Participants:
Francesca Halberg – General Manager/CPO of New Media Retailer
Kris Willey – Owner of Stony Brook Gardens
Video Transcript
FH: Hello everyone. This is Francesca. Thank you so much for joining me today on the New Media Retailer Podcast. I am so excited to welcome Kris, the owner of Stony Brook Gardens today. Kris, thanks so much for joining us.
Kris
Oh, you’re very welcome
The story behind Stony Brook Gardens
Francesca
To kick it off. Do you want to tell us a little bit about your story, a little bit about your business, how you guys got started?
Kris (00:25):
My husband and I met when I was working at a garden center in high school and then went to college. He was in college just graduating. And so we crossed one summer and probably said, “Hello,” and that’s about it. And then after I graduated college, I went back to this landscape company, and he was there. At first, I was a labor and worked on his landscape crew, and then I was brought back to run their newly built garden center. He ran their garden center in Pennsylvania for a while, and I was helping him. Then I was brought back to Princeton, and after a couple of years, we said, “You know, we kind of maybe could do this together.” And so after we got married, we decided to take the plunge and start loving ourselves.
Francesca (01:10):
Gotcha. And for those that don’t know, where is your business located?
Kris (01:14):
The business is in Pennington, New Jersey, and he had grown up locally. I had grown up locally. We had done landscaping, garden center, the whole bit, so we thought we could put together our experience and start our own thing.
Francesca (01:28):
And what year was that? What year did you start your business?
Kris (01:30):
We opened in 1989.
Good customer service separates small businesses from the big box stores
Francesca (01:33):
Congratulations. That’s amazing. What makes your store a little bit different from other garden centers in the state of New Jersey?
Kris (01:42):
I think some people really like the fact that it’s like a mom and pop, and people have commented online like “I talked to the owner, and oh my goodness, they actually were out helping me.” It seems like the personal touch is what appeals to some people that don’t want to do Home Depot.
Francesca (01:58):
Yeah, absolutely. Oh my gosh. That’s so true. Regardless of the type of business, it’s so true for small businesses that customer service can never compare to a big box store, because you are working with the owner or staff members that are so educated in various topics that just doesn’t compare when you go to a big box store.
Kris (02:17):
We also find that. I mean, it’s really important to us is to say to our staff, “Say hello, and you know, do you need help? I’m over here, watering, and just yell if you need me be a person.” Because even in other garden centers, we walk around and we tour them after our busy season, our local garden centers, and we can go in and out and no one ever says a word to us. That really irks me. I’m like, “I don’t want my staff to do that. I want you to say hello.” The first thing is they can say hello to five people, and that customer should have had five of us say hello to them.
Francesca (02:50):
Wow. Don’t we have a phrase we use here? Keep it simple, stupid, but isn’t it crazy how simple of a concept that seems but is missed by so many.
Kris (03:01):
Well, I think it is so simple. I also feel like the young people today are so engaged in other things. They don’t really talk, and sometimes people look at you like “What?” And I’m like, “Hi, how are ya? It’s beautiful day.” And they look at me like, “Oh yes.” It is like no one’s ever spoken to them before.
Francesca (03:20):
Yeah. It’s such an interesting concept. My parents own a small pizzeria restaurant and I remember one day I was sitting there eating lunch, and my brother said something to a customer as they were leaving. It was a younger kid, and he was leaving, and the kid responded back, “You too.” And my brother said, “I always love to see who’s actually paying attention. Like what I said to him, their response, you too doesn’t make sense at all.” And since he said that to me, I now am so aware of like what people say to me, and I’m like, “Oh, thank you so much. You as well.” Or like whatever the appropriate response is, because I want people to know like I’m paying attention and I appreciate the fact that you are giving me good customer service.
Kris (04:02):
And isn’t it interesting that we have to think about that kind of stuff. We’re really put your phone down and pay attention. Like it’s so important.
Kris (04:10):
But I mean, a garden center is a beautiful place, and so when people come in, you just have to yell, “Hello, you know, I’m over here if you need help,” and you get a good response. People love it. They all of a sudden feel like they’re in a beautiful place, you know, not just walking through a store. Absolutely.
Adapting to different types of customer
Francesca (04:27):
Now, would you say people that are coming in are more like familiar with the types of plants and products and they sort of know what they’re looking for, or are you getting a lot of like beginner DIYers, maybe through COVID, they’re sort of picking up this as picking this up as a hobby?
