Last year, the braintrust at Kaw Valley Greenhouses made a bold move, switching from a wholesale growing operation to concentrate solely on producing plants for a retail venture the company started but had only dabbled in previously. Kaw Valley, based in Manhattan, Kan., opened 46 seasonal retail locations in Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, mainly in parking lots of shopping centers dotting the main roads in those regions.
“[2009] was our first big dip into retail, and we had our best year ever,” said Dan Parcel, the company's retail director. “In 2010 we went totally off the cliff and beat the previous year’s numbers.”
Parcel credits some of the increased sales to the “staycation” trend. “People are staying home more and want their homes and yards to look better,” he said. “We’re in the home decorating business rather than the gardening field. A lot of industry research shows many customers are reluctant or resentful gardeners. They don’t consider themselves gardeners but want their home to look great. They want things that are quick and easy, and we try to facilitate that as much as possible.”
Kaw Valley uses color as one of its primary visual merchandising tools. “We want people to see us from the street and to come on in,” Parcel said. Besides flower and foliage color, the retail grower uses signage and colored pots – purple pots for annuals and green pots for perennials.
The results speak for themselves, and they definitely say, "Cha-ching!"
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