view from the shop floor
what you like) will emerge in the next few years. They will sell high quality, premium products that may be sourced or made locally. Whatever emerges I can almost guarantee that one of the country’s biggest retailers will be behind it. It may be Marks and Spencer’s Food Hall, Finest Foods by Tesco or Extra Special at Asda. I can see a great many of the existing food halls and farm shops converted into such formats in the very near future. If it’s going to happen then it will begin soon whilst local planning authorities are encouraged to approve plans that generate jobs. There is another new twist on food
that is being discussed right now. We know garden retailers have been catering for the last 25 years or so and have done so successfully. In fact a garden centre without a restaurant is called a retail nursery and they are few and far between. Just about every garden centre I know serves food on the premises. Many are using locally sourced products and ingredients and some are using produce either grown or reared on or near to the garden centre. They grow their own and serve their own. We’ve also seen land being made available for customers to grow and rear their own on allotments and small holdings on garden centre sites. So the next revolution has to be make-your-own. Put simply the customer harvests the produce they have grown and uses facilities on the garden
centre to make their own meals. I’m sure we all have an Aunt or another relative that makes something at home that we all adore. My mother makes the most delicious homemade marmalade – and the editor of this publication has a reputation for baking fantastic cupcakes! These passionate producers of local food are constrained by their own domestic kitchens. So I can completely understand why garden retailers that have embraced this food revolution have seen the opportunity that can be created by providing a commercial kitchen, fully equipped, for customers to hire. It makes such perfect sense. Small local producers can now manufacture their special product in a controlled environment and they can produce it in volume. When it’s made and ready for the shelves the obvious place to offer it is in the garden centre/restaurant or food hall on the same site it was made. Food miles could be absolutely zero. Grown outside, made inside and consumed on the premises. We could see jars of broad bean chutney (using old family recipes and made by someone who’s been making it for 30 years) that would be unique to that area. The concept could be taken one step further. The kitchen facilities could include an area for customers to sit and watch cookery demonstrations, interact with the food producers and see exactly what goes into the food they will either buy afterwards or have served for their
“More and more food will be produced, made, manufacture d, baked, boiled and prepared on the sites of traditional garden centres.”
lunch. Our chefs can interact with local producers so they can learn and grow together. One thing is for certain – more and more food will be produced, made, manufactured, baked, boiled and prepared on the sites of traditional garden centres. At the heart of it all will
be the garden centre: a hub of the community, evolving and changing to meet the needs of local people. It won’t be long before we seriously consider local issues such as the closure of our community library and asking ourselves if it can be relocated to the garden centre. Have you got a meeting room or classroom that can be made available to the local community? Can you be an extension of the local school – a classroom in the country? What facilities does your local community need that you can provide? This is the new way garden centre owners are beginning to think. It’s happening already, so be prepared for a glorious revolution.
Garden & Hardware News 19
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