“Could the next U.S. census change the course of retail for the next decade?” That’s the first line in an article I came across in a recent Progressive Grocer newsletter, and it’s a question I had not even considered. But the global measurement and analytics giant Nielsen did consider it and has filed an amicus brief arguing against the inclusion of a citizenship question on the 2020 census.

Nielsen’s argument is that the question will cause a significant undercounting of the population, thereby throwing off the census data and “impacting key strategic business decisions around distribution, store openings and closings, forecasting, innovation and marketing.” Planning around inaccurate data would result in poor choices and eventually impact a company’s bottom line. Other companies, however, argue that with new technology and a heavier reliance on real-time shopper analytics, census data is not as valuable as it once was.

One of the business decisions Nielsen argues would be impacted is consumer spend forecasting, which, according to a recent Harvard Business Review newsletter, is an important strategy to buffer a company against a coming recession. Data of all types is important when determining business strategies. We'll see how this plays out once the Supreme Court's decision is rendered.

According to my local evening news meteorologist, eastern Massachusetts has had only six days in April without precipitation so far. I didn’t see his calendar with the rain/no rain days marked on it, but I recall several of our April weekends being a mix of sun and rain. This weekend calls for more of the same.

As you may know, Bossman Chris Beytes collects a weekly rating on how spring sales are going. I’ve pulled the best and the worst ratings for the weekend of April 13-14 with accompanying comments from what he included in Acres Online earlier this week:

Ontario (10): “I give it a 15! No? How about a 10? #RecordsFell”—Will Heeman, Heeman’s Garden Centre

Maryland (10): “We were blessed with a second mild, sunny Saturday in a row. I don’t know what we did to merit it, so we’re just simply grateful!”—Ethan Weber, Sunny Meadows

Missouri (5): “Cool and sunny, but I’m having a slow start, with freeze and frost warnings over the weekend. Weather just keeps smacking us around.”—Beth Weidner, Weeds Greenhouse & Gardens

But wait, there’s more! Here’s a rating and comment that Chris hadn’t published:

Kansas (1): The cold weather which has plagued us since opening day continued. Sales were nil as folks stayed home out of the wind and cold.—anonymous

My question for you this week is this: What—if anything—is selling best at your store? Drop me a line at ewells@ballpublishing.com to tell me about it.  

That’s the topic of an article I’m working on for the June edition of Green Profit. So I want you to sit back, imagine you’re on your back deck, by the pool, chilling and grilling on the patio or hanging out on your front porch. In your mind’s eye, what plants do you see surrounding you? Are they in pots, baskets, bowls, window boxes or straight in the ground? Do you see combos or monos?

If you could, take a moment and let me know what you, as the expert, recommend. Tell me about it HERE.  

You probably recall my colleague Adriana as the person who goes on vacation and comes back with something totally fun to share in our newsletters. Remember the time she visited Joanna and Chip Gaines’ Magnolia Market in Waco, Texas, and came back with all those fun display ideas?

This time Adriana jetted off to southern California and found Succulent Café, a gem of a place in Carlsbad, California. Part plant store, part café, part gift shop, this retailer is packed with creative ways to pot up tiny green things. From Adriana’s photos, I take it they sell only succulents. Here are a few of the highlights:

Adriana estimates that the store was half café and half succulent/gift shop, which also offered jewelry and other items you’d find in an IGC. She said customers came to grab a beverage and meet for business meetings or just hang out by themselves—or with their dogs! Here’s Adriana’s Pekingese Shih Tzu, Nella, getting to know one of the local residents.

I love that she takes her dog on vacation! It’s a dog’s life, after all.  

Proven Winners is teaming up with the Collegiate Plant Initiative (CPI) for the second year to provide 6,000 pots of Lemon Coral Sedum—its Annual of the Year—as giveaways for CPI’s Plant Drops. CPI, a student-run organization founded at the University of Florida, will be “dropping,” i.e. distributing, plants on six college campuses this year. In fact, they are dropping plants this week at North Carolina State University, Clemson University and the University of Georgia. Three more plant drops will take place the last week of September.

CPI’s goal is to connect college kids with plants and opportunities in the horticulture industry. Plant drops are a good way of going about that because who doesn’t like free stuff? And Lemon Coral is a great plant to give away to potentially poor plant keepers as it survives most any circumstance (I know, I did my best to kill mine and yet it survived the summer in my tree well). And boy, do they go quickly. One thousand plants were given away on one campus last year in just 2½ minutes. They must have thought it was pizza! Plants are given away with care instructions to help students grow them successfully.

