Julie Kouhia worked at American Express, Starbucks and Amazon before becoming the COO of Molbak's Garden Home ten years ago. Now as CEO, she talked about why they stopped growing plants to focus on retail and other "growth" opportunities.

When walking through Molbak's Garden Home on a busy and bustling Friday before Thanksgiving, you might hear customers talking about the store. A man named Woody walked up to Egon Molbak, who co-founded the Woodinville, Washington company in 1956 with his wife Laina and just recently celebrated Celebrated his 90th birthday. "About 40 years ago, you helped me complete my first yard. I just wanted to thank you," the customer said, shaking hands with Molbak. Two girls under the age of nine pulled over and one of them shouted: "Have you ever been to the cafe? I like this place! I like their pizza." Earlier that morning, customer Diane Williams Without being prompted, she shared the reason why she likes to patronize this store.

"If it's a day when it rains heavily in the summer, I would like to be here, hanging out and going on outings by myself. I like to visit the greenhouse just to listen to the rain," Williams said. "They have a whole set of coleus in different colors, and it gave me great ideas... Just now [a colleague] taught me how to take the branches from the coleus on our front porch."

Julie Kouhia was promoted to Molbak's CEO in June, and when she heard this, she smiled, as she always does.

"You might think that we paid for these people to come here, they are all'plants'," she said.

Kouhia has worked for some of the country's largest and most well-known brands. She carefully studied customer analysis before American Express "big data was cool", directed retail marketing at Starbucks, and led customer marketing plans at Amazon. After working for a Fortune 500 company for ten years, she turned to an independent industry in 2006 and became the COO of Molbak's. Last summer, second-generation owner Jens Molbak promoted her to CEO.

Her tenure at Molbak's is twice as long as her second-longest tenure at Starbucks.

"When I left American Express, Starbucks, and Amazon, there were some life changes that prompted me to leave-this explains why I left, but it doesn't tell you why I stayed at Molbak's," Kouhia said. He has two Children, Anders is 12 years old, Annika is 17 years old. "This is a great industry, and the services we provide to our customers and the wider community are very important. We help people create their own unique gardens and houses-providing a place for communication and recharging. We work in companies that are beneficial to society as a whole. We build a tangible emotional connection between people and their space."

During the “Garden Center” magazine shooting photos in the store’s greenhouse, Kouhia was there and spent her time generously while keenly aware of what was happening in the store. A customer accidentally dropped a roll of ribbon nearby and began to roll off the slightly sloping floor. She ran to pick it up for her. Molbak's is friendly to dogs, but a customer has a very talkative puppy who barks very loudly. Kuhia walked in and said softly that the dog seemed unhappy. everything fine? Has she brought a dog before? Kouhia is friendly to long-term customers, but also understands the store experience.

When preparing for another shoot, she put on fashionable taupe suede boots and spontaneously started tap dancing in place before posing. She grabbed a door displayed in the greenhouse, but noticed that it was a bit shaky and might tip over, and pointed out that maybe they should tie it to something as soon as possible.

She is professional and playful, exuding positive energy. When she walked around the store to greet colleagues, it was obvious that she was respected but approachable. She mentioned that she wanted to look "casual and sophisticated" when taking photos. This description fits her style as well as her personality.

"I think I wanted to hire her when she first started working with us," Jens Molbak said, adding that she was originally a marketing consultant for Molbak's. He began to describe her background. "She has the complete Starbucks experience. This is probably one of the greatest brands from the Northwest Territories, where she helps them manage growth and how to launch and deploy and communicate the Starbucks experience... So I was a bit like, "Gosh. "She has a very unique set of skills between database marketing, brand development and online marketing."

Molbak said that before Kouhia took on the leadership role, people already thought she was running the company, which was a "good sign." They held training sessions, but many of her qualities were not taught.

"She is funny. When we work together, we laugh a lot. She is motivated. She really wants to see good things happen, and she has an inner motivation deep in her heart," he said. "I think this is part of her DNA and her makeup. This is not something you can direct or hire someone for."

Kouhia said that her work ethic came from the way she grew up and the high expectations her parents instilled in the early days.

"Dad always said that you are all smart and you should do things that are very, very difficult for you, because other people may not be able to do it," Kouhia said. Then she smiled and said, "[Me and my siblings] think back now,'Hey, how about following your passion? Doing things that come naturally? But he always pushes this a little bit."

Although Kouhia may have started her career in other industries, her love of plants and gardening was established in her childhood. When Kouhia was about 11 years old, she and her father's friends worked together in a huge vegetable garden with tomatoes, potatoes and pumpkins, as well as asparagus and cauliflower.

