FROM THE BOARD 



Expand Your Business Beyond Spring 



ROBERT DEMERS 



In past years, we have pushed our 

 busy season beyond Memorial 

 Day- I've written several articles 

 about keeping your benches full 

 and your garden center clean in or- 

 der to keep up your good image. 



By the end of June, we try to be 

 done with cell packs and fill our 

 place up with all sizes of jumbo an- 

 nuals and perennials, as well as 

 summer-flowering shrubs. That's the 

 start of our summer season. 



I find people are looking for 

 sales. By July, their yards are done 

 and they're looking for fill-ins or 

 instant color for a party. But basi- 

 cally, they're looking for deals. 



We fill our landscape beds with 

 flowers to get people to come down 

 and look around. Perhaps it'll give 

 them an idea or two for their own 

 yards; perhaps it'll draw them into 

 our store and greenhouses. 



Mid-to-late summer, we have an 

 event we call "Summer Yard Sale and 

 Customer Appreciation Day.' It's 

 usually at the end of July or early 

 August — a good time to clean up the 

 garden center before I lose my sum- 

 mer help and bring up the mums. 



We start advertising this event in 

 early July. At the end of our park- 

 ing, we put up two tents and edge 

 them with flower benches not in 

 use. We let anyone who wants to 



Welcome, New Members! 



Al's Enterprise 



PO Box 355 



East Wakefield, NH 03830 



Meribushes Farm 



PO Box 14 



Fremont, NH 03044 



Petete Gardens 



117 Poverty Lane 



Lebanon, NH 03766 



participate use these benches free. I 

 take reservations and usually end up 

 with 17-20 families. Yard sales and 

 flea markets are huge draws if ad- 

 vertised in the right way. Yard sales 

 are busiest in the morning, so take 

 advantage of this. In our own sales 

 yard, we have a tent as well. Under 

 this are items that we've over- 

 stocked or that have been collecting 

 dust, as well as your basic junk that 

 some salesman talked you into buy- 

 ing and didn't sell. We have one of 

 our sales staff there along with the 

 motto, "Customer or Dumpster." It 

 costs more to hold onto these items 

 than cutting your losses now. 



Another event we have is our pal- 

 let sale. We put a variety of plant 

 material on pallets, making each pal- 

 let different or giving it a theme. 

 These pallets are sold for about half 



the retail price of the material on 

 them and are sold as a pallet. Each 

 has some things that we're long on 

 and a few items I use as bait. 



We give out steamed hot dogs as 

 well as refreshments. This feeds our 

 customers and keeps them there 

 longer. You know as well as I do 

 that there's always the few that ruin 

 it for others. So for this, my 

 brother-in-law is chef for the day 

 and the entire area has signs saying, 

 "Free Hot Dogs with Donations Go- 

 ing to the Crohn's Foundation." We 

 have a huge jug to hold the dona- 

 tions and Dennis knows when and 

 for who he should rattle the jug. 



This year at our yard sale event, 

 we're planning to try out having a 

 petting zoo. We hope that this will 

 keep our customers around for a 

 longer stay. 



I know every operation is differ- 

 ent, but maybe this will put the 

 wheels in motion for an enjoyable 

 summer event for your customers — 

 as well as your employees. Timing 

 will be different for your event as 

 well, but whenever you hold it, it 

 makes a nice clean-up sale. So have 

 some fun with it. 



Robert Demers is at Demers 

 Garden Center, 6^6 South Mammoth 

 Road, Manchester. For more about 

 their summer sales, call 60^-62^-8298. 



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