Kris (04:43):
Both. We have a lot of new gardeners, but I think the average gardener nowadays is not like years ago when they came in with a list and they knew what they wanted. Now, gardening people come in, they want something pretty on their deck. They don’t know about plants. They don’t particularly care. They want something. So we have to, you know, go through, “Is it sun or shade” and like “What colors do you like?” and help them to pick, but they are not specifically wanting a geranium or wanting a petunia. They don’t know, and they don’t really care to know. Right? They just want something pretty, which is interesting from our perspective because I grow a lot of our plants and I like to have a unique, cool things, new things. Most people don’t care.
Francesca (05:30):
I feel like, unfortunately, I’m probably that person. I’m like “Low maintenance is great. Can you point me in that direction?”
Kris (05:37):
But that’s exactly it. It’s younger, and so we have to have stuff that works for that. And I think they are the ones that appreciate some help the most, because they’re really kind of lost, and it’s overwhelming to see all the plants and all the colors. So, you know, if we can grab them and say, “Here’s a couple hanging baskets, we can make that into a pot, or you can make that exact same plants, you know, look and find something that you like, and we can put it together piece by piece.”
Hiring is a major challenge for small businesses right now
Francesca (06:06):
So how do you begin to train your staff? Like obviously customer service is a part of that, but education is as well. Are you finding people that this is naturally a hobby of theirs and hiring them? Or where does that process begin?
Kris (06:20):
Staffing now is anybody that applies is hired because we’re so shorthanded. Most of them are younger kids, high school or college, and have no plan or experience whatsoever, but they pick up pretty quickly. I try to focus on the key people, helping customers who need help, and the younger people are watering, we’re getting the carts put away. We’re directing people to areas where they want to shop and as they watch us, I think they pick up on a lot.
Francesca (06:52):
Gotcha. That’s interesting. Hiring is, is definitely a tricky situation at this point. Have you found like any tool that’s been successful for getting people to hire right now?
Kris (07:05):
No. In the past we have used ZipRecruiter or you know, those types of things, and we’ve gotten some responses. Last year I used one of those organizations and got zero, and a lot of people hit our website career page this year, but did not actually come in. You guys were tracking, you know, our pages on our website and Lexi was saying how she was surprising, how many people hit the career page, but there really was nothing going on at the store, and even high school and college, really. Just in the last couple of weeks, we’ve had some young people in, but college kids don’t seem to really need to work anymore. Yeah.
Francesca (07:46):
That’s so interesting. So interesting. Would you say hiring is one of the bigger challenges that we’re facing as a small business at this point?
Kris (07:53):
Absolutely. Because it’s holding us back from work, from getting jobs done. My husband does the landscape end, and if he had more men, we’d be doing more work, but we’re limited. And if somebody wants something done, it might be six weeks till we get there. And it’s not because we’re swamped, it’s just, we can’t get enough done quickly.
COVID majorly impacted supply chains
Francesca (08:13):
Wow. Isn’t that interesting? Wow. Are there — I’m just speaking along the lines of challenges — other challenges that you’re running into as a small business, maybe just this year or as a result of the pandemic?
Kris (08:25):
Well, I think it was very busy last year because people were home and they were starting to garden. They wanted the garden. Now it’s catching up that the pandemic’s over, and people are now going to the beach and they’re gone and their disposable income is being spread around. So we expected it to slow down. But we were off from last year for the first time in May, which is the biggest month of the year for a garden center. But looking at what was down, it was our hard goods. Not my perennials or the annuals or the nursery stock, it was the hard goods in the store. And then I look at how much I never received that I ordered, and if you look at the amount I didn’t receive, that’s about the volume of what I was off for the month and now, I mean, product just hasn’t come. And I am going to cancel most of it because it’s too late. Wow. So your retail people say, “Well, retail’s going to boom nationally.” And it cannot boom if you have nothing to sell. The product chain is one’s being made and supply. For the other delivery, I was told America’s short 1 million truck drivers right now. So the economy can’t move forward if there’s no product.
