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The Ugly Side of Beauty
| Bill McCurry
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>> Published Date: 4/25/2012
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 “Because my plants are fantastic, grown with love, and they’re beautiful …” Ask any garden center retailer why customers should patronize their establishment and you’ll hear how gorgeous their plants are and how customers rave about the beauty of their offerings. These garden center operators truly feel their beautiful plants are all that’s necessary. Are they? Is beauty enough?
In 2007, Gene Weingarten won a Pulitzer Prize for his Washington Post story about beauty being in the eye of the beholder. Weingarten wanted to know how and when people recognized beauty. He wanted to know if things like packaging, presentation and ambiance would impact a person’s perception of beauty.
Enter Joshua Bell, a world-class violinist who agreed to participate in Weingarten’s experiment. Bell had just played to a full house at Boston’s Symphony Hall where good seats sold for $100. What if Mr. Bell, playing a $3.5 million Stradivarius, played in the Washington, D.C. Metro station one morning? How many people would stop and listen, even briefly, to a renowned violinist, who had won the Avery Fisher Prize for classical music achievement, as he played a 200-year-old instrument?
Although he didn’t include them in the final article, Weingarten interviewed famous conductors and musicians asking how many people on a Monday morning would stop in a subway station to listen to Joshua Bell? They thought between 10% and 25% of the people would be so enraptured by the beautiful tones they would pause to enjoy the music.
Unfortunately, the reality was far from what industry experts expected. Approximately 1,000 commuters hustled by in the 45 minutes Bell played. Only seven people stopped. Interestingly, 27 threw money into his pot, most not slowing down to do so. The musician collected the princely sum of $32.17, one-third the price of one good seat for the Boston performance. If you track your sales using Individual Average Transaction you realize the average person put in $1.19. Since one donation was a $5 bill, without the “high roller” the average was barely over $1.00.
What’s this got to do with retail garden centers? Everything! It wasn’t Bell’s playing, which would excite any classical music lover. It had everything to do with how the beauty was presented and the customers’ states of mind. The two factors—being in the subway and the morning rush-hour commute—kept people from noticing they were hearing a magnificent musical performance.
When people come into your garden center they may be in their own stressful state of mind. They may be rushed and not expecting to find rare beauty. Are your lovely flowers in the mud? Are beautiful offerings next to dead, dying or decayed products? Are your beauties displayed in lovely settings or are you hopeful “the music will rise from the subway” and be recognized despite the surroundings?
OFA Short Course
Meet Bill!
See Bill at the OFA Short Course July 14-17 in Columbus, Ohio. Register at www.OFA.org. He’ll be at these moneymaking sessions: “Management Idea Exchange,” “More Money For Me” and “Grow It Or Buy It?”
After Weingarten’s article appeared, someone found another experiment detailed in the 1930 Chicago Evening Post. Reporter Milton Fairman told about Jacques Gordon, a violin virtuoso of that day, who played curbside on Michigan Avenue. He netted $5.61 in his hat and people passed by “without a glance.” Coincidentally, Gordon’s violin is now owned by Joshua Bell who played it in the Washington subway.
For garden centers, this story is a reconfirmation that beauty, regardless of the era or provider, has to be presented in a context where customers aren’t overwhelmed. The average subway commuter is focused on one task—getting to work on time— not applauding beauty.
Are your customers hassled daily? You bet they are. Are they in a hurry to find what they want and get home to their own gardens? For sure. When they come into your garden center, do you lower their stress by presenting what they’re looking for in a seamless, attractive and fun way? Or does your garden center increase their stress with inconvenient parking, un-priced products, confusing displays, muddy walkways, sticky wheel carts, long cumbersome checkout lines, etc.?
Help your customers appreciate the beauty you have to offer by showcasing your gorgeous plants in an equally beautiful environment. Do it and you’ll end up with a lot more than $32 in your hat at the end of the day. GP
Bill would love to hear from you with questions, comments or ideas for future columns. Please contact him at
wmccurry@mccurryassoc.com or (609) 688-1169.
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