As COVID-19 ushered in new customers and IGCs were up against issues like thinning plant inventory and staffing shortages, overall security checks or drills may have fallen by the wayside. As garden centers settle into the fall months, it’s the perfect time to rethink security strategies and make new room for improvements.

BY THE NUMBERS

According to the National Retail Federation’s 2021 Retail Security Survey, 69.4% of respondents reported that the pandemic “resulted in an increase in overall risk to their organizations.” The report also highlighted the fact that criminals had more opportunity to swipe products due to multichannel sales, such as buying online or in-store pick-up.

Per the report, 18% of respondents said they experienced a “slight or significant reduction in threats over the past year,” likely due to decreased foot traffic from COVID-19 safety measures. The report also stated that employee theft was the largest area of reduction, and nearly 30% of respondents also reported that shoplifting was also a reduced threat.

While these numbers might seem good news, retailers should have their guard up: According to the report, 38.9% of those surveyed experienced the most significant increase in fraud from multichannel sales, compared to just 18.8% in 2020 — almost double. The NRF report also discovered that 53% of retailers are allocating additional technology resources to safeguard their operations.

While crime is relatively low in the industry, it can — and does — happen.

PLANT AND PRODUCT THEFT

• Theft usually occurs after hours.
• Theft happens on a large scale, and usually thieves are prepared with trucks, other vehicles or and have access to an easy escape route.
• Big-ticket items like shrubs, statuary items or large containers are usually targeted by thieves.

Shoplifting and plant theft seldom happen during operating hours, says Tom Richey, claims manager at Hortica, a brand of Sentry Insurance.

“As far as shoplifting products in a store, we don’t see a lot of that, claims-wise. We see a lot of theft from products in stores after hours,” he says.

Jay Mitchell, manager at Mitchell’s Nursery & Greenhouse in King, North Carolina, can attest to this, as his family’s business experienced theft and repeated attempts that started in the spring of 2016. One particular customer came by twice a year, usually during the busier times, such as the nursery’s spring open house. Sometimes the man showed up with his family members, but he usually showed up alone.

According to Mitchell, the man bought a bag of dirt or hanging basket at most, but he lingered around the store for two or three hours.

“He asked a lot of questions about what we were growing and how things were going,” Mitchell recalls. “His dad used to have a greenhouse.”

On the night after the open house, police spotted two men on the side of the road by the nursery’s irrigation pond who claimed their van had broken down. Police arrested one of the men, as there had been a previous warrant out for his arrest. The other went on his way, and all of this occurred unbeknownst to Mitchell.

The morning after that incident, Mitchell discovered that nearly $1,200 worth of geraniums were missing. He found some of them scattered in a gully near the woods behind the nursery, and amongst them found a wax-coated box that linked the name of the man’s business on it — a giveaway as to who was behind the theft. Mitchell also found a homemade stretcher device used to transport plants.

He estimates the stretcher required two people to maneuver it, and says it could probably hold about 80 6.5-inch geraniums at a time, along with four hanging baskets. He also says the thieves likely entered the nursery through the woods from the road that led to the building, as it was an easy access point.

Mitchell thinks that because the path through the woods was so rocky, one of the men fell and sustained injuries, and couldn’t continue on, leading to the discovery of plants in the woods.

“We called the sheriff’s department and they said, ‘Well, that’s odd. We just arrested him the night before over at your pond.’”

However, they couldn’t prove or disprove that the suspect had stolen from the nursery because the man claimed that he and his family had bought the plants the week before. At the time, Mitchell’s Nursery & Greenhouse provided customers with handwritten receipts and didn’t have a POS system to track purchases.

“We could not deny that they had bought anything from us, but the bulk of it was gone. They had a box truck with a company name on the side of it, so the detective was pretty sure that they were going out and peddling our stuff (and possibly plants from other nurseries) to hardware stores and other businesses out of their box truck, acting like they grew it,” Mitchell says.

While petty plant or product theft can occur in broad daylight with lower or moderately priced items, Richey says they don’t often receive claims for smaller items from their insured. Instead, it happens on a larger scale.