"He just taught me a lot about gardening. He is just a great role model and he is very patient," she said. "I grew up in Pullman, and Washington State University is there. This is the land of wheat and the land of farms. So in my life, there are a lot of conversations about the weather and crops, and about it and the economy and the town. Awareness of the connections between people’s livelihoods."

Horticulture, like agriculture, is susceptible to uncontrollable factors such as weather. Kouhia said that until the end of 2012, Molbak's had a solid foundation for growth, when they planted nearly 85% of annual plants and some perennials. But three years ago, Molbak's decided to stop producing plants and focus on selling them.

"Once upon a time, we had three locations. The Woodinville store is by far the largest store, but we have returned to this place. We are proud of ourselves and still provide a wide variety of plants, annuals, perennials, seedlings, and Be proud of everything that fits your garden," Kouhia said. "Because we planted most of it ourselves, we had to plant it extensively and shallowly because we were just a single point of sale on the farm."

This means that Molbak's faces greater pressure, risks and responsibilities, especially from the competition from hypermarkets, grocery stores and hardware stores that sell annual plants and herbs.

"Despite any seasonal changes, we have to sell the products prepared by the farm regardless of the impact of the weather. This becomes very difficult because it is not cost-effective," she said. "More and more growers have been planting for more outlets. And they specialize-they become narrow and deep-which is really cost-effective. Then you have many different places where you can Sell ​​your products there and clean up the farm and move on to the next crop."

Listen to excerpts of our conversation with Julie Kouhia, we cannot print it in the podcast "What We Do Is Important:" bit.ly/1HIE2e2

This decision is not easy. Kouhia said that growth is "very important in our DNA." But this is correct.

"This is great," she said. "Now, we can really focus on retail, we think we are really good at retail. It gives us more flexibility in when to extract products, so we can provide plants when customers really need them, not just It’s time to clean up the farm."

What drives Molbak's focus on retail is its commitment to creating a positive and inspiring customer experience. Most of Kouhia's in-store concepts are learned from working at Starbucks.

"[I am from] a company where your relationship with customers is completely through data and email [at American Express], to a company where their relationship with customers is face-to-face. Starbucks does not have a huge customer database," she said. "When you work with thousands of baristas, trying to figure out how to take advantage of this and strengthen these relationships is really an interesting shift. They are all about relationships and the retail customer experience, and create a kind of present change. It's such a popular sense of place."

When Kouhia came to Molbak's, she established a cross-company visual marketing team to make the customer's shopping experience more consistent.

"We have a team of six visual marketers. Creating a display that is both suitable for shopping and inspiring is very important to make the shopping experience here great," Kouhia said. "I believe in having an integrated design aesthetic that integrates everything together and runs through everything we do like a thread. For customers, it's like a consistent visual shorthand, giving them a glance You can recognize'Molbak's."

Part of this is the "brand update" led by Kouhia, which includes updating the company's logo and creating customer "personas" for current and potential customers based on consumer research, "making them come alive throughout the company," Kouhia said.

However, they retained what was essentially the same as Molbak. They did not repaint the worn white wooden beams near the ceiling of the greenhouse, nor did they replace the inverted terracotta pots used as lamps.

If employees are not happy, customers will not be happy, this is common sense. Part of the customer experience is to ensure that employees are prepared, have the opportunity to grow, and they believe that they are critical to the company's success.

"We have created a unique Molbak training program: the new program includes a mentoring part, full-day induction training for new employees, seasonal training forums, product knowledge meetings, etc.," Kouhia said.

Instead of sitting in a PowerPoint presentation about a new product, employees guide around the store before it opens so that they can actually see and touch the product they hear so they can find it for customers. Although people have their own expertise, employees are not divided into departments.

"Talk to our colleagues and let everyone work together so that we all speak the same language, which really does a good job of bringing us together as a unified single team rather than different departmental teams, so customers have A consistent experience throughout the store," Kouhia said.

When you have about 160 employees during the peak season, communicating with employees is also important.

"The company has undergone many changes, including expansion and contraction," said Stacie Wilson, a senior purchaser of gardening and living products who has been with the company for 27 years. "But it always has a small feeling... Of course you can approach [Kouhia] and talk to her about anything at any level. I think even at a fairly low level, her awareness and participation Also very strong. I think it will only make her better at helping her make decisions at a higher level."

The actual layout of the store has also changed to reflect this cohesion between departments.