Francesca (09:43):
Right. Yeah. Geez. That’s so interesting. I mean, obviously there’s been delays from the consumer end, you know, for me. But I guess it’s interesting to think about the position that puts the retailer in as the middleman as well. Obviously, that’s a tough position to be in
Kris (09:59):
Every day people say, “Do you have stakes or shepherd hooks or gloves or pottery?” And I said, “It’s not here.” It just never came. And I don’t know if or when, and I’ve asked the salesman companies so long now — they must be asked by everybody – and they don’t know. So at this point, I don’t want to harass them. Okay, we don’t have it. I don’t know if we’re ever going to have it not till next year.
Francesca (10:25):
Man.
Kris (10:27):
It makes a difference. Oh, it’s amazing. I didn’t think it was a big deal, but then when I looked at the numbers, I’m like, “How? Why are we off?” Just because we didn’t have stuff to sell. Right.
Francesca (10:37):
Right. Yeah. That’s so interesting. Now, have you felt like you’ve been in a position where you’ve had to be proactive with communicating those delays and stuff to your customers? And if so, how have you gone about that?
Kris (10:49):
Well the customers and our employees will say to me, “Are we getting more pottery?” And at first I’m like, “Yes, it’s coming.” And now I go to the customer and just say, “You know, the supply chain is so broken, right? It was ordered in September, and I don’t know if we’ll ever get it. So at this point I would not plan on us having it.” Wow. You know, it’s getting late. It’s going to be July, and I know if they’d go around elsewhere to find it, but I don’t think anybody has it.
Francesca (11:21):
Right. Geez. That’s so interesting.
Kris (11:25):
Yeah. So they change their mind. They buy something else. They go another direction, but that sale is lost; there is no substitute. All the other pots are sold out, too. And I work with three major distributors and everybody has nothing in stock.
Francesca (11:39):
Wow. And are you working with your staff to sort of transition to like a different type of sale, or is there that little inventory that it’s difficult to do?
Kris (11:50):
In that situation, there’s not any inventory to really move to. So we really depend on the plant sales, you know. That’s our forte. We grow a lot of the stuff I can supply continually. Right. That’s not a problem. We just have to really focus on them looking great and everything being top notch. Get the tables, clean, get everything looking good, and capitalize on people buying more than they anticipated.
Francesca (12:19):
For sure. For sure. Yeah, absolutely, but that’s so smart. I mean, obviously perception when you walk into a store is important anyway — obviously more so today – and you want somebody coming in and thinking like, “Oh, that would look so good,” instead of like, “Well, I don’t know if I could bring that one back to life,” or whatever it may be. They can really visualize what it could look like in their own house.
Kris (12:40):
Right. Great.
Education online will lead to new customers
Francesca (12:43):
Anything new going on at the store?
Kris (12:48):
Not really. Just because we’re trying to settle into what’s going to be the new norm and things are slowing down and we can’t count on any product. We can’t count on any. I must say that what we’re doing with you folks with like, “This is pollinator week.” We used to not pay attention to a lot of things, but Lexi makes me talk about something every week. And so we’re focusing on something every week. We do a ton of perennials and annuals, and I look at customers, I know they’re new first timers. So I think the reputation for having a lot of good stuff all summer versus a lot of garden centers who put things on sale just to kind of get rid of stuff, we bring fresh in right into August.
Francesca (13:36):
Wow. So for those that don’t know about the relationship with Lexi, Kris is a website customer of ours just for the people that are listening. So she works one-on-one with a marketing specialist who is, as she mentioned, proactively offering ideas to keep the website up-to-date or potentially give people a new reason to come in. I think that that’s a really important thing that you mentioned because while you may not have supplies to be able to cater to somebody looking for pottery or things like that, a lot of hard goods, it is important to educate people in the types of plants that you do have at the store that they maybe hadn’t considered for their own home. So focusing on tips of the week or different things like that through the website is also a great way to attract new customers. As you mentioned, people are coming into the store that you’ve never seen before, so it’s kind of creating that hybrid of education through the website, but also through customers coming in the door for the first time.
Kris (14:36):
Yeah. I think that when we started with your company, we also do the Facebook, and my daughter does the Instagram, and she communicates with you guys on topics. So each week when Lexi will say, “Oh yeah, this week we’ll do delphiniums.” My daughter is taking pictures, putting them on Instagram, and between everybody linking everything it really is, I think, the best advertising. And it’s worked great with COVID because we started with you in March or February of 2020, and the COVID hit in March. Everybody sat online and we had the new website and then we had the Instagram and the Facebook, and I think that was really key.
