This 'n' Data

Sweet news from Sugar Creek

In the March issue, we reported on a rain-soaked Sugar Creek Garden Center, the startup independent retail store in Fort Mill, S.C., that was battling mud issues during construction. Here’s the latest report from Jan Wallace, who, along with husband George, opened the store’s doors four months ago (Spoiler alert: The news is much more cheery):

Things are going really well!

We opened with a bang on March 11th. Even though we opened later than we wanted, we exceeded our sales goals by 13% for March. April sales were about 16% over, and May seems to be right on. We have a lot of nice comments on the layout and selection of plants. Pottery is flying off the shelves, too. We look forward to a break in the summer so that we can plan our fall and Christmas and bring our gift lines into the store. So far, it has been 98% plant material that we’ve sold. I’m excited to bring other items into the store.

At our grand opening on March 20th we gave away almost 400 hot dogs. The parking lot was at capacity! We have 45 spaces, too! Once the rest of construction is finished, our overflow lot will add about 25 more spaces. Rolling Thunder [a nonprofit group supporting veterans] started the day with a flag ceremony, raising the flag over the garden center for the first time. It was really nice.

Jan also noted that the center is not quite finished and will be a work in progress much of this year. We’ll look in again next quarter to see how Sugar Creek weathered the summer. www.sugarcreekgardencenter.com