Perhaps it's time for you to take another look at outdoor dining. It is so popular now that consumers want more choices than the sturdy but unattractive grills and tables found in mass merchants. Who is going to help them get it? Who will reap the profit from the trend?

Furniture

To sell furniture demands a big commitment. To do it effectively, a retailer needs to devote enough space to show off several models. After all, shoppers want to feel they have a choice. A solitary patio table, no matter how beautiful the teak, will not fare well in your monthly sales report.

That doesn't mean you don't have options. Here are a few techniques to consider that may help you sell furniture effectively.

1. Sell what the big boys don't. Shelters like porches, gazeboes and arbors allow you to dip into casual interior furniture, where style and comfort are the most important factors, not durability. Also take a look at selling high-end patio furniture and build a marketing campaign that throws the spotlight on that quality.

2. Sell party tables. A number of manufacturers have introduced furniture with the single purpose of entertaining. Some have grills built into the center of the table, others have ice chests. Some tables even have fountains built into them. The tables tend to be a little more pricey, but will save customers space at home and make having a few friends over all the more appealing.

3. Place furniture in displays only. The outdoor dining trend is a particularly emotional one, which makes it ideal for creating displays. Pick only a handful of styles that play into your region's architectural styles and set up fantasy scenes. For example, an Arts & Craft patio would emphasize wood. Can't you see it? A boxy table and chairs in a rich brown stain with a lot of lanterns with opaque glass and low walls with plants framing the scene. A sunnier scene could have a Mediterranean-inspired dining set, lots of container plants, hand-painted tiles, a stovelike grill and a disappearing fountain in one corner. Like any furniture store, you can have laminated cards attached to the tables detailing the other sizes and stains the dining sets can come in.

Tabletop

Even if you decide you cannot afford to spare the space grills and furniture require, you don't have to miss out on the outdoor dining phenomenon. There are hundreds of accessories that you can sell. Here are the basics that you should carry:

Dishes. Shop around for truly stylish plastic dishes and cups. Homeowners expect outdoor rooms to be just as coordinated as the interior ones. Whatever color schemes you choose in the place settings will determine the style of any other accessory you buy.

Napkins, napkin rings and tablecloths. Shatter-proof material may play a role in your dishes, but don't stock cheap napkins and tablecloths. Casual, yes; cheap, no. As for napkin rings, homeowners want form over function. Think of napkin rings as table jewelry.

Covers. One risk of eating outside is insects. So, naturally, one of the most popular products associated with outdoor dining are gadgets to foil the bugs. Candles, lamps, zappers and other high-tech insect repellents infringe on the dining experience and have fallen out of favor. Safari-inspired nets and covers have risen in popularity instead. Buyers have a lot to choose from. There are covers, plain and fancy, for individual serving dishes and netting for the entire table and its inhabitants.

Lighting. Nothing creates ambiance like lighting. With this emotion-based trend, lighting is even more important. Layers of lighting are what is popular now. Dinner guests need a fairly bright source of light on the table itself. That can be provided with electric lamps, candles or oil lanterns. Styles vary from tabletop, torchieres that take the place of umbrellas and even chandeliers suspended from the structure the table resides under. A string of lights does not provide light to see by, but sets a mood. It can be attached to the umbrella or around the edge of a porch or gazebo. Then farther out, customers like to have candles or torches that are lower to the ground. They can take the form of stakes, containers or a great variety of holders.

Grills

Many garden centers bailed out of grills years ago when home centers proved to be steep competition. The independents that stayed with grills have had a great deal more success than you might think, however.

Watsons Garden Center in Lutherville, Md., devotes a full third of its interior floor space to grills. The store has been selling grills for more than 20 years and has the admitted advantage of an established clientele. But other retailers can learn from Watsons' considerable experience.

Carry complete lines of top-quality grills. "You have to sell almost everything to be successful," said Chris Travers, store manager of Watsons. "You pick one line and you try to be complete, to make a statement with a very select pick of a line." Good grill manufacturers provide just about every accessory needed to cook a good meal.

Service the products you sell. If you commit yourself to servicing the grills you sell, you will quickly abandon the lure of cheap, seasonal grills. While doing so will cost money and time, it falls in neatly with the service-oriented image independent garden centers are building.

Commit to grills year-round. "We are not in to disposable products like the mass merchants are. It's a year-round product for us," Travers said. True, some regions of the country are more compatible with this business model than others. Yet for mass merchants, grills are a seasonal product.

Sell a full range of complementary products. Watsons' gift department devotes more than 20 feet to sauces, spices, cookbooks and aprons. Even if your store does not sell grills, it can still stock these types of products. They require little floor space, and if merchandised well, will draw a wide range of customers.

For more: Watsons Garden Center, 1620 York Road, Lutherville, MD 21093; (410) 321-7300.

. © 2003 Branch-Smith Publishing