Pohmer

April 2020

Does the In-Store Experience Matter?

I recently celebrated my birthday (I defer on saying how old, but suffice it to say that if they actually had a lit candle for each year on the cake, our local fire department would... more »

March 2020

Keeping it Focused!

Managing a garden center today is challenging in a dynamic, complex, market-driven, highly competitive environment that changes at warp speed dictated not only by external factors, but by weather. While you can anticipate and plan... more »

February 2020

What’s Your Company’s DNA?

Being the master of understatement, let me state the obvious: managing a retail business in today’s competitive environment is not for the faint of heart! Not only are you battling other brick and mortar retailers... more »

November/December 2019

Sleeping with the (Fr)enemy…

It won’t come as a surprise to most of you that retail is as tough as it’s ever been, and the impact on retailers is ominous. It’s been recently reported that national and regional chain... more »

August 2019

A Sense of Balance …

Conventional wisdom says that with age comes knowledge and experience, and one should then be able to ferret out the answers and solutions to those deep, consequential questions and challenges that have eluded us. The... more »

July 2019

What Your Brand Message Says ABOUT YOU …

I was just reading about the once great Sears announcing a re-branding with a new logo, a new tagline — “Making moments matter” — and a new focus on “home and heart.” In my mind,... more »

June 2019

Competing Against the Amazon Effect

I came across an interesting statistic recently that amazed me, though after thinking about it for a bit, it really didn’t surprise me ... 78% of adults in the U.S. are registered or signed up... more »

April 2019

Retail Isn’t Dead; Boring Retail Is!

Let me set the stage for you. In 2019, 5,524 regional and national department, discount, sporting goods, home improvement, supermarket and other chain stores closed, while only 1,411 new stores opened (these numbers don’t take... more »

March 2019

Experiences Matter

In previous issues of L&GR, I've commented that the key to creating a relationship with your customer that leads to repeat purchases over the long haul — the Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) philosophy — is... more »

February 2019

It’s a Two-Way Street

The retail marketplace as we've always known it is irreversibly changed, driven by a shift in the consumers’ sensibilities, value perception and expectations. I’m a firm believer that change can be good, especially when the... more »

January 2019

Time to Re-Think Your Success Formula?

January is the month of good intentions, new resolutions, the beginning of a new season and a new year, a clean slate to write our new history on, all abuzz with exciting new plans and... more »

November/December 2018

Competition on Steroids in Food Retailing

We constantly remind ourselves about how competitive the garden center marketplace is ... and it truly is! Products in our industry are sold in locally owned garden centers, home improvement chains, florists, discount chains and... more »