Social media marketing attracts all demographics
Francesca (15:18):
Gotcha. Gotcha. So sometimes I think having like a website in today’s day and age is not really as much of an education process as it used to be when I first started working here 11 years ago. But social media sometimes still does take some convincing for stores. It’s interesting that you mentioned Facebook, you mentioned Instagram and the benefits that it has had on your business. Do you feel like that sort of applies to your entire range of demographics of customers? Or do you feel like it really caters towards younger people, which is maybe the perception, or what’s been your experience as a small business owner?
Kris (15:55):
I used to think it was a lot of the younger. I think Instagram is probably the youngest group, but then Facebook, a lot of older people are on right now. And I know my father-in-law’s 93 and he’s on his phone doing all this stuff a lot more than I am. And so it’s, it’s changing, but people, I think they go to your website to see what you sell. It’s different than the other two, and when we joined your company, they had “Pick your favorites” and “Pick of the week” or whatever, and people would come in and specifically ask for products that we had for the first time. The only way they knew about that was through our website, and I was astounded, but they showed the number of hits, and last May, it was astounding. Wow. We were really so happy that we had changed, you know, we had gone with a new website and an Instagram. My daughter plays piano, so like at Christmas she did a big piano thing with a video, which is shared with the website, and so it gets out there to people. Share that if it’s good with your friends. And I think that’s the key, really, is to have something so cool that everybody’s sharing it.
Curbside pickup took off during COVID
Francesca (17:07):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Oh, I’m sorry. My phone might be ringing. Yeah, absolutely. No, I totally agree. So obviously, you had mentioned going live with the website sort of just in time before COVID kind of hit. Were there other like things like the impact that COVID had on your business? I mean, you were ready with a website, you were already active on social media — and then more so through working with Lexi — but any other impacts that COVID had on your business?
Kris (17:37):
It had a huge impact because people were locked up. So actually, the best thing your company did was the governor of New Jersey on a Friday gave our lockdown, and we were considered an essential business. So I called up your company and said, “Can you change the homepage when you click on it and just say we’re open seven days, free delivery, curbside pickup?” And within half an hour, it was there. And then it just blew up. Our phone just started ringing. People definitely went to the website when they were home, and so then the phone started ringing and it was amazing how many people called and needed help?
Francesca (18:22):
Were you doing curbside pickup? I assume you were probably doing delivery before.
Kris (18:26):
No we were doing delivery, but we just had free local delivery. And we were not doing curbside pickup, and people were home and scared to death and they just wanted a flat of pansies. I mean, they didn’t want a lot of stuff. And my husband, the landscape end of course, shut down pretty much. I mean, we did have spring cleanups where we would mulch and that kind of thing to do that had been scheduled, but as far as any new phone calls or any new work coming in, everything was stopped. So he had the time to do whatever people wanted. He’d drop it off, they could pick it up in the parking lot. Whatever they needed because we could do it. We had that strategy. He and I could just do what people want. And a lot of people reached out, and it was not a hardship on us, but people were so grateful. It was probably the best thing we’ve ever done as far as feeling good about our business.
Stores had to adapt physically to help customers
Francesca (19:21):
Wow. That’s so great. That’s so great. Yeah. I mean, curbside pickup & local delivery was definitely a huge transition that some stores were prepared to make. Others had not considered it before and were sort of forced to. But definitely that transition was really interesting thing to watch. Because we work with serving over 600 retail stores, not even including all of the locations that businesses may have. So it was a very interesting transition to see how stores sort of leaned into that heavily, and those that were maybe still apprehensive but over time had to lean into it. I’m interested to hear your perspective. Like, do you think that that is going away? Do you think stores or customers will continue to rely on curbside pickup now that they’re used to that convenience?
Kris (20:10):
We were ready for it this spring. We had printed special forms for pickup, and we haven’t used it at all. Even last year, people would call and say, “Are you open? Can I come?” And when we got into May, I would say “Come, you know, there’s four cars in my parking lot and we have four acres here. You can walk around, you can pick your plants, you can get outside.” And some people were so scared, and people would come and they would just say, “Oh, thank you. I haven’t been out of the house. Thank you so much.” I mean, they were not jammed, pretty spread out our cash registers. We moved outside and so everything else for shopping was done outdoors and some people would get a cart and stand in the parking lot and just read off their credit card number or whatever.
