richard, Mike and Helen and the consensus seems to be - give us a better choice of plants of the finest quality.

Helen describes a familiar scenario. The hot spots for the best selling products in the garden centre are the point of entry and the desire lines.

Just as a supermarket would put sweets at child height at the checkouts so that stressed out mums, would capitulate and buy a packet of sweets to pacify her child as she waits in line, garden centres are putting the sweet smelling oils and soaps in prime spots and leaving the plants deep inside the outside areas which are less inviting and glitzy.

Maybe, just maybe, garden centres are run by shop keepers now and they have little or no knowledge of the business in which they are in?