"We have reshaped the retail floors and processes to make it easier and easier for customers to navigate the store and transition from one department to another," Kouhia said. Of course, they have been updating the product line to attract customers. "We work with buyers to focus on products that are particularly suitable for our region, these products have a unique local connection, tell an inspiring story, or have a charitable relationship."

Although American Express, Starbucks, Amazon, and Molbak have different business sizes and operate in different industries, Kouhia has found one thing in common.

"All four companies have a huge commitment and belief in this brand," Kouhia said. "I know I have learned some elements from my previous experience at Molbak's."

Kouhia, who just graduated from UCLA Business School, started her career at American Express as a credit card membership service manager.

"This is a great opportunity to really learn about business. One thing I like about it is that American Express was doing big data before big data was cool, and this is how they connect with customers," she said. "You have so much customer information. What I brought [to Molbak's] from it was discipline in business analysis and customer analysis, and the realization that sometimes you have to act fast."

In 2009, she used these skills to help redesign and launch Molbak's reward program.

“We have an e-club plan, which is an email plan, and the number of members has been hovering around 16,000 for many years,” she said. "But we now have more than 80,000 members, which is a very large number for a location. We want to be able to communicate more directly with the group, invite them and give them special benefits and privileges, and recognize them It’s the core of our business and a part of us."

However, collecting consistent data about customers has always been a challenge.

“The current system is not good at providing data in an easy-to-use way, so we eventually copy all the data into our own separate data warehouse and then try to analyze it against that data warehouse,” Kouhia said. "The problem is that the CRM system and the sales audit system are not fully synchronized. So which numbers do you believe? This is really frustrating."

However, they are working hard to solve this problem while revamping their POS system, which will be launched in February.

“We don’t have a server here; it’s located in Montreal and we have encountered challenges. Looking to the future, when we need to switch to chip encryption and encryption software, we thought, instead of investing in this company, let’s look around and see what possibilities we can find Other solutions are more suitable for us," she said. "For cashiers, this will be more intuitive and flexible." For example, during the peak spring season, cashiers don't have to remember this or that discount, and the system will be more automated.

Molbak's has always been highly regarded and well-known in the industry, but in the early 2000s, the company was heavily in debt and closed two of its locations. In 2001, Jens Molbak purchased the garden center from his family and revitalized the business.

Since then, Molbak's has been focusing on its flagship store. Kouhia said that 2016 coincides with the 60th anniversary of the company's founding, and it will once again gain momentum.

"We are not only growing for growth, but we are ready to grow. We have established a personnel base, an organizational infrastructure, and a financial base," she said. "We are a destination, which is great, but we also want to make it more accessible to more people."

She did not disclose specific details, but they are open to the possibility of adding new stores. Growth may also come in the form of clicks and physical shopping or e-commerce.

They also added a landscape design department, which includes regular maintenance services as well as design and installation inside and outside the residence. Kouhia said that this is a direct response to customers' requirements for off-site container planting and even indoor beautification.

Molbak's sold more than 500 tickets at every Girls' Night Out event held in November this year. Watch the video "A gangbuster Girls' Night Out" to learn more about the holiday celebrations: bit.ly/1IrF0vg

"We started to provide these services about three months ago, and so far, the business has been growing steadily without any marketing at all," she said. "We are ready to expand the team to meet customer needs."

When Kouhia looked back on her family and career, she talked about how she balanced it all and how often only women were asked this question.

"There is a book called'Sequencing', [there is a passage] you can have everything, but it may not appear at the same time. You make trade-offs and then figure out what you need to adjust to make everything normal," she said. At different times, she took time out to accompany the children and consulted for four years in order to have a more flexible schedule, but keep it fresh.

"We have a shared group called ECGC, [a coalition of more than a dozen independent garden centers across the country]. We have the best and most supportive network of owners and CEOs, but I am the only female CEO in this group," she says. Say.

Molbak recalled what the team members said when Kouhia was not in the meeting.

"In some meetings, I will show up and Julie will not be there, they will say,'We don't want you, we want Julie,'" he said. "She is the only woman in that group. For an industry where 80% to 90% of customers are women, I think this is a powerful difference... She thinks slightly differently from others. She has a different view. . I think she is not only becoming the leader of Molbak's, but also the leader of the industry."

From her first summer job in the vegetable garden to leading Molbak's Garden Home, Kouhia has had some complete cycles in her career.

"We firmly believe that what we do is important because we are helping people build gardens and houses," she said. "Our brand is about connection and inspiration. I think this is reflected in everything we do in the store, and I think it makes us different."

Editor's note: The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of "Garden Center" magazine.