“What we see shoplifted are your big-ticket items and equipment, after-hours. This is where people are loading them up on vehicles. Things like shrubs, larger containers or statuary items are the things that are being stolen from garden centers. Most of it is probably left out in the open, and unless they’re well secured, they can be taken pretty quickly,” Richey says.

PREVENTION

• Install video or dummy cameras, security signage, motion sensor alarms, padlocks or extra lighting.
• Open up the front of the store so you can easily monitor who enters in and out.

To prevent loss and theft, Zach Bruce, safety services manager at Hortica, says it’s essential to have a plan in place for when such incidents occur. For example, if theft occurs, garden centers should first file a police report.

“They should let law enforcement know the issues they’re having and see if they’re able to drive by on a more regular basis. Generally, if they go down and they steal something one night and they easily get away with that, then there’s a good chance that they’re likely going to go back and try it again,” Bruce says.

Garden centers should install motion-sensor security lighting and video cameras in-store and outdoor, Bruce says. For video cameras, attention is critical: think quality image and broad coverage. Dummy cameras or security signage are always good to have to dissuade any potential thieves as well.

Many security cameras have multiple options when setting up, and businesses can either outsource monitoring/installation or do everything in-house. Whatever the company decides, it should get as much coverage as possible, and should focus on any entryway points into the store, Bruce says.

He also recommends securing any parking lot gates with a heavy-duty lock, which is another easy way to stop potential thieves in their tracks.

“The other thing that we’ve typically recommended is to open up the front and try to make it so that people can’t easily be undercover. You want to easily monitor who enters the property,” Bruce says.

TAKING MEASURES

After the theft incident, Mitchell installed alarms on the greenhouse doors and trip-motion laser beam sensors. The company also installed video cameras in the main greenhouse and the nursery’s parking lot.

“There’s not a good way to lock up a greenhouse because people could just slice through the plastic. The greenhouse and growing areas are on 5-6 acres, so it would’ve been really expensive to put a security fence up. Video surveillance and the alarms system seemed to be the cheapest route to go,” Mitchell says.

Mitchell notes that the man’s family came back to the store during opening hours three times since the primary incident, and he made it clear that none of them were welcome and had to leave. However, Mitchell says shortly after, the prowlers came back one night — likely attempting to steal poinsettias in the greenhouse. He thinks it was the same family involved in the initial theft.

“I don’t think they realized that we had put alarms in the greenhouse because after they got in the greenhouse, the alarm went off and they left,” Mitchell says.

Unfortunately, their heads were down, and they were wearing hats so that the police couldn’t make an arrest, but the alarm was enough to scare them off before they could swipe anything. While combing through security footage, Mitchell discovered that the men had visited prior during business hours, and he could tell they were scoping out camera locations.

“Looking back, they probably had been doing it for three to five years because they would come in on our open houses or the Saturday before Mother’s Day — our busiest days — just wandering around. And it’s just so chaotic that when you come in those next mornings, you don’t notice when there’s plants missing,” he says.

Mitchell realized the two men had picked six geraniums off of different benches little by little throughout the greenhouse to avoid arousing suspicion. And because the nursery grows nearly 12,000 geraniums, the thieves could quickly get away with stealing a couple hundred of them, Mitchell says.

The men were never formally charged due to lack of concrete evidence, but the garden center hasn’t had any issues since installing those security measures.

THE NEXT WAVE OF CRIME

One of the most significant emerging threats to businesses right now is cybercrime, and even garden centers can become a target for hackers. Stolen information is a substantial loss for their insured, Richey says — and the losses are larger than what they’re losing in stolen plants.

“The biggest thing that we’re seeing is that people are keeping information they don’t need to be keeping, they need to discard old or outdated information so there aren’t more ways for these crimes to take place,” Richey says.

Stolen information can result in the loss of millions of dollars, so it’s crucial to discard outdated information securely.

