Garden Centres - what a joke!

[Lead]

Called into two large garden centres today to buy a lawnmower to be told that they don`t stock them!!!. I could buy clothing , candles, childrens books, marmalade etc etc. How can they trade as Garden centres when the item that we all need to maintain the biggest part of the garden is not even sold there? Anybody else got other examples of false trading descriptions?

[RemainAllHoof]

Bizarre. I am surprised.

[furtive]

They do sell them there. They just don't hold a stock of very large expensive equipment, which is fair enough. Where would they store them?

[Heskey]

Lead said:

Called into two large garden centres today to buy a lawnmower to be told that they don`t stock them!!!. I could buy clothing , candles, childrens books, marmalade etc etc. How can they trade as Garden centres when the item that we all need to maintain the biggest part of the garden is not even sold there? Anybody else got other examples of false trading descriptions?

Green signage doesn't necessarily mean it does gardening stuff!

[Simpo Two]

I agree it seems odd but maybe they can't sell enough (due to competition from the DIY sheds, Amazon etc) to make it worthwhile. £100 in a garden centre, £90 in B&Q and £80 on Amazon with free delivery. Profit per square metre is going to be very low.

[Dennis99]

http://www.lawnmowersdirect.co.uk/

Owned by the well established Bartram Mowers of Norwich.

Ordered a Sanli LS40 Sunday night, delivered by courier yesterday lunchtime, job done.

[mattdaniels]

I know how you feel. I went to the Barbers to buy a jacket and the bloke tried to cut my hair.

[mattdaniels]

I know how you feel. I went to Ikea to buy a flat pack and it was just a cupboard not a whole flat!

[mattdaniels]

And I was really disappointed by the stock at the pawnbrokers.

[mattdaniels]

Forgive me, the Jubilee line is screwed so I'm travelling across London in a black cab and really bored!

[netherfield]

My uncle worked at the local garden centre,they gave up with machinery about 3 years ago.

Customers walk in and ask for advice on which machine to buy and then bugger off and get one on the internet.

[Simpo Two]

[StevieBee]

Lead said:

Called into two large garden centres today to buy a lawnmower to be told that they don`t stock them!!!. I could buy clothing , candles, childrens books, marmalade etc etc. How can they trade as Garden centres when the item that we all need to maintain the biggest part of the garden is not even sold there? Anybody else got other examples of false trading descriptions?

Have a friend who runs a garden centre and I can tell you why this is the case.

Comes down to the big shed retail chains and some of the multi-chain garden centres signing area rights on certain products. There are not that many Lawnmower manufacturers out there - it certainly isn't what you'd call a crowded market place. So, the manufacturers do deals with the likes of B&Q that allow B&Q to take a slightly smaller margin than they would normally demand in return for area exclusivity. The lawnmower manufacturer is happy because they are getting more for the stock they provide. The retailer is happy because they are the only place in town where you can get that mower at that price.

This doesn't mean that an independent garden centre can't stock them but the trade price and conditions would be set at a level that would deem it unwise to do.

[Skyedriver]

No such things a GARDEN Centres any more.
Books, christmas decorations, resturant, clothing only
I am old enough to remember when they grew their own plants now anything live is imported

[BigBen]

StevieBee said:

Lead said:

Called into two large garden centres today to buy a lawnmower to be told that they don`t stock them!!!. I could buy clothing , candles, childrens books, marmalade etc etc. How can they trade as Garden centres when the item that we all need to maintain the biggest part of the garden is not even sold there? Anybody else got other examples of false trading descriptions?

Have a friend who runs a garden centre and I can tell you why this is the case.

Comes down to the big shed retail chains and some of the multi-chain garden centres signing area rights on certain products. There are not that many Lawnmower manufacturers out there - it certainly isn't what you'd call a crowded market place. So, the manufacturers do deals with the likes of B&Q that allow B&Q to take a slightly smaller margin than they would normally demand in return for area exclusivity. The lawnmower manufacturer is happy because they are getting more for the stock they provide. The retailer is happy because they are the only place in town where you can get that mower at that price.

This doesn't mean that an independent garden centre can't stock them but the trade price and conditions would be set at a level that would deem it unwise to do.

This was the case when I had a Saturday job in a garden centre 19 years ago, simply could not compete on price with Homebase or Argos so did not try to.

[Johnnytheboy]

I (sort of) work for a garden centre, and I have always found it odd that they/we don't stock garden machinery.

Ultimately I think it stems from what business (nurseries) garden centres have evolved from. Lawnmower etc. sellers have evolved from agricultural machinery places, and have the service back-up to go with it, while garden centres don't have it.

[bean455]

We only use Garden centres for coffee and Jacket potatoes,go figure!

[Simpo Two]

Skyedriver said:

No such things a GARDEN Centres any more.
Books, christmas decorations, resturant, clothing only
I am old enough to remember when they grew their own plants now anything live is imported

True but - firstly, they have to try to make money in the winter when nobody is gardening. Secondly, the price of land is such in the UK that it probably makes good business sense to sell the nursery space for housing and import plantlets from somewhere else. And so maybe population turns us from a nation of exporters to importers as we simply can't sustain our own population. So there you go: too many people and you go bankrupt...?

[Johnnytheboy]

In the case of xmas decs, they make good sense for garden centres as they fill the area taken up by garden furniture from September to January.

[mph1977]

As others have said the DIY sheds can do you a good price, the agricultural machinery places or a mower specialist can do the service and backup ...