The House of Representatives has just approved a multi-year traffic bill, and the House of Representatives and the Senate are working to resolve their differences. (This is called "attending a meeting", which is something we have rarely seen in recent years).

There is good news in the good news. During the debate, Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO) and Richard Hudson (R-NC) proposed an amendment that would broadly prohibit federal transportation funds from being used for vegetation enhancement, also commonly referred to as landscaping. American Hort, the American Association of Landscape Architects and other organizations mobilized and passed the amendment with 255 votes against and 172 votes.

Yes, this is a major victory for the horticulture industry. But let us open it up and think about its meaning. In essence, the two Republicans (who are friendly to our industry on many other issues) even proposed this amendment, which means we still have a lot of work to do. Moreover, about two-thirds of Republican colleagues voted for them. The amendment failed because 71 Republicans joined every Democrat and vetoed it. How do your representatives vote?

Obviously, the vote emphasized that many people still think landscape improvements are beautiful but not necessary. However, we know that functional landscapes can stabilize and protect the soil. They filter air and water pollution. They help increase the value of the property and create a sense of happiness. They maintain pollinators and wild animals. We raised these points to Congressman Hatzler and her staff, but she was unmoved.

Read more information here: http://bit.ly/1IGW7Ed

After collecting more than 100,000 votes from supporters in the 2015 National Parks and Gardens Bureau (NGB) grant program, it announced the three winners of its 2015 “Grow for Futures” grant program.

Growing for Futures was first launched in 2014 as a charity program of the NGB to support the construction and development of therapeutic gardens in North America and further promote the organization's mission to promote gardening to gardeners and non-gardeners.

The three gardens and the amount of subsidy are:

Riverwood Conservancy Enabling Garden, Mississauga, Ontario.

The first vote recipient; the recipient of a $5,000 grant.

Riverwood Conservancy's Enabling Garden is the only healing garden in the Greater Toronto Area, helping children and adults overcome physical, cognitive and emotional difficulties.

Cape Fear Botanical Garden, Fayetteville, North Carolina

Second vote recipient; recipient of a $3,000 grant.

The focus of this treatment garden is to provide outreach services to veterans in the area by providing opportunities to learn new skills, promoting healthy living through home gardening, and encouraging interaction with peers and communities during the transition to a civilian lifestyle.

Green Chimney Children's Garden in Brewster, New York

The third recipient of the vote; the recipient of a $2,000 grant.

Green Chimneys is an internationally recognized garden that provides effective solutions to children struggling with various social, emotional and behavioral challenges through nature-based therapies to heal and improve their lives.

In the research results released in October, Canadian plant science researchers collaborated with Montreal-based Inocucor Technologies Inc. to discover new clues about the active social life of plants, which use molecular signals and thousands of microorganisms to continuously improve The conversation of life is in their ecosystem.

Their findings, published in Frontiers of Plant Science ("Signals in the Plant Microbiome: Breadth and Potential", September 2015), are expected to help plant scientists and agricultural bioscience companies develop better methods to promote the growth and growth of field crops. prevent disease. According to the press release issued by Inocucor about the research results, the plant microbiome includes microorganisms found in plants and the soil around them.

"The plant microbiome is like a crowded party. You will hear the noise of the conversation, but it is difficult to hear what anyone is saying," the author and lead researcher of the study and the chairman of the Inocucor Scientific Advisory Board, McGill University Plant Science Professor Donald L Smith said. University.

"We now understand that a plant growing in the field is an ecosystem that depends on a harmonious connection with its microbial community to thrive, especially when threatened by drought or other extreme weather conditions," Smith said. "This new knowledge will help us develop effective, low-cost, environmentally friendly crop inputs, thereby reducing fossil fuel-intensive inputs on the farm."

Smith said these insights will also guide scientists on how to use beneficial microorganisms to improve the ability of plants to adapt to various soil and climatic conditions, thereby increasing crop yields.

He said that the microorganisms in the soil, root surface and interroot cells will release "signal compounds" to "work together to survive" to communicate with each other and with the plants they live together.

