'^- 



-^ 



Have you ever considered repaint- 

 ing your place with some upbeat 

 color inside and out? Tear some- 

 thing down; build something new; 

 put on an addition — construction al- 

 ways sparks a customer's interest. 

 Maybe even a new greenhouse will 

 show people that you are planning 

 for the future, i had customers come 

 in weekly to monitor our progress 

 when we built our greenhouse. You 

 know what happens when they enter 

 a place — impulse, impulse, impulse. 

 They all left with something. I al- 

 ways made sure I had plenty of 

 color to offer them. 



We grow quality — things that 

 people can't get anywhere but at a 

 garden center. We try to grow differ- 

 ent sizes, new varieties — bigger, 

 better, more unusual niche items 

 that trade stores can't offer. There's 

 no way trade stores can match home- 

 grown quality. Make sure the cus- 

 tomer knows you grew it — a lot of 

 customers like home-grown material. 



Shop your local trade stores. 



ca. 



|e try to groiw 



different sizes, 



new varieties... 



more unusual niclie items... 



There's no iway 



trade stores can match 



hom e-gr oum 



quality. 



Know what they have to offer so 

 that you don't duplicate these 

 items. See if any of your vendors 

 are selling the trade stores the 

 same items they are selling you and 

 at what price. At this point, you may 

 want to stop dealing with that ven- 

 dor. In some cases, vendors may 

 want to keep your business and 

 sharpen their pencils. 



Do display gardens. Do you know 

 that businesses hire landscapers 

 and designers to make their land- 



scapes nice and colorful so that 

 people will notice them? They have 

 to purchase all their material. Well, 

 we've got it for free. ..well, sort of 

 free, but you should use it. Great 

 landscapes and display gardens re- 

 ally draw people in Demonstrating 

 the items you sell really helps build 

 sales. Plant pansies during pansy 

 season; plant annuals and bedding 

 plants during bedding plant season; 

 plant mums in the fall. Display as 

 much as you can and change with 

 the season to put your customers in 

 the mood of that season. 



These are just a few of the things 

 we have done and they seem to be 

 working. I hope a few of these help 

 you. Let's face it — what I just wrote 

 about are things we should already 

 be doing. Doing them makes good 

 business sense. And there's much, 

 much more. 



Bob's at Demers Garden Center, 656 

 South Mammoth Road, Manchester. He 

 can be reached at 603-625-8298. 



'Helping You to Qrow" 



B»E^ Supply 



GREENHOUSE SUPPLIES & EQUIPMENT 



Hemlock Road, Langdon 

 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 0, Charlestown, New Hampshire 03603 



• Nu-Form Products 



• Reb Products 



• Pre-filled Flats & Pots 



• Distributors for Plasti Form &l Plasti Vac 



• Restricted Pesticides 



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• Fertilizers 



• Distributors for Hyde Park & Sunshine Soils 



603-835-6930 Fax: 603-835-2180 



lUNE * |OLV 1996 



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