Gardening Which? has uncovered what some of us have considered for ages; big is too impersonal, lacking in customer care and devoid of clued-up staff.
A recent Which? survey asked over 6,000 of its members to rate three retailers it had bought plants from in the last year.
The results, which were revealed on today's Telegraph are hardly a surprise but small and large retailers alike, should take note.
The worst performing culprits are the big chain DIY stores, supermarkets and large garden centre chains who sell plants and gardening equipment; Wyevale, the country's largest chain of garden centres is one of the poorest performers - Focus and Homebase ranked bottom, so too did Tesco.
Wyevale claims the survey was unfair as they were undertaking a management shake-up at the time.
Smaller family garden centres and nurseries came out best and I think the reasons for this are so simple that they are still all too often overlooked: good old fashioned passion, experience and plant skills - if the owners of the business care about and understand their respective markets it is reflected so strongly through their customer service.
Genuine care and attention - not to mention a love for what they are doing - goes directly into the product; these business owners are not 9-5pm five days a week; they eat sleep and breath what they do and a corporate cannot compete.
Whilst the internet and its influence continues to radiate and publicise changes in the way we all do business, certain businesses are, subconsciously, starting to return to older style sales and marketing practices.
This juxtaposition highlights how today's markets are expanding into ever-decreasing circles and my view is that local garden skills will be selling local garden products to local gardeners.
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