In his first year at Klehm Arboretum, John Moore, now the director of gardening, took care of Alphabet Garden, which has been attractive in public gardens for 15 years. He said that, like any "good gardener," Moore puts large plants in the back and small plants in the front so that everyone can see. However, his children disagreed. "My children made me feel confident that [plants] should be in [letter] order, from left to right," Moore said. Since then, the Botanical Garden in Rockford, Illinois has been organized this way, although sometimes it can be a challenge. Wooden letters created by a friend of the Moors more than ten years ago were placed near the corresponding plants, which have common and scientific names. For example, B represents begonia, M represents marigold, and X represents Xanthorhiza. "X is a difficult task," Morse said. It's like U, which was once a unicorn plant, and is now an umbrella plant, and K, which is now Kniphofia. Another challenge is to tame the plants to keep them within 30 to 36 inches of plots. In one season, Phlox grew to three feet tall, blocking the end of the alphabet. Challenges aside, the work is worthwhile. This garden impressed the attendees of the IGC Show in Chicago. Some people said they wanted to try this idea in their garden center. "We try to use a lot of perennials, or annuals that we know we buy every year," Moore said. "It works well and it's fun. Both kids and adults learn from it."

Some people say that measuring the health of a community is based on what the community does for its neighbors in the darkest hours. When a local baby boy named Beckett Stinson urgently needed a liver transplant, residents of Lehi, Utah took this to heart. Many people devote themselves to and provide support for the child and his family, and Li Hai’s own Bellaview landscape and garden center stands proudly among them.

Earlier this year, when a regular customer of Bellaview and a friend of the Stinson family informed the garden center management of the medical emergency, they quickly decided to help. Veronica Bori, the co-owner who runs Bellaview with her husband George, said a fundraising event was organized at the Garden Center in May to help Beckett's parents pay for the transplant.

"One of our clients went to church with Stinsons," Bori said. "So she came to us and asked if we would let them use our facilities to host this event. We said "absolutely, yes". We opened the door for them, and we donated some items for their silent auction... …The community just came out. It’s really a good thing to be a part of it."

When Beckett underwent surgery in June, the community's outreach efforts paid off. To celebrate, Bellaview held a special edition of the second autumn festival on October 10th to commemorate the rehabilitation of local children. The event features hay bale rides, food and snacks, treasure hunts and other community attractions. Bori said that the large number of participation in this year's event shows that there is a sense of unity in the Lehi community.

"We are very satisfied with the attendance, so we hope to make it an annual tradition, just to do this for the community, as a'thank you'." We are a local business and a family business, so we are here Say, it’s important to be part of the community and make people aware of it," Bori said. "It’s a small way for us to thank our customers at the end of the season. "

Bori said that as a local independent company, Bellaview prides itself on showing its support for neighbors and friends through good business practices and community outreach.

"It is really important to establish our care for our customers, which is why we are always looking for ways to make them feel that we are not just pursuing their money," Bori said. "We really want them to have a feeling of being appreciated, whether they buy from us or not, they can come back and know that they are always welcome, and we will take care of them in any way possible. We just want to grow with the community. "-Connor Howard

The brand is very strong. Starbucks pays attention to quality and consistency. When I walked into one of its stores, I knew that the regular coffee I ordered would taste the same every time (or they would do it right). When I walked into Trader Joe's, I knew that there would always be samples of food and freshly brewed coffee for me to enjoy while shopping. These brands remind me of consistency, quality and store experience.

Although the relationships with employees and managers are established in various locations in the chain stores across the country, I don’t know the people who work in these stores, just as I know the people who own local businesses in my community. I know the names of most bosses and employees, and they also know me because they are there most of the time and often work in the same store for several years. The consistency of people, they are essential to developing a great local brand.

When I talk to the owners and staff of the Independent Garden Center, I always ask one thing, "What is the difference between you and other garden centers?" Usually, they will mention the tenure of their colleagues, many of them People have worked in their stores for twenty years or more, and they are a family business. Yes, these factors distinguish the garden center from other industries, but there is no difference between them. The reason this industry is so strong is its employees, their dedication and enthusiasm for the work they do.

The leader recognizes this. As early as August, I asked AJ Petitti, the president of Petitti Garden Centers, which has nine branches in northeastern Ohio, what is the reason for his success. He answered without hesitation: "Our team, period."

I posed a similar question to Julie Kouhia, the new CEO of Molbak's Garden Home in Woodinville, Washington, and she appeared on the cover of this month. I asked her what makes a great CEO. She said: "There is a great team." She said that the company is expected to grow in 2016, and one of the most important factors in preparing for this potential expansion is to build a "talent base." Without good people, there is no quality, consistency, or positive store experience. They are the ones who create or break a great brand.

Michelle Simakis msimakis@gie.net

When investing in greenhouse structures, retailers will prioritize aesthetic appeal and quality control techniques.