Kris (21:00):
You didn’t even have to come close to us. They could load their own. They wanted to load their own car. That there was anything they wanted was fine, but I think people were so happy to be out, just to be outside and they could. One man actually asked my husband — he was an elderly man walking around — and my husband asked if he could help him. And he said, “No, but would you mind if I just walk around? I don’t really plan to buy anything. I just need to get out.” And my husband said, “Absolutely go to walk around, spend time.” It’s therapeutic around here, and people were so locked up and so afraid. It was really a great place to come and just look at the flowers.
Francesca (21:42):
Yeah. I wonder too, if that is a little unique to the type of business that you’re in, because there is so much that goes into like looking and touching and feeling and education and being able to ask questions and stuff. Because I do think other retailers that I’ve talked to have talked a lot about like curbside pickup and that potentially being the new norm for them. But maybe it’s different with like hard goods versus live goods, you know? But yeah, that’s so interesting. What a special space that you and your husband have created. That’s so cool.
Kris (22:17):
Well, we try to encourage people to come out because they say, “Oh, I need one pansy.” Well, there’s 20 different types and colors and come pick your own. And they took a little coaxing, but there’s so much to see. And I think it is relaxing and no one had anywhere to go. You know, every time people would come, you have nowhere to go,
Francesca (22:39):
Right.
Kris (22:44):
You’re not in a rush, so just hang out and walk around and enjoy the flowers. We don’t care what you buy, just get out. And I think you’d see people just walking around. And that was good. We have the perfect type of business. Everything’s outdoors.
COVID helped small businesses to take back big box store customers
Francesca (22:58):
Now obviously you’ve created a very special space. Obviously, you care a lot about customer service, that presentation of your plants is obviously important to you as well. Do you feel like your competitors are doing something similar, or who are your competitors at this point? Is it more big box stores or is it other small-owned businesses?
Kris (23:20):
I think the small-owned businesses have their clientele, and I think probably when COVID hit and we got a lot of new people, they were box store people. They were people who didn’t want to stand in line or go into a store. They were not coming from another garden center. So we did get a lot of people who I think were surprised. The pricing on a lot of products is the same, and I think they always think they’re getting things cheaper there, but that’s not always true. And people were friendly, and I think they liked us being friendly. And so I hope and I think they had a good experience. So the spring was a test, and I think a lot of them are back. That’s awesome. So you know, you get a few here and there, whatever you can do. I know some people, the younger generation, is just used to buying everything there, and you go there for something, and you pick up some plants and you pick up whatever while you’re there. They don’t put a lot of thought into going through a plant store and a wood store and a hardware store anymore. Yeah.
Francesca (24:27):
So in my area — and shame on me for not knowing how many options I had available — but when my husband and I first bought our home, it was during the pandemic. And so we went to a big box store and spent what I considered to be a large amount of money thinking we could do it ourselves and like chip away at it over time. And we didn’t know what we were doing. Nobody that works there helped us. We just bought everything, and it died within a few weeks. And certainly, through the winter, we didn’t buy plants that were like great for our area or climate or whatever. And then this year we went with a local landscaping company that also has a garden center attached. And for truly, I believe, less money than we would have spent if we went and bought all new again.
Francesca (25:11):
They did more of an area. We just are so happy, and then we’ve been able to rely on them. So through Facebook, we’ve been like asking them questions like, “Sorry again, how often should we water these or whatever?” And they’ve been like, “Well, send a picture, and we can give you some advice.” And just that handholding is exactly what we needed. They definitely got us as a customer through the pandemic, but it’s definitely a lifelong relationship, and next year, we want them to come back and do a little bit more and really like teach us as they go, you know, which I think is just such a cool partnership.
Kris (25:45):
And another new thing is through the website, people could ask us questions, and we’re asked “Oh gosh, who’s going to be in charge of responding? You know, everybody’s got all their stuff to do.” And I guess my husband’s the one that comes in at six in the morning and he goes through and answers questions, but we weren’t used to that. “Oh no. Did somebody get that question?” It’s like, “Oh yeah, I got it.”
Francesca (26:10):
It’s so interesting when you have a website or Facebook or Instagram, their perception is even though your business is closed, you’re open 24/7. So communicating with customers is certainly an added responsibility. But I sort of always encouraged stores to think about it. Like, imagine as if it was someone at your register, you would not ignore them, so obviously we’re applying to those customers and phrases is equally as important.
