Huge Assets and Big Boxes

Amanda Thomsen

I bought a bunch of crappy plants at a big box the other day because I ran out of time and I had to fill some pots, lickety split. I think you’re the type of people that understand “emergency container plantings,” right? So I got the job done and the best I can say about it is that the pots are full. And every time I walk past them I get reminded that I screwed up; I didn’t shop “where everybody knows my name,” but I guess I did get to check something off my checklist in a convenient manner. It happens so rarely.

What’s the difference between buying plants at an independent garden center and buying them at a big box? Aside from plant availability (garden centers have lots to choose from, of course) and saving a few cents (big boxes are perhaps cheaper by very little), it’s the people helping you. An independent garden center’s best asset is who they have working for them. A well-seasoned garden center employee can sell a 4-pack of Dusty Miller like it’s Lalique, a post-season Bleeding Heart like it’s a magic show in-the-making and a singular native plant like it’s hope for the Earth. At a garden center, the plant selection gets the credit, but it’s the people that lovingly/begrudgingly care for and chat up the plants that are the real heroes. And they should be treated as such.

The plants at the big box have no hope, no advocates; if they’re sold at all, before withering and dying, it’s a miracle. I think few among us have not ever bought a plant to save it from a certain doom when you’ve stopped in for caulk or light bulbs. There’s no one to help if you have a question, which is hilarious if you’ve ever worked at a garden center and been asked the STUPIDEST QUESTIONS EVER. I was working at a garden center and I had a lady ask me for a recipe for grape juice. And when I balked, she was all “you sell grape vines, so you have to give me this information. RIGHT NOW. It is my right as I have walked into this garden center!” And yet here at the big box, plants are flying out the door with zero info, zero care and, if you play your cards a certain way, you even get to check yourself out at the register. You can buy plants without having to deal with a single human.

How can these customers even overlap? Is the grape juice lady just as happy to walk into a big box and buy plants as she is harassing me about how to squeeze a grape? I don’t think she is. I think garden center people are garden center people for life. I think their parents went to garden centers and brought them with them; garden centers are a tradition for some people. I think, on occasion, there’s an impulse purchase like I made, even though I’m hardcore #TeamIGC. I think perhaps people that buy at big boxes are:

A. Not yet garden center customers. But they will be. Thinking about big box stores as a gateway to local garden centers lowers my blood pressure.

B. Intimidated by garden centers. Remember when Starbucks was new and you needed someone to teach you how to order a drink even though you were a grown up? I think some people feel that way about our industry. We need to be more welcoming. What if we had an industry-wide “First Timers Day” every Tuesday with extra help and catalogs and printed info? As usual, I’m not even sure if I’m joking.

When I hear that local garden centers close because of competition from big boxes, I don’t understand. They really aren’t even in the same business. But I do know that if a garden center feels threatened, cherish and promote your best assets—your people. GP

Amanda Thomsen is now a regular columnist in Green Profit magazine. You can find her funky, punky blog planted at KissMyAster.co and you can follow her on Facebook and Twitter @KissMyAster.