Store Design

10162

The Most Important Room in the House

Restrooms are often a deciding factor (and sometimes a deal-breaker) for your customers when it comes to choosing whether or not they will return to your garden center.When we need to go, we need to... more »

10178

Better When Bartered

Looking to give your garden center's layout a little extra oomph but don't have the extra cash to make renovations? Barter your space for some much needed improvements.Look around your garden center. It's nothing but... more »

10178

Turning Pests Into Profits

Increasingly, customers turn to the winning combination of Chalet Nursery's knowledgeable staff and its Plant Health Care Center to help diagnose and treat their plant ailments.There is nothing like the reaction of an amazed customer... more »

10155

Park It!

Your garden center's parking lot is the first thing your prospective customers see when they drive up, so why should it be an afterthought for you?Famous last words from garden center owners:"We filled the parking... more »

10169

Things Are Looking Up

Success in retail is predicated on the ability to compel the prospective customer to stop, look and buy. Throughout retail's grand evolution, merchants have creatively enticed customers into their stores and through their selling environments.... more »

10169

The Art of the Layout

Store planning and design are consistently at the top of our list of things retailers need to do well in order to have a successful store. Merchandise will sell itself when a store's design is... more »

10128

Celebrate the Customer, the Merchandise, the Seasons

The Chalet Nursery, a 90-year-old nursery, garden center and landscaping business in Wilmette, Ill., "is not really known for its sales," says buyer and merchandising manager John Hoerst. Visitors to the Chalet are not greeted... more »

10145

Catering to your Christmas Consumer

With the growth of mass retailers and chain stores, the competition for Christmas merchandise dollars can seem daunting for an independent garden center (IGC). Although there has been a bit of a downward trend in... more »

10145

Creating An Animated Christmas Fantasyland

Every retailer faces fierce competition in today's Christmas marketplace. Christmas merchandise is now sold through every imaginable outlet. Whether it's drug store chains, home improvement stores or even the local supermarket, everyone wants a piece... more »

10145

Visualizing Christmas

Visual merchandising gets a great deal of attention during the Christmas season, a period in which stores claim to make 50 percent of their sales and 75 percent of their profit. Merchandise and decorating plans... more »

10145

Are Your Restrooms Working For You?

Space is precious for garden centers. The more products and displays customers see, the more likely they will be to make purchases, which means every available store space needs to be used. While it may... more »

10127

How Do Our Customers Behave?

Do we really know our customers? Retailing today is becoming more and more of a science. Consultants monitor shoppers from the point they enter a stores until they leave, noting and analyzing every action. There... more »