May 21, 2015
GCA Opens Entries for Best Bathroom

Garden Centers of America's Best Garden Center Bathroom Awards, now in their fifth year, recognize IGC retailers whose restrooms contribute to the store's favorable shopping experience.

Garden Centers of America’s (GCA) Best Garden Center Bathroom Awards, now in their fifth year, recognize IGC retailers whose restrooms contribute to the store’s favorable shopping experience. Convenient and clean restrooms rank high in women’s decisions on where to shop, according to retail visionary Paco Underhill, author of the best-selling books “What Women Want: The Science of Female Shopping” and “Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping.” IGC retailers are encouraged to submit their garden center bathrooms, including, but not limited, to recent renovations and remodels, for this prestigious juried competition.

The deadline for entries is 5 p.m. EDT, June 26, 2015. The winner of the top honor, the Gold Award, will receive a plaque and one free registration for next year’s GCA Summer Tour 2016.

Other recognitions will include a Silver Award and several Awards of Merit, honored with plaques. GCA winning bathrooms get noticed by customers. Mark Linton, owner of Linton’s Enchanted Gardens in Elkhart, Indiana, put his GCA Best Garden Center Bathroom 2014 Silver Award Plaque just inside the store’s main entrance as soon as it arrived last year.

“Our customers have always commented on our restroom facilities, and now they talk about them even more since the plaque is there,” he says. Linton’s bathrooms were recognized in last year’s awards for creatively merchandising seasonal products customers can purchase, such as personal care items, decor and even artificial trees.

“Wall art continues to sell very well from the bathrooms,” Linton says. To enter the competition, garden centers should send several photos of their store bathrooms, saved in jpeg file format, along with a brief paragraph about the bathrooms, the concept behind the designs and their benefits to the garden center.

This information, along with the name of the store and key contact, address, phone and e-mail address, should be e-mailed to [email protected].


Tags: