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Are you confident with your strategies that address the needs and desires of the next demographic wave of garden and lifestyle customers? No? Me neither.

We can speculate all we like, but only time will tell if the next 10 years of consumers will continue to see the garden retailer as a part of their lives. What we can say with absolute certainty is what works today, and pull out some strong indications of what will work tomorrow.

With that in mind, I think it is time to look at one home-run aspect of retailing known to succeed with all customers: the use of hot spots and prime space.

Clear, unambiguous displays with open, accessible products and a motivating message are winners for the overwhelming majority of consumers, now and in the future.

Full was good

Being a simple, hunter-gathering male, I never personally liked the choice-laden, discovery-based displays of the last 20 years. But I did understand the appeal to other shoppers. Many customers were collectors, for whom the very act of looking through every piece from every angle in every light, and then reading all possible information, was a stimulating part of the process. So full was good.

Other customers were hobbyists for whom detailed shopping was as essential to their motivation as the tailgate party is to the football fan. For the hobbyist, figuring things out in a store was part of the fun.

Now simple is king

But as many people in the industry now accept, consumers are changing. Whether it is the ageing boomer or the busy 20- to 40-year-olds, consumers now feel they have no time to stand and figure things out. If a display doesn't click within seconds, they're off.

Given this huge change in the shopping needs of our customer, how has the style, message or construction of displays changed?

From what I have seen on my travels, the brutal answer has to be "not much." I still see rings of alternating pink and white annuals around fountains and table legs. There are still legions of perennials lined up for battle on an A-to-Z basis. You can go into almost any garden center and see end caps with no obvious message, theme or, worse yet, no plan or discipline.

Hot or not?

Hot spots such as end caps and junctions can often make enough money to pay for the dead spots; so if the hot spots aren't clicking, the store is in trouble before the customer walks 50 feet. Yet in 2006 you can easily find garden center hot-spot displays with room for 40 plants that are filled with two each of 20 varieties, instead of 20 each of just two varieties.

The space with the highest earning potential in the whole store may hold a display of $2.99 items or, worse still, $1.99 seed packets on guaranteed sale. End caps in particular and hot spots in general are not being used to earn money. We can and we must do better. Some of the so-called leading garden retailers, big and small, already have. As those who attend the many garden center tours will agree, some independents now get it. But I thought it was time to show some successes instead of just pointing out the challenges

Summerwinds Garden Centers replaced regular tables with imposing pyramids. This ensures that buyers purchase in volumes, their display teams practice volume and customers buy volumes. Reduce the choice, make an impact, make it shopable and watch it fly.

And Armstrong Garden Centers in California has end cap rules that include color blocking and minimum value. While you can argue for tie-ins (they appear on the next end cap), blocking encourages shoppers to buy volumes and gives them an easy, at-a-glance suggestion for a combination in their own gardens.

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© 2006 Branch-Smith Publishing