Tips from Leslie: Ditch the discount rack

I prefer garden centers not focus on “the competition,” but rather embrace and fully express their own identity. Do what you do well and let the competitor down the street do what they do well.

For example, there is one thing that I think the big box stores do really well: The discount rack of death. You’ve seen them, the racks rolled out into the middle of the aisle with 50 percent sale signs on them, full of half-dead pathetic looking house plants. They make me both cringe and delight at the very same time. Go on with your bad selves big boxes; keep it up with the racks of death. But you independent garden centers? That is the last thing anyone should ever see in a place like yours.

Leslie Finical Halleck owns Halleck Horticultural, through which she provides horticultural marketing, business consulting, social media management and content generation for green industry businesses.  Leslie is a Certified Professional Horticulturist (CPH) via ASHS, with more than 20 years of industry experience. For the past eight years she served as General Manager for North Haven Gardens, a well-respected independent garden center in Dallas, Texas. www.lesliehalleck.com