Pasquesi Home and Gardens in Lake Bluff, Ill. Provided by Pasquesi Home and GARDENS Plants cannot grow in unwelcome environments. Clients are unlikely to walk into an unattractive building. A well-built greenhouse can solve these two problems, but independent garden center retailers may face difficult decisions about what structure they should use for their facilities. Although most green commodity suppliers from retailers to growers and wholesalers regard greenhouses as standard equipment for growing or maintaining plants, custom greenhouse production is valuable in terms of curbing attractiveness and visual identity. Unique aesthetics was the primary consideration for Pasquesi Home and Gardens in Bluff Lakes, Illinois, when the retailer who did not grow any plant materials built a display greenhouse in 2006. All, a high-quality greenhouse,” said owner Mary Pascius. “We don’t want a greenhouse with a typical design or a typical appearance you can think of. We are strictly engaged in the retail business, we sell products to wealthier customers, and we also want to showcase our products in this way. This building is an excellent product, and it has some artistic design. Pasquesi said that as a retail business, her store needs an eye-catching appearance to succeed, and the growing business may not consider unique design as important. The video feature Sky Nursery, located on the shoreline of Washington State, is rebuilding the store and Greenhouses achieved business transformation. Learn more about the challenges, benefits, and results: bit.ly/1HIEyc8 However, this is not to say that plant-oriented or wholesale greenhouses must be practical or simple in design. Gothic Arch Greenhouses , Inc. President WH "Buzz" Sierke said that a suitable greenhouse can bring many advantages to companies. Sierke said that although such an initiative requires a lot of investment and requires thorough planning, a high-quality greenhouse structure allows retailers to explore The choice of in-house planting, and vice versa. “Retailers may want to invest in a production greenhouse to become growers to ensure the availability of hard-to-find plants that they usually have to outsource, allowing retailers to'internally' control specific plants,” Sierke said "This also allows retailers to flexibly provide more colors and varieties based on historical needs, otherwise wholesale growers may not be able to provide these colors and varieties. Pasquesi Home and Gardens in Bluff Lakes, Illinois wanted a unique and visually appealing greenhouse to help attract customers. PASQUESI HOME AND GARDENS offers "On the other hand, wholesale growers may want to diversify into the'retail' sector in order to be able to attract the retail market and significantly increase his bottom line because of higher profit margins." Whatever your new greenhouse What is the goal of the structure and obtaining the support and response of customers are important results to be pursued. Pasquesi said that since its construction, the customer's response to her greenhouse facility has been largely positive. The interior of the greenhouse can also provide eye-catching design opportunities through clever signage and product placement. Indoor greenhouse: DREAMSTIME.COM "Our customers love it," Pasquesi said. "Of course, this is something they didn't expect, even when they were building this city. Everyone sees greenhouses in the same way that you usually see growing greenhouses, and when you show something different, it makes people feel Excited. I actually have someone wondering if they can hold a wedding in [our greenhouse]. I think this is a surprise." Pasquesi said that in addition to providing a cozy shopping space, her greenhouse also has built-in, adjustable sunshades. And the advantages of temperature control technology, which are essential to prevent plant diseases in the facility. Sierke said that greenhouse shading can be used to connect shopping areas to increase customer traffic. This can reduce the impact of bad weather, which usually drives away shoppers. "At the center stage of the retail garden, we have seen the trend of installing more covered areas as external sales areas for additional inventory and covered walkways from one sales area to another to eliminate scattered footprints and connect sales areas, Create a better shopping environment and experience for customers," Sierke said. "There is a high [return on investment] on this level of infrastructure to prevent the loss of sales and revenue due to bad weather during the peak purchase season." The Petiti Garden Center in Oakwood Village, Ohio also uses greenhouses Space to display products. PETITTI Garden Center: LAURA WATILO BLAKE Although there are many advantages of custom greenhouses, Sierke said that the recognizable visual style is still the main reason for retailers to invest in the construction of greenhouses. "The main challenge for retailers is to attract and welcome customers," Sierke said. "Retailers can do a lot to enhance the'containment attractiveness' storefront. Add colored [lights], porches, pergola, automatic doors, improved signage, and large areas of storefront glass to increase the visibility of the store. Remember, if If customers don’t enter the store, they will not have a chance to sell."

Plants cannot grow in unwelcome environments. Clients are unlikely to walk into an unattractive building. A well-built greenhouse can solve these two problems, but independent garden center retailers may face difficult decisions about what structure they should use for their facilities.

Although most green commodity suppliers from retailers to growers and wholesalers regard greenhouses as standard equipment for growing or maintaining plants, custom greenhouse production is valuable in terms of curbing attractiveness and visual identity. The unique aesthetic is the first choice for Pasquesi Home and Gardens in Bluff Lake, Illinois, when the retailer who did not grow any plant materials built a display greenhouse in 2006.

