Trends: Expanding your market
X marks the sore spot... So you want to reach a broader audience than the Baby Boomer mom who has frequented your store at least monthly, almost from the day you opened? Good luck with that. Adapting to the demands of Generations X and Y can be almost as challenging as finding the values of X and Y. As someone who is algebraically-challenged, I can vouch for the difficulty in the latter task. As someone who has been exploring the nature of the "new audience" for retailers, I, likewise, can assure you that we haven't used the word "challenging" loosely.

Take the people who people Generation X — please! In a nutshell, Gen Xers were born between 1963 and 1978 and coined the term, "whatever!," which pretty much explains the collective attitude of the group. Generation X generally doesn't trust the political, religious and societal institutions revered (or at least respected) by the Baby Boomer. The group sees nothing inherently wrong with bouncing from job to job, largely because members of the group see work as a means to an end — that end being to "take the money and run."

Family values aren't intrinsic to the group, which is understandable, because many members of the group had families that didn't fit the model of earlier generations. A great many were "latchkey kids," left at home after school to mind for themselves. Another great number of the members of Generation X saw their parents divorce. But the Gen Xer does know how to network and he/she will seize the day — in fact, if the group has a mantra, "carpe diem" would be it.

So, how do you attract someone like this to the store? At least one source says, "DON'T!" Indeed, BrandChannel.com suggests bypassing Generation X for most of your marketing, instead aiming it at members of Generation Y, which tend to be more positive and more eager to buy. As Rob Frankel, author of The Revenge of Brand X, explains, Gen Yers represent the ripest purchasing demographic yet: "Gen Xers were the first generation raised where consumption is a way of life. Boomers bought stuff because they needed it; Xers buy because they want it. Gen Y is less rooted in traditional social mores and ethics. They are easier targets, because they have grown up in a culture of pure consumerism. They're more likely to buy because they see buying as a part of life."

Eventually, every retailer will have to reach out to a new demographic, so you would do well to bone up on the groups lining up to not line up behind the Baby Boomers. Wikipedia has great studies on X and Y. In fact, they could help you "Z" what the future holds.

Puzzling pictures
Jumble-aya... One of the pictures below is a puzzle. Find the correct one and then piece the product together again. If you are so fortunate as to accomplish this feat in less than one second, Guinness probably has a place for you in its book of world records... right beside that Chinese guy with the really long, curly fingernails.

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Pick 'n Click
Chic seek... Do you need to find garden/gift items fast? These suppliers are RWaA (ready, willing and able) to send you the information you seek. Click the company for e-reader service.

Achla Designs Allsop, Inc. Alpine Corporation Aquascape Designs, Inc. ATLAS Glove Consumer Products, a Div. of LFS, Inc. Bamboo Accents Bar Harbor Cedar Bartlett Bench & Wire, Inc. BC Landscape & Nursery Association Benchmaster by Structural Plastics Best 1 Hummingbird Feeders Bio Organics Black River Nursery Bloom Master Planter Corp. Bowling Enterprises Brass Baron Fountains & Statuary, The Braun Horticulture Brook & Hunter Carruth Studio, Inc. Carson Industries Ceramo Co. Clean Air Gardening Collier Metal Specialties, Inc. Country Originals, Inc. Crescent Trading Group, LLC d'barro Pottery Daniels Plant Food Danove Corporation Deer Out DeWitt Co., Inc. Discount Pond Supplies, Inc. Dorothy Biddle Service DSD International Echo Valley Ecological Laboratories, Inc. Fabriscape Fafard Fancy Home Products Featherock, Inc. Fiskars Brands Foxgloves Gardenware Gifts That Bloom Good Directions, Inc. Hines Pottery Horticopia, Inc. Inca Imports J. B. Designs, LLC Kay Berry

Little's Good Gloves Macore Co. Maine Bucket Company, Inc., The Melrose International Michael Gordon LTD National Lawn & Garden Show New Creative Enterprises Novelty Manufacturing Co. Ohio Wholesale, Inc. Olds Seed Company Par A Sol Parker Davis Company, Inc. Perfectly Natural Solutions Pioneer Plants, LLC Plant Revolution, Inc. Poly-Tex, Inc. Pride of Place Plants, Inc. Principle Plastics Punxsutawney Glass & Tile Co. Radius Garden LLC Red Carpet Studios Riverside Enterprises Ruibal's Topiary Systems & Ironworks Rustic Natural Cedar Furniture Co. SATO Labeling Solutions America, Inc. Savio Engineering, Inc. SeedBallz Sherman Nursery Company Silcast, Inc. Standpoint (formerly N-Query) Stoney Creek Sunlight Supply, Inc. Tetra Pond Tierra-Derco International T-Mate-O Topiary Art Works & Greenhouses Tula Hats Unique Stone, Inc. Veldsma & Sons, Inc. Walter E. Clark & Son Wayside Fence Company Wellmaster Carts West County Gardener Winston Company Year-A-Round Corp. Zoe's Tropicals ZooBox International LLC

 

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Oh, yeah, the riddle answer...
(Insert obligatory forehead slap here)... A goose.

 
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