Many businesses reuse simple passwords or lack follow-through on virus software updates. As a result, Richey says they aren’t aware of the issue until it’s too late and experience $3-4 million ransomware losses. Protecting account information is vital because cybercriminals can hack into payment systems and grab names, addresses and credit cards. A common issue Richey sees is cybercriminals posing as known vendors submitting a “notice” for past-due payments and letting the business know they can pay via credit card.

“These crimes happen more than you would believe, so there’s got to be a protection policy in place with every company, every organization. You’ve got to be able to manage and educate your employees on how to recognize and prevent cyberattacks,” Richey says.

I recently got a question from a Facebook friend who wanted my opinion on whether she and her husband should expect a refund from a nursery they’d purchased trees from last year. One of the trees wasn’t doing well this year, and the couple thought it was due to a bad graft. My friend reported that the nursery owner told them to dig up the tree and bring it in, and the IGC would give the couple half off of a replacement plant. “Do you think this was correct?” this woman asked via Facebook message, adding, “BTW, we have been customers at this particular nursery for well over 20 years. What do you think?”

This woman felt that she should be given a new tree without charge, and anyone who has worked at a garden center has dealt with similar situations. Whether it’s a hanging basket that has dried to a crisp, a shrub that failed to thrive or a declining tree, many of our customers think that a nursery should replace ailing plants without hesitation ... or further cost. IGCs are additionally challenged by box stores that offer full refunds within one year of a plant purchase.

Most businesses have a guarantee and refund policy in place, of course. We write up what seems reasonable and post it on the website for the public to see. We show this policy to new hires every spring so that everyone is on board with the same response when a customer wants a replacement plant. Some IGCs guarantee a plant for the first three months, others for one year. Some don’t guarantee plants through the winter, or offer returns on annuals a week after the sale. Nurseries that give discounts to landscapers often tell those companies that in exchange for the discount, the landscaper assumes any guarantee on the plants. And some garden centers don’t offer any guarantees at all.

No matter what your policy is, however, customers will come looking for a refund or replacement for a plant that died. At this point, management has to make a call. Do you stick to the policy, knowing that a disgruntled customer can kick up a fuss and bad-mouth you online? Or do you give in and provide a replacement, even if you’re 99% sure that the plant died because of improper care?

These difficult decisions are usually made by the seat of our pants, and the response is often determined by how well we know the client and how worn down we feel, and whether or not the customer’s attitude strikes us the wrong way. Realistically, we know that there is no one correct way that’s going to leave everyone happy.

Yet beyond these day-to-day and situation-to-situation decisions, it occurs to me that we have many opportunities to help the public to be more accepting when plants don’t succeed. As garden professionals, part of our task is not only to spread excitement about plants but to help people develop some measure of acceptance that they are living things and living things are quirky. We can do this in many ways through several channels. From face-to-face encounters to our signage, social media and web presence, there is light-hearted but accurate information to be spread. Here are some ideas you can use to start conversations with your customers.

It’s complicated

Find opportunities to remind the public that beyond the basic care required for a plant to thrive, there are unseen forces at play. When a plant dies, we might be able to determine a cause, but sometimes there isn’t a single insect, disease or cultural condition responsible. “When plants don’t do well, it can be a combination of this, that and the other,” we need to remind them. “Let me give you an example. Last year’s drought, plus compact soil, plus a borer that we didn’t notice might have been responsible for the death of a tree.”

It’s out of control

Connect plants to other things in nature that people don’t expect to be able to control.

“How are plants like clouds? They are constantly changing. Sometimes we look at them and marvel at their beauty, and other times we don’t like what we see. Plants and clouds are part of the natural world, and they can surprise us in a number of ways.”

Are you just like your siblings?

Customers often wonder why plants that are supposed to be the same grow at different rates. One might be thriving while the same type of plant that’s growing right next to it is half the size. “I know you think that the locations have exactly the same conditions, but perhaps there are subtle distinctions in soil compaction or pH. And in addition to slight variations in the locations, sometimes there are differences in the plants’ genetics. We all know families where despite having the same parents and growing up in the same home, the kids are completely different, right?”