According to a press release on the subject, Proven Winners backs CPI because the company really appreciates CPI’s efforts to connect students of all academic backgrounds through the power of plants. “By giving free plants to students studying accounting, business, law, environmental studies, chemistry, art and more, they are exposing them to the world of plants,” the release states.

Proven Winners also shows its support of young scholars by distributing $25,000 annually in scholarships to students in universities, community colleges and vocational schools.

CPI is doing some great work to create more plant awareness among our future customers. Find out more about the Initiative at www.collegiateplantinitiative.org.

I included this item in this week’s Tropical Topics newsletter and have gotten a lot of responses, some of which I include below. Would love your thoughts, too!

Bloomberg magazine is jumping on the bandwagon of big-time news outlets mentioning how Millennials are the saviors of the houseplant industry. In the terribly named article, “The One Thing Millennials Haven’t Killed is Houseplants,” the author also kicks the workings of the current houseplant supply chain, calling it antiquated, archaic, ripe for disruption and having no direct contact with consumers (“Some don’t even have a cell phone.”). The author says, “As a result, it’s hard for them [growers] to detect new trends, and when word does trickle down about a hot new plant, it can take several years before it’s readily available.”

I’m not so sure I appreciate the author’s tone. As trendy younger people say, this article gives me “all the feels,” most of which are of the “Well, golly” genre. Some points are valid, such as certain crops taking a long time to come to market. For other points brought up in the article, the author needs a greater understanding of the underlying economics of producing slower-growing crops. A media education initiative could be in order if consumer outlets continue to cover the horticulture industry. Please give the article a READ.

Comments

As for previous comments, John Martens wrote in with, “Great article that may rub the plant industry the wrong way, but that’s good. We have a long way to go to get over all the excuses we make for how we do business. On the flip side, consumers and retailers need to understand that plants die at some point for various reasons, so get over it. Pick up another plant, Google it and move on. Living with plants is one of the great experiences of life.”

And then there’s this from Gail Cash at Flori-Design, "My goodness, I want to hop on my dinosaur, find Matthew Boyle and give him what for! I certainly can't call him since I don't have a cell phone." She suggested that the TPIE committee invite him to next year's show. Good idea!

Houseplant author and expert Lisa Eldred Steinkopf wrote in to say, "I find much of the houseplant information is not very reliable or even correct. All of a sudden EVERYBODY is a 'plant lady.' Drives me crazy!"

But you have an opinion about the article, right? Then tell me about it HERE.  

Now, I don’t have any scientific data on this, but I’ll hazard to say that retail signs that have both information and entertainment value (in the form of wit, for example) go a long way in forging bonds between a retail establishment and the shopper. As I wrote in my Buzz Worthy column in Green Profit’s April issue, “Humor levels the playing field … it strips us naked and makes us more human, and makes us more willing to understand the human in one another.”

To that end, I’d like to share one sign with you, sent to me from Savannah Flory at TLC Garden Center. “We always have people asking for, ‘You know, the plant at the (insert location here).’ So, might as well put a sign on it!” (If you can't read the sign, it says, "The soil Ron uses at the courthouse!")

Fun, huh? I bet some customers thought, “Oh, hey, I know Ron!” and picked up a bag or two.

Send me your garden center’s informative yet entertaining signs and I’ll share them over the next few weeks. You could use some inspiration in the coming weeks, right? Send them to ewells@ballpublishing.com. Please and thank you! 

I just found this Yahoo! Finance interview with Eliza Blank, CEO and founder of the online plant store The Sill, that aired on Earth Day. The interview is titled, “Plant Market Fueled by Brands Like The Sill,” and the interviewee says that with the help of mediums such as Instagram, customers are motivated to buy plants but “They haven’t had a dedicated brand to deliver that experience to them, so that’s where The Sill comes in … I was in brand marketing and I felt like this was a category that was really deserving of a consumer brand.” So, sales of houseplants are up by 50% in three years because now there are brands?

The interview goes on to talk about logistics, the role of escapism from today’s cultural climate and so forth. Again, I’m sure you have opinions and I’d love to hear them. TELL ME.