Kris (26:36):
So I do get people say, “Oh, thank you for your response.” So I kind of get the impression that not everybody calls them back and for landscaping, people are like, “Nobody called me back from the other place.” So it’s a problem, and the volume is so big, who’s going to deal with it? You have to kind of organize that. And so I think for a small business, it’s hard to keep up with it all.
Small business have to do it all
Francesca (27:02):
Yeah, that’s very true. Along those lines, what are the biggest obstacles that a small business is having today? What, would you say, are the threats maybe that they’re facing?
Kris (27:16):
I think that keeping up the whole social media — and this is a big, because I was lucky enough to have kids that can bail me out a lot — but some of the older people we meet at trade shows, you know, they can’t do it. They can’t do Facebook and Instagram and website and run a business. And you’re the bookkeeper and you’re everything, and that’s difficult and there’s not the help. And if there is help, it’s not necessarily got a long lifespan or at all talented to help you. So when you invest in somebody, I had people doing Instagram for a while, and then they went to college, and then a new one came in, and then she left, and that I think is not necessarily good. Different people doing it, do it different.
Francesca (28:06):
Absolutely. And a lot of different voices too. I mean, it definitely, you can tell a story in a lot of different ways for sure. Right.
Kris (28:12):
And I don’t really want to have to police that; it becomes another burden. So I think as a small business owner, you really have to do it all, and it’s a challenge, and you have to really like what you do because it’s going to be all the time.
Francesca (28:29):
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. It’s interesting because there are so many hats that a small business owner wears, and focusing on technology alone, I mean, there’s so much that goes into that. That’s how we make it a full-time job. We’re always constantly learning new things, and there’s so much that goes into it. So yeah, I can’t imagine all of the responsibilities that you guys have, and obviously that is a huge obstacle for a small business owner.
Kris (28:55):
I mean, really, we are a True Value vendor. And that’s how we saw your company speaking there, and it was a no-brainer because we need somebody to take the whole ball of wax — the website, the Facebook, everything — and just do it and do it for a lot of garden centers. They knew that I had a woman doing it before, but she made some big mistakes horticulturally. She didn’t know what she was talking about. So now you guys are doing garden centers, and you’re posting things that are legitimate, and I don’t worry about it. So that’s huge.
The importance of a Marketing Specialist
Francesca (29:35):
Yeah, absolutely. And that’s a testament to Lexi because she is very educated in like garden centers, and in so many plants and she like set up plant today and I’m like, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but you’re very passionate about it.” So I believe you.
Kris (29:50):
So many times a year, I call her up and say, “Well, what is everybody else doing?
Francesca (29:54):
Right. That’s not a common question. Yeah.
Kris (29:57):
And she says, well, “They were, talking about this and this and this.” And I said, “Well, do you have pictures?” “Yes.” “Well then just do it.” You know, I don’t have anything this week, or I can’t get it together, but she has made it very easy. And your presence is constant, and it’s changed and it’s updated, and it’s not something she tells us, “It’s time to pick new things, it’s time to post.” So nobody here has to try to be on top of that. Like you say, technology, I feel like, you know, we have disks and we have CD players and it’s like it happened so fast. That’s not even what we were taught. The phones! I mean, we can’t keep up with this stuff.
Younger generations have changed business
Francesca (30:35):
Yeah, no, I know. I totally hear you. It’s hard to even know what to focus on because it’s like, by the time I learned about it, are we gonna be on the next new thing? So that is so interesting. You know, I feel like so often technology is tied in with a younger generation, right? Or wrong, you know. I think that that connection is often made. And just thinking about like generations, has a younger generation changed the way that you run your business? Obviously you talked about hiring, but as a customer base, has a younger generation changed the way you do things?
Kris (31:08):
Well, it’s changed the way we market. I mean, people knew what they wanted, so you could set it up a certain way. And now it’s all impulse. They walk in, it’s got to just look cool. And so, you know, we just do it all. We mixed together things. If it’s a shrub and it’s booming, it comes to the front and center. They’re not going to walk back and find it. They’re not going to look around and look for things. They’re going to come in and say, “That’s cool. I want it. That’s beautiful. That’s colorful.” So we have to move stuff all the time and just make sure if it’s a season for something, it’s right in the front and everybody can see it. We marketed differently. We plant planters differently. They want foliage with perennials and annuals in the same tub. Years ago, you never did that. It was only annuals, but now you mix things. And if something’s in a gardening magazine, get ready.