Plants aren’t furniture

People sometimes think of their yards and gardens as the inside of their house; they want to arrange the plants in a pleasing manner and have them stay that way. We need to remind them that plants are always growing. “I know it’s tempting to hope that your landscaping will reach a point where it stays exactly the same, but that expectation is more realistic for your living room than for your gardens. Just be glad that your furniture doesn’t continue to grow as plants do! Can you imagine what it would be like if your sofa was alive and constantly getting bigger?”

Life doesn’t come with guarantees

Like it or not, we all have to come to peace with the knowledge that anything alive will ultimately die. In between birth or germination and death, there is any number of ways that life can progress, some of them desirable or miraculous, and others disappointing or even tragic. I tried to convey this to my Facebook friend when I answered her question about the failing tree. “Expecting a nursery to guarantee plants through the years,” I responded, “is like expecting a hospital to guarantee the ongoing health of babies that have been born there.”

It’s time for garden centers and retailers to forecast trends for the coming year. In order to discover what the customer will be looking for, stay ahead of the competition and ultimately drive sales, forecasting trends is vital for all garden center businesses.

The 2022 Garden Trends Report from Garden Media Group, “From Crisis to Innovation,” outlines the shift that has occurred in the green industry and beyond. Following “The Great Reset” of 2021, the 2022 report guides us through the customer mindset to better fit green products and services into this post-pandemic lifestyle.

“We are coming into an era of personal freedom,” says Katie Dubow, president of Garden Media Group. “In 2022, many will take a leap they might not have had the choice or courage to make otherwise. The trends show a bright future for gardening.” Here is a sampling of the eight trends that will shape the future and how you can utilize each for your business, according to Garden Media Group:

Creator Class

Next year, innovators will emerge to maintain green economic recovery. These leaders are called the Creator Class, and research shows they are leaving steady jobs for ‘passion projects.’

“This new Creator Class is shaping their future not with big corporations, but as individuals,” Dubow says. “They are drawn to create and innovate on their terms, creating successful micro-businesses in their communities.”

Micro-businesses are also driving the ‘support local shops’ message that garden retailers can capitalize on.

“Keep promoting your shop local message, charitable contributions, or how you are working to bring together community,” Dubow says. “Invite local creators in for a Local-topia event, collaborate on new products and share in their social reach.”

Shoppertainment

The sudden change to virtual demanded everyone adjust the way they do business. Every sector pivoted, including social media.

“The pandemic accelerated online shopping,” Dubow says. “The customer will be expecting your green business to offer products for sale directly from social platforms, known as Shoppertainment. In the U.S., social commerce may reach 4.2% of retail e-commerce sales in 2022 or $36.09 billion.”

Zoning board

In 2022, home improvement projects show no sign of slowing down. And the new project involves zones — creating spaces for work and play.

A key zone for retailers to consider is the front yard. Social media searches for “front yard” or “front porch” have reached a five-year high.

“Defining spaces for comfortable and safe entertainment is top of mind for homeowners,” Dubow says. “Out front, they can welcome people into their space without crossing the threshold.”

By positioning plants and products to suit this space, green businesses can react to trends by driving sales. People want container plants that look good and are low care.

Bridging the gap

This is the year of “The Great Reset.” And with any reset, you need to start fresh. For the 18.3 million new gardeners gained in the past year, this means going back to the basics. “Green businesses are challenged with turning these instant gratification customers into lifetime gardeners,” Dubow says. “Build a strong bridge of products and knowledge specific to your customers’ interests — whether edibles, gardening for wildlife, containers or the DIY generation.”

By bridging the gap in products for beginners, garden retailers will lead new customers to success. And note, the more personalization, the better. But be sure to offer quality products, and don’t overwhelm newbies with too many choices.

Living television

Many have discovered — or rediscovered — birding. Sales of feeders and feed are projected to hit $2.2 billion in sales in 2021. “Birding as a hobby is great news for retailers that sell feed and feeders,” Dubow says. “An exciting byproduct of an interest in birds is an interest in the plants to feed them.”