"We wanted a structure, first of all a high-quality greenhouse," said owner Mary Pascius. "We don't want a greenhouse with a typical design or typical appearance you can think of. We are strictly in the retail business. We sell products to wealthier customers, and we also want to showcase our products in this way. This building is an excellent one. Product, and it has some artistic design."

Pasquesi said that as a retail business, her store needs an eye-catching appearance to succeed, and the growing business may not consider unique design as important.

Sky Nursery on the Washington State Coastline changed its business while rebuilding shops and greenhouses. Learn more about the challenges, benefits and results: bit.ly/1HIEyc8

However, this is not to say that planting-oriented or wholesale greenhouses must be practical or simple in design. WH "Buzz" Sierke, president of Gothic Arch Greenhouses, Inc., said that the right greenhouse can bring many advantages to enterprises.

Sierke said that while such a move requires substantial investment and thorough planning, a high-quality greenhouse structure allows retailers to explore in-house planting options, and vice versa.

“Retailers may want to invest in a production greenhouse to become growers to ensure the availability of hard-to-find plants that they usually have to outsource, allowing retailers to control specific plants'internally',” Sierke said. "This also allows retailers to flexibly provide more colors and varieties based on historical needs, otherwise wholesale growers may not be able to provide these colors and varieties.

"On the other hand, wholesale growers may want to diversify into the'retail' sector in order to be able to attract the retail market and significantly increase its profits because of the increase in the number of products sold at higher profit margins."

No matter what the goal of your new greenhouse structure is, getting customer support and response is an important achievement to pursue. Pasquesi said that since its construction, the customer's response to her greenhouse facility has been largely positive.

"Our customers love it," Pasquesi said. "Of course, this is something they didn't expect, even when they were building this city. Everyone sees greenhouses in the same way that you usually see growing greenhouses, and when you show something different, it makes people feel Excited. I actually have someone wondering if they can hold a wedding in [our greenhouse]. I think this is a surprise."

Pasquesi said that in addition to providing a cozy shopping space, her greenhouse also has the advantages of built-in, adjustable shading and temperature control technology, which is essential to prevent plant diseases in the facility. Sierke said that greenhouse shading can be used to connect shopping areas to increase customer traffic. This can reduce the impact of bad weather, which usually drives away shoppers.

"At the center stage of the retail garden, we have seen the trend of installing more covered areas as external sales areas for additional inventory and covered walkways from one sales area to another to eliminate scattered footprints and connect sales areas, Create a better shopping environment and experience for customers," Sierke said. "There is a high [return on investment] on this level of infrastructure to prevent loss of sales and revenue due to bad weather during the peak purchase season."

Despite the many advantages of custom greenhouses, Sierke said that the recognizable visual style is still the main reason for retailers to invest in the construction of greenhouses.

"The main challenge for retailers is to attract and welcome customers," Sierke said. "Retailers can do a lot to enhance the'containment attractiveness' storefront. Add colored [lights], porches, pergola, automatic doors, improved signage, and large areas of storefront glass to increase the visibility of the store. Remember, if If customers don’t enter the store, they will not have a chance to sell."

As online shopping becomes the standard in the retail industry, garden centers are weighing e-commerce and transportation options.

According to an article in the first year of the Garden Center, the Garden Center in 1995 was skeptical of the utility provided by the fledgling Internet. We have clearly discovered that the Web has nowhere to go. Most retailers have used the Internet as a tool to share information, connect with customers and promote their brands. Many people also see the potential of delivering products through online ordering and home delivery for customers.

But what makes an effective online store and delivery operation?

Although delivery radius, product variety, and many other factors vary by garden center and other green merchandise retailers, many successful retailers often have strong, easy-to-navigate online images and customized delivery plans for customers.

At an uncensored online event hosted by parent company GIE Media in Cleveland last September, in a conversation between representatives of the green industry, several managers and owners expressed their concerns about rising transportation and fuel costs affecting their business delivery. Worry. For Paul Bachman, president of Bachman's, six flower, gift and garden center chain stores in the St. Paul, Minnesota area, these complications make it difficult to maintain an internal delivery fleet.

"This is a huge challenge," Bachmann said. "We have our own car repair shop because we may have [50+] vehicles of one kind or another. They are not all delivered to consumers, but they are performing some functions for Bachman's. It is usually very much related to distribution etc. Great relationship. In terms of delivery vehicles delivered to consumers, this number is much smaller. We have just been in the [flower industry] for a long time, so it’s just what we grew up with."

