How to Merchandise Your Garden Shop (a roll, 1960)

this is the country fair Garden center in Denver Colorado Across the Nation are thousands of outlets like this each one facing selling problems in common with the others garden shop merchandise has a limited selling life and must be moved in a comparatively short season garden shop owners like Mr watena must take every advantage of favorable weather ideal gardening conditions and customer traffic to move merchandise if many conditions are equal in different parts of the country what is it then that makes some operations more profitable than others as the orthog garden shop news re camera visited country fair Garden Center we discovered that important something else something that spelled success the art of imaginative merchandising here were the customers who came to Country Fair they saw the merchandise and they bought we saw customers going in and we saw saw them coming out it was what went on in the middle that really interested us to get customers into his store Mr wpaw is a firm believer in a consistent and strong advertising program he takes advantage of the Denver newspapers and the neighborhood press to reach his customers spotting teaser ads like these throughout the top red sections he reinforces his garden shop image with radio spots and a tie-in with a television gardening show and when the customers come into His store he and his salespeople are ready for them informal meetings take place early most mornings bringing the staff completely up to date on advertised plant specials new products and special package Goods promotions questions are invited so that everyone knows his sales role and how best to play it at Country Fair salesmanship and customer satisfa is a science and what do the customers find as they arrive at Country Fair Garden Center certainly not an elaborate physical structure but one that is simply constructed wide open efficient and friendly as they step from their cars customers are likely to stumble over special package Goods promotions tying in with the rose season or with a pelleted fertilizer special good for lawns and Gardens if customers miss these promotions going in they'll have a second chance to catch them on the way out the entrance way to Country Fair is of a semicircular shape and it acts as a kind of funnel moving the customers smoothly through the broad aisles customers on route to the green Goods section must first pass through the sales area featuring pesticides fertilizers weed killers and garden tools before they reach the nursery stock and they must return the same way similarly the green goods are set out in wide aisles built up in tier fashion with the fast sellers like bedding plants at eye level annuals and perennials are easily identified by label and the promise of growth and color is graphically indicated with these full color illustrations of the plants in bloom an interesting merchandising note here Mr watena gives his customers two price choices on the annuals 89 cents for the Thrifty Buy in the undivided dozen and 98 cents a dozen for those in individual Jiffy parts and here's a practical Innovation for those who do business in high or dry climates at Country Fair a continuous Mist watering system keeps all flowers and plants at the peak of perfection further helping to create desirability in the eyes of the customers one lady customer interested us very much and not only because she was pretty which she was just after we picked her up with a camera as she drove into Country Fair Garden Center we asked her if she'd mind if we photographed her progress around the store she said she didn't mind at all although all she intended to buy were some petun on special for her annual border we photographed many customers that day provoking the thought that this was pretty good traffic for a Thursday morning the man with his cart full of roses and the lady with the same idea all kinds of people inspecting and selecting green Goods when we caught up with our lady customer again she was doing exactly as she said she would which is like or unlike a woman depending on your point of view as we had expected this lady customer received prompt assistance from one of the salespeople here it seemed was an excellent tie-in opportunity and he wasn't going to pass it by liquid plant food to help the patunas over the shock of transplanting a logical tie-in item from the customer's point of view and a sprayer for easy application we saw many examples of tie-in selling this day perhaps the greatest source of extra sales in this dealer's business and at the checkout counter is our lady customer departed we witnessed another kind of tie-in salesmanship gifting custom customers with a free Garden book a valuable dealer investment gardening information for the customer future sales for the dealer a man wise in the way of garden shop merchandising once set down what he considered to be the seven steps to success and profits as we would have at many other stores around the country we discovered all seven of these steps in active use at Country Fair Garden Center here in Daily practice were the basic building blocks on which Mr watena had built his successful business a carefully selected location one which makes it easy for your customers to get to you scrupulous attention to the planning arrangement of shelves and other interior displays the building and maintenance of mass displays which fit into the seasons and which tie in with advertising the right products in proper shelf positions making shelves a stimulating appeal to sales the use of good principles of of salesmanship insisting that in your store salesmanship becomes a science investment in a planned and consistent advertising program making your sales message reach the largest possible audience in your trading area and the use of good business sense by buying those nationally advertised products which will sell making everyday a profit day this has been the story of one man's garden shop the country Fair garden center in Denver Colorado in talking to Mr watena we were convinced that he had learned to cope with the seasonal selling problems of our industry by turning to the positive side of the coin he had taken the seven merchandising principles simple in origin and simple in execution and he had made them work it was early on Thursday afternoon when we left country fair but even on this midweek day the customers were still coming and going and the cash registers were ringing [Music]