Make it easy for bird enthusiasts to shop the essentials by designing and merchandising collections to feed birds. Provide plant lists, merchandising, guides, lead birdwatching walks or host birding clubs to support and engage this group.

On-demand flowers

Flowers are the new hugs. In times where hugging and personal connections are limited, people show their appreciation by giving flowers. The act of both giving and receiving flowers triggers the feel-good hormones in our brains.

Whether a pandemic, personal pleasure or a signal of an elevated lifestyle, cut flower bouquet sales in the U.S. reached $6.5 billion in 2021 and are predicted to surpass that in 2022. “Over 50% of cut flowers are purchased at the grocery store,” Dubow says.

“Think about the sales we could attract if garden retailers set up cut flower stations.”

To capitalize on the cut flower trend, promote sharing gardens, teach customers the best flowers for bouquets and host flower arranging workshops.

And, Dubow adds, an added benefit of this trend is increased plant sales because consumers want to buy the plants they see in their bouquets.

Wild curation

New research shows that one in five of the world’s plants — 4,400 in the U.S. — are at risk of extinction.

Plants — and their incredible diversity — make life possible. This is why there will be a demand for a renewed focus to prevent further plant extinctions.

Gardens such as Mt. Cuba Center in Delaware have led conservation efforts with research, fundraising and the creation of extinction gardens.

“Your business can provide key education to customers as well,” Dubow says. “Teach them how certain activities can harm or help extinct plants. You’ll be surprised how some of the plant parents flexing on social media will be easy to bring into the conservation fold.”

Awareness and observation over time will help people develop a keen eye and save wild plants.

In living color

The most anticipated trend each year is the hue that’s catching the consumer’s eye. This year the color is clover, representing the first sign of spring, renewal and rebirth.

“Green is optimistic, rejuvenating, invigorating, up-beat and importantly — inspired by nature,” Dubow says. “Use this trending color in biophilic design elements in offices, work it into shades of new collections, and merchandise with pillows, containers or accessories.”

Garden Media Group has published its Garden Trends Report annually since 2001. The firm offers information about trends in various formats, including a free annual report and a YouTube series. The 2022 Garden Trends Report is available for free download at: bit.ly/GardenMediaGroupTrends2022 Read Garden Media’s GROW! blog for trend updates and industry news.

You never think it will happen to you until it does. Cybercrime is one of those things no one wants to think about, but it’s a real threat to businesses of all sizes.

Digging into the statistics can be pretty scary. According to Forbes magazine, 2020 broke the record for cyberattacks on companies. And data from computer security company Norton shows one in three consumers have fallen victim to cybercrime in the past year alone.

We’ve all gotten those phishing emails from the prince of Nigeria looking for someone to hang onto some cash for him or spam calls from someone claiming to be the IRS letting you know that there’s been an issue with your social security number. But cybercrime isn’t as obvious as it once was. It used to be something you worried about your grandmother falling for, but now it can look like an email attachment with an important invoice or an urgent request from a colleague.

And the threat is increasing. Since COVID-19 hit the U.S., the FBI has seen a 300% increase in reported cybercrimes. But it’s not just cybercrime that’s increasing. According to the National Retail Federation’s 2021 security survey, the pandemic has led to an increase in multichannel sales fraud (aka, people ordering online and picking up in-store.).

Even though a retail garden center might not seem like a big payout to cybercriminals, it’s often smaller businesses that make for more attractive targets. They lack the security infrastructure larger companies have but also offer the information that cybercriminals are searching for. And according to the U.S. Small Business Administration, 88% of small business owners feel that their business is vulnerable to a cyberattack.

A cyberattack can not only compromise your customers’ personal information, but it can also bring your business to a screeching halt. And experts don’t expect the threat to decrease anytime soon.

In this month’s cover story, we explore just a few of the ways you can take steps to protect your company’s most vital information. We hope you find a few tips to help make your garden center a little bit safer, both online and at the store. Plus, worsening port congestion and delays at LA/Long Beach are keeping Asia-U.S. prices extremely high at more than quadruple their level a year ago.

Kate Spirgen
kspirgen@gie.net