Jamie Durie say’s…
This is interesting. Jamie Durie is the host of an HGTV show titled, “The Outdoor Room”. He also works for Monrovia
Nursery as a spokesman for Monrovia plants on HGTV. As many of you know Monrovia has started selling plants to the box stores, which includes Lowe’s Home Improvement Stores.
I just received a link to this webcast site put out by Lowe’s. It say’s Jamie will now be helping Lowe’s “get your garden ready for spring”. It will be convenient for Jamie, as he will have ready access to Monrovia plants while shooting at Lowe’s.
The nursery trade is changing at lightning speed. The people that once championed the locally owned garden center are now focused on where the money is. The box stores, and their suppliers are now teaming up with social media PR companies to push the message that you can get quality plants, endorsed by well known figures, on well know home improvement channels, at the local box stores.”
Where is the locally owned garden center in all this? You tell me.
My latest post at The Blogging Nurseryman "Jamie Durie say’s…" http://t.co/kfh4tcj via @pitsenberger
Without actually watching what is said on the webcast, it appears that the relationship with Lowe’s is in conjunction with the HGTV show The Outdoor Room. Prior to Monrovia plants being sold at Lowe’s this would have been a good thing because the plants Jamie endorsed for Monrovia couldn’t be bought there. Now it is a case of guilt by association.
The mass marketing muscle of mass retailers is cranked up. Bonnie Plants just introduced apps for iPhone and Droid. Big-box suppliers are making it easier than ever for “their” customers to buy local as long as it is in the local location of the big-box Wall Street traded mass retailer.
Where is the local independent garden center? Every Man For Himself.
Sid, yes it’s a case of unintended results. It’s an example of the forces that are lined up against the locally owned garden center. Sometimes the nursery business reminds me a bit too much of the book store business. “How could anyone not want to shop at our store?”
The money may be there now….but will it always be there?
Should have elaborated a wee bit more…
The money may be in the box stores right now….but I’m hoping for a world change where finally the lil man…the local man…is THE man.
Katie, I am afraid the money is there and likely will stay there. We in the locally owned garden center business have “hoped” that it would change but it isn’t. We just need to carve out our own niche instead of always playing catchup with the box stores.
“Where is the locally owned garden center in all this? You tell me.”
In a position to do the same thing, and possibly even do it better. A while back I wrote an article for Lawn & Garden Retailer mag advocating independent garden centers reach out to their local garden bloggers because they were acting as the local gardening columnists. Many garden bloggers are becoming mini-celebs online or cultivating communities across sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter and are becoming trusted voices in the online gardening world. There’s no reason why independent garden centers can’t join forces with these writers and work together to provide trusted information about gardening and where to get their plants and supplies.
Not to say that I fit the description above, but I use by blog for the Chicago Tribune’s ChicagoNow network to local events, people and companies that I like and trust. At this past Chicago Flower & Garden Show, Barbara Melera of the Landreth Seed Company told me that people were buying seed potatoes from her because I had recommended them on my blog and told people to buy them there from her. It made me feel good to know that while not a lot of people comment on that blog that people were reading and taking my advice and supporting a small company.
I would do more of this with local garden centers, but sometimes getting them to talk to me about sales and events is like pulling teeth and not worth the trouble.
Independent garden centers are in a unique position right now where they could shape their own future if they’d just look around at the opportunities afforded to them online.
Mr. Brown Thumb, great comment! I am going to show it to our Garden Center group. It’s hard sometimes to get businesses that have been around a while to change their way’s. Sometimes it’s economic distress that finally opens their eye’s to the fact that the traditional methods of media outreach just don’t work anymore.
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Nescessity is the mother of invention Trey, you hit the nail on the head. However everyone needs to be careful not to use their heads to hit the nail, that hurts too much, but instead use the head to buy a hammer! The tools are available to everyone I would have thought?
The way to beat the box stores is to remain relevant. If your product is better, your service better the experience better you will not only survive you will thirve. Can anyone honestly say theyhave a great experience at Depot or Lowes?
Jamie Durie is not relevant to our buisness. The unsung hero who is most relevant is JOSHUA VIERTEL from Slow Food. I do not care if he makes tewnty zillion dollars there. Fact is he has the passion I do not see in retail anymore.
had I the time and a little money I would have a micro herb nursery with cooking classes, building neighborhood gardens, teaching kids about herbs and healthy eating etc. Also would do gardening at Nursing and senior centers.
What we need are community builders like Josh not community activists like the Obamas, Jesse Jacksons, MoveOn etc.
But alas with three kids to put through home school and a few more yeras left on the mortgage I cannot do this. What I do though is a few classes a year at senior centers, host a local talk radio show that is big on localism, and help my customers grow their own food at home.
Right again, Sir! I just gave my two cents on this issue on the blog at Today’s Garden Center recently; Home Depot To Open Detached Garden Center, (http://www.todaysgardencenter.com/news/insidethebox/?storyid=3579). This is all about the subliminal message that is screaming to the IGC consumer as a result of this powerhouse marketing relationship. Whether Lowe’s sells Monrovia or not doesn’t matter, Jamie Durie is the face of Monrovia and they will assume that Monrovia’s product is on the shelf–that gets them in the door and pulls them away from the IGC. From there, if dissatisfied, they will toddle across the street to Home Depot since both feed off of one another. IGC’s that are sleeping will be left in their wake. The writing is on the wall and has been for some time. Because of the humanistic tendency to default to the “Normalcy Bias”, the IGC owner will become confused and immobile, unable to move forward; only capable of pulling on experiences from the past rendering them unarmed and helpless. I am seeing this right now on many levels and I’m sure you are too. These are the new deep, deep waters of commerce where you can’t touch the bottom and you can’t see the surface but you have to keep functioning at optimum levels—and they most certainly will prove lethal to the leaders who lack the vision to see what’s coming or the ability to process information and quickly pivot in order to avoid losing their companies. Keep ringing the bell Trey, in the end when it’s all said and done, none will be able to say you didn’t warn them. Carry on!
Dana L. Stenger, Pike Nursery, Atlanta
Let’s also remember that DePot opened and closed smal format stores, Expo, and landscape centers. I cannot imagine what a depot stand alone GC will look like. he corporate bigs will not tolerate empty parking lots in the off season and the slow turns that happen after the spring rush.
If the best thing to happen is to have a depot open next to you how much better a stand alone depot gc full of dead plants in the middle of summer
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