Francesca (32:01):
I was just going to ask, are there influences for your customer base? Like, are they getting influenced by magazines or by social media? Like where are they getting prompted to come in if they’re unfamiliar?
Kris (32:12):
I’m not sure now because people get their news so many different ways, but one year it’s like everybody’s buying one thing. It was somewhere. And it had to be in an article or something, and no one buys it, you know? So you bulk up on it, and then the next year it’s something else. But you could definitely see once in a while. There’s something that’s hot. And I don’t know whether it’s magazines, if it’s online, if it’s gardening clubs.
Presentation is the most important thing in gardening stores
Francesca (32:39):
Yeah. That’s so interesting. Just sort of shifting gears a little bit. Although we all through this entire conversation have talked about how much life has changed in 18 months, but if you had a crystal ball, what do you think five years from now the store looks like?
Kris (32:58):
I think it looks fairly the same. I mean, our industry is plants and the plant industry is changing. So, you know, the product is changing a little bit, but the idea that people come in and they want pretty stuff and you just have to have a nice selection and good pricing and just keep it always looking like, wow, okay.
Francesca (33:24):
Yeah. That’s well said. It’ll be interesting. I think you’re right. I mean, especially in your business, to some degree you probably are safe because there may not be too many of these sudden changes that are forced on your business as maybe our other retail businesses. But it’s so interesting. I was lost a little bit on a train of thought just thinking about how much presentation is so important to your store. And I feel like for me, that would be so fun, like getting the constantly re-imagined things because in a retail store, when you just have all hard goods to some degree, you’re sort of stuck, like you can change the aisles a little bit, but how different does it really look? So I feel like that is such a cool job and such an opportunity to be so creative on a very regular basis. I love that.
Kris (34:08):
My husband in the winter just starts building things, and I always ask him, you know, “What are you doing?” And he says, “Oh, I’m putting a big arbor when you drive in, it’s going to go across the whole front of the store and we’re going to hang all the big hanging baskets here.” And then he made an octagon two tiered. I love that. We just make all the appearance related changes seasonally. We, you know, move this over there and change all the furniture around, and it’s fun. That keeps it a little bit fun for us because it’s definitely changed over the years. Any bright paints, things like florescent green and florescent purple, and makes a whole bunch of tables the same. And yeah, it just looks so bright and colorful. It’s almost like going down to like Key West or something, you know, come in and it’s like, “Ooh boy, it’s so tropical here, a fresh coat of paint really goes a long way.”
Small business owners must embrace change
Francesca (34:59):
Yeah. Oh my gosh, that’s awesome. So I really just have like one question left, and just as a small business owner, if you had to give one piece of advice to somebody who may be considering starting their own small business, what would you think that that would be?
Kris (35:28):
It’s really hard. A lot of things work against you, but you have to be creative, and you have to be able to change. I mean, you can’t be set in your ways because we — you know, COVID — you just change directions and be positive because positive vibes, I think everybody feels them.
Francesca (35:47):
Yeah, absolutely. But I can tell you love what you do. My mom actually said that to me yesterday, she was babysitting my children. She was like, “When you love what you do, it’s not work.” And I can feel that passion coming through, even over a video call, like you very much love what you do. And I think that that is so important.
Kris (36:07):
Yeah. Well, it is. And I think I can’t imagine, like we were even away this weekend and my father-in-law’s like “Stop working,” and I’m like, “I am not working. I am planting all those columbine and I am doing all that. And then I’m going to go down and stake.” I said “I love doing this stuff. I just can’t wait to do it.” So once it starts to be a chore, then we got a problem. Yeah.
Francesca (36:32):
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time today. I’m so, so grateful. And I know a lot of small businesses are going to benefit from being able to hear your perspective and get to the opportunity to pick your brain a little bit. So thank you so much.
Kris (36:44):
Well, thank you. It was enjoyable. Yes.
Francesca (36:46):
Yes. Okay. Well, have a great afternoon and we’ll talk soon.
Kris (36:49):
Okay. Thanks. Bye.