VIEW FROM THE SHOP FLOOR
Selecting a gift range can
often prove to be a challenge for garden centres
Have you got the gift? Poplars’ David Little explains why he believes that the gift department is one of the hardest to perfect.
David Little has been the managing director of Poplars Garden Centre in Toddington, Bedfordshire since 1999 and is the fourth generation of the Little family to control the company, whose horticultural roots go back to the 1890s. Poplars receives visits from around a quarter of a million customers a year and turnover is in excess of £4 million. It is also a proud member of the both the HTA and GCA, of which David is an executive committee member and area chairman of the North Thames branch. Here David concludes his contribution to the ‘view from the shop floor’ series.
Gift: it’s such a small word and yet covers such a wide range of products, from toys and games through to ornaments, personalised trinkets and fashion accessories. It’s a category that I think many of us are confused by.
I
am in constant awe of giftware managers. Just selecting a range is hard
enough, choosing something that will sell is even harder and then deciding whether to stick or twist when it’s time to restock leaves me thinking that the role can sometimes be a huge series of gambles. How one can ever decide on a range of greetings cards alone is beyond me. There are so many suppliers all screaming to be stocked. All have their different merits such as best margin, best range, best jokes or best quality envelopes. Selecting a sensible range from a supplier that gives you the support you need is a challenge in itself. Some of the difficulties I face are determining what exactly falls under the giftware
10 | Garden & Hardware News |
DIYRetailer.co.uk
manager’s umbrella of responsibility, what is a suitable product range for a garden centre to offer and where on earth we merchandise the product. 25 years ago our giftware
department amounted to little more than a spinner stand of greetings cards, some wrapping paper and a range of Portmeirion china. I’m not certain how this range of china ended up in garden centres but we have a lot to be thankful for. I am certain this was the beginning of the giftware and cookery departments that occupy great tracts of retail space in our stores today. We must also be grateful to those early pioneers of Christmas decoration retailing. This product category is part of a very small and select range of goods that garden centres have taken from traditional high street retailers and raised the standard so much that they have made the category their own. One of the persisting
mysteries for me is to know where to pitch our offer. Who are we aiming at and what products do we select for that particular
market? Sometimes there really is no accounting for taste, and in other cases there seems to be no taste whatsoever. I have lost count of the number of times I have discovered a new product that has appeared in store and thought ‘who on earth would buy that?’ only to find that a few weeks later we are receiving our second or third top up order. It seems it is me that has no taste whatsoever and so I have learnt to put up and shut up! The range of products we offer goes a long way to establishing our identity, our brand, our image and our place in the market - upper, middle or lower market. I am at a complete loss to understand which product falls into which category. As far as I can tell something has to be extremely well made or extremely poor value for money to fall into the upmarket category, the complete opposite to fall into the lower end of the marketplace and the remainder falls in the middle. What puzzles me further is that our volume lines very often fall into the upmarket category; it seems
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52