May 2007
The Gardener’s Design Review By Joseph Weishar

What can you do with aprons, work pants, tool belts, wide-brim hats, boots, kerchiefs, old work shirts, carry bags, machines and all the “stuff” that is found around a home garden area? Certainly it is not for a fashion show, at least not within our current fashionable ratings. It would be hard to put garden shop work outfits next to Ralph Lauren designs, but there is obviously a need to look at each category and try to determine what is the best and, if I’m permitted to say, “fashionable” way to show items. Need and want will always be the equation in the fashion picture.

Camping used to be a fairly upscale sport represented by the original Abercrombie and Fitch, whose store always had a racing skull hanging from the ceiling of the first floor. When did tennis move away from whites and when did swimming move away from the tank suit? It’s all a cycle, and somewhere the lawn and garden industry fits into the picture of today’s retailer and customer. Gardening is not just about making things pretty, it is about the way you live. The way you feel about yourself will sponsor the need to adjust the image of sweat-stained, muddy pants to something both useful and even fashionable when wet or dirt stained.

Fashionable Garden Apparel

I’m not suggesting having a garden party in gardening clothes (although that could be fun). What I believe is essential to all shop owners is to “fashionably” present some mundane practical bits of clothing and accessories as items with integrity and image. In virtually all garden centers, these items are sold indoors. That simply means you have at your control the best customer emotion stimulators. Lighting and artistic, pragmatic item presentation are the elements that must be employed and are readily available to anyone who cares.

I leave out fixturing as an element to simply stress that quantity of items shown should be equal to the customer’s image of style and price position. Customers entering a space have a very good idea of what they will find and at what level of taste and competence they will find the items they either need or would like to have.

Presentation Is Key

You must exhibit a consistency of product, accessories and ambience. In the same way, you must think of the most propitious way to show and, hopefully, sell those items. There are many examples of presentation that you can employ at no extra cost to make a signature lasting impression on your clientele.

I have found many wonderful examples of superior presentation both at trade shows and in garden centers. It is not simply making a statement that is exciting to view; it must also be practical to select and buy. The balance between self-selection and sales assistance is the key to the way you handle presentations. There will hardly ever be a case of total customer selection. But the balance among merchandise on hand, staff and expected turns should form the merchandise levels of each item. Your customers weigh the entire picture to determine how the item being presented fits the image they have of the shop’s range.

In all instances, the item presentation falls on the artistic integrity of the sales associate. It is up to the management to provide the atmosphere and encouragement for making presentation of each item “fashionable.” If we look at a few new shops, such as Alessi, the maker of cutlery and kitchen items, or even at Sicis, an Italian floor tile firm, you can easily see how visual image fits within the entire philosophical approach to service and product. People want to be in them and will make them a prime consideration for their shopping. Visual imagery translates to trust in professionalism.

How To Sell It

When Swiss Army created a store to basically sell items related to its iconical knife, the company came out with an entire shop built around their logo and sold clothing and accessories as well as knives. At a ski show in Las Vegas, Nev., I saw a Á mountain of gloves. They weren’t piled high, but they all fit within the profile of a magic mountain display. I think you could easily paint a tree on the wall of your garden center and use the garden gloves as leaves or roots. Ideas translate from one industry to another. Trade shows are made for cross-fertilization of ideas. I guarantee that virtually any trade show could produce a thought or an item that would benefit sales and image in your shop.

Get Creative

Work pants and coveralls have been in fashion since I started in business. Blue jeans were once only work pants. They morphed into reigning fashion. I doubt the same would happen to coveralls, but you can have fun with them and create a stuffed mannequin as a display. Aprons have made a beautiful display, and the interesting aspect to them is that they have been constantly upgraded with changes of sentiment as the years passed.

Functionality First

It matters not to the gardener that they may get their hands or their clothing dirty. What counts is not the approval of others because these items might never make it to a fashion show again. What matters is self-image of the user. They know when they buy something that it has been given the care and thought they apply to themselves when making choices on what to grow, how to lay it out, how much is enough. The intelligence to put together items for sale in an atmosphere that is conducive to and congratulatory for the level of personal appeal is the prime responsibility we have to our customers.



Joseph Weishar

Joseph Weishar is the founder and president of New Visions Studios in New York, N.Y. He is a firm believer that successful stores have an intuitive aesthetic balance. No matter what the merchandise, seamless presentation is a reflection of the unity of all parts of the retail organization. He can be reached at [email protected] or (212) 686-7200.