Founded nearly 130 years ago, Bachman's is an agricultural product company known for its reliable delivery service for most of its history. Today, Bachmann said that his business provides delivery services to customers within a radius of approximately 25 miles from the main store. To accomplish this task, Bachman's used about 12 delivery vehicles of various sizes for flower and wholesale delivery.

"Each metro area is different, so we go further in some directions than others," Bachmann said. "Before we were engaged in the gardening center business, we were a flower shop. Part of the flower business was to provide delivery services."

In order to ensure the quality of the factory during the delivery period, Bachmann's factory was wrapped in cellophane by workers in the special packaging department. Many of these plants are transported by air-conditioned trucks equipped with compartments that prevent goods from dumping during transportation.

Although florists are usually expected to deliver their products, other green companies believe that delivery is more of an optional effort. Bachman said that delivery can be a valuable addition to a retailer’s service, but the investment required to build the service should match its needs.

"Each garden center must assess the level of customer needs," Bachmann said. "Do many of your customers require delivery? Is this that you might risk losing business because your competitors provide delivery but you don’t? This is a personal decision, and a large part of it is based on competition And where your store is located."

The Internet has made the issue of green retail distribution both complex and complicated. It has facilitated easier ordering for customers and has also opened up a new dimension of customer service. Greenwood Nursery in McMinnville, Tennessee has been in business since the late 1970s and started using online commerce in early 1998, said co-owner Cheryl Jones.

Jones said that about 70% of her business is done through the Greenwood Nursery website, and the rest is wholesale and other offline sales. All the company's inventory is available online. The early adoption of online shopping expanded Greenwood's customer base from wholesale to retail and brought new challenges.

"That changed things for us," Jones said. "Suddenly, we had end users, home gardeners, who wanted to buy, so we were more geared towards home gardeners. We started to focus on selling individual plants instead of selling them in large quantities and in bulk."

Jones said that selling products to home gardeners usually involves more customer education than a wholesale business.

"Of course, we always provide customer service for our wholesale customers, but when you start to enter the home gardener with more retail (formats), you provide more customer service there," Jones added. "As a wholesaler who sells products to another grower, there is a 95% chance. They will know how to deal with these plants and move on. With a home gardener, you have all kinds of customers."

Greenwood Nursery processes an average of approximately 75 orders per day, and has a dedicated staff member who manages online transactions, but other staff members will participate as needed. Customers do not have a minimum number of online orders, but other online retailers may need to check the logistics of transporting individual factories or products.

Bachman said that this number will increase significantly during the holiday season, but Bachman processes 200 to 300 orders per day. A dedicated company webmaster supervises the ordering system, but requires offline staff to process and fill out individual orders. The vast majority of Bachman's online inventory is floral products, while many gifts and other wholesale products can only be purchased in-store.

Deciding to invest in online ordering also needs to pay attention to sales tax issues; if a garden center in one state starts to sell products to customers in other states, how will different sales tax rates affect the business?

"Once you start selling, you have to decide,'Is my online sales enough to guarantee all of this?' It's a bit like Pandora's Box," Bachmann said. "A lot of things have happened and become very complicated, such as calculating sales tax. If someone in another city places an order, you have to understand what their sales tax is, or you have to understand what the sales tax is at the place of delivery. It becomes very Complex. Therefore, building a commercial [web] website requires a lot of investment."

Bachman's uses an in-house fleet for regional and local deliveries, while Greenwood uses FedEx and Priority Mail contracts to ship goods throughout the continental United States and Alaska. Inventory and customers need to consider the delivery plan and transportation radius at the same time. Not every company has the kind of catalog that it sells nationwide, and not every company has the local followers needed to maintain internal delivery plans.

"We just have enough numbers so we can maintain our own delivery system, but we are unique in this respect," Bachmann said.

Jones said that whether retailers are interested in sophisticated delivery services, in-store pickups, or just showing catalogs, the online experience should be user-friendly.

“Of course, it’s important for customers to be able to click on the homepage or click on a specific landing page they own and find what they are looking for easily and effectively,” Jones said. "It's just a matter of having an effective website. I recommend hiring a good design company to do this and integrate it, but you definitely want to get recommendations from many people who have used it."

Although the extent to which retailers pursue online ordering and delivery varies greatly, many people believe that the introduction of new technologies is important. Delivery is not required, but not keeping up with modern online presentations can hurt customer engagement.

"As people order online, the experience gets better and better, so you need a sophisticated business website so people can view your products and give them a good review," Bachmann said. "[Consumers] are used to some very tricky things when buying online, so if you don't maintain it, you risk looking very old or slow."