Management
Imagine your garden center on a busy weekend next spring. It’s buzzing with life again as gardeners — new or experienced — are anxious to get their hands back into the soil after a drab...
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Plant customers are changing. Years ago, when I first started my graduate work, it was immediately after the Great Recession, and horticulture customers indicated that plants were luxury goods. Given the economic environment, this is...
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As I write this in mid-September, the economic climate is tense and uncertain and, as a result, retailers are having trouble planning for the fall/winter 2022 holiday and spring 2023 seasons. As Wayne Gretzky would...
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{Sponsored} American Home & Garden is an Ace Hardware retailer offering hardware and garden products to residents in Manitowoc, Little Chute and Green Bay, Wisconsin. This family-owned...
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Seed Your Future has created Green Career Week to take place Oct. 3-7 as a national campaign led by industry professionals to increase awareness about green industry careers (aka in your garden center) and help...
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Engagement…the act or process of creating emotional involvement or commitment. What a powerful word, one that we use all the time in many different situations. There’s a couple’s engagement, making an emotional commitment and agreement...
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{Sponsored} Implementing an Integrated System Pike Nurseries had been operating its locations using two separate, older computer systems — one for point of sale and one for...
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What’s the scientific response to the question of how long a customer’s memory is? It depends! And the answer will become more critically important as it’s forecasted that inflation, stagflation and recession will all play...
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When the holiday season is in full swing it can be hard to take a moment and enjoy it. Here, four independent garden centers share their tips and advice for avoiding holiday burnout themselves and...
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I was at a restaurant with a friend and she mentioned that she had never waited tables. She said, “When you first start working it seems like you either go the restaurant route or the...
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Back in August 2020, I wrote the column “Krulak’s Law of Leadership,” based on a leadership/management theory presented by retired U.S. Marines Gen. Charles C. Krulak. The crux of his theory was that, though the...
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The Great Resignation that’s taken place over the last two years has made employers re-evaluate how they hire and retain workers. A new study from recruiting software company Lever, “2022 Great Resignation: The State of...
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