I’m about ready to drop this Zombie thing and move on, but before I do, I want to thank everyone reading and following this discussion, and I want to specifically thank Matt Edmundson of Arbor Valley Nursery for this really thought-provoking comment he sent in:
Not to disrespect our elders here but go to an industry function, look at the folks standing in the room, the owners, upper level management (and well, heck when I look in the mirror), what do we see? Old guys/gals or young people who are raised by the old school. How is gardening or ornamental plants relevant to our culture? Who “needs” our products like they need the latest Apple product which will be obsolete in a year? Our marketing is from the stone age and our products and lifestyle activity is focused on the generation that just saw their retirement age extended another 10 plus years.
I interviewed a guy the other day who worked in a distribution center for cheap junk from China that no one needs, novelties really. You know how much a Whoopie cushion costs imported from China? The Landed price to the DC in NE $0.02. They retail it for $4.50 BEFORE shipping. Shipping costs them less than $2 anywhere in the country yet they charge $7.50. They sell 200,000 per year. People “have to have” Whoopie cushions but not plants? Why cant we sell a daylily for $224 before shipping and handling? Or do we have to find a way to push down the cost of making it to $0.02 landed? I just bought pumpkins for Halloween which we will essentially use for a few nights then pitch for more than I sell a #5 shrub which took a heck of a lot more than sowing seeds, watering and harvesting to produce. Obviously if I were a marketing genius I would have sold 200,000 daylilies for $44 million!
Wow. Thanks for the kick in the pants, Matt!
Why can’t we get more value for our plants and services? Is it because of waste? That our product doesn’t objectively have enough value? Or that few “perceive” the value? Can we fix that “perception problem?” Is it possible that we could make an argument that could lead us to $224 Stella d’Oros? We laugh at that outrageous price, but then I wonder, How profitable do we want to be? Is our goal reversing the trend of profit erosion or making profits soar? I don’t have any answers, but I do know there’s no get-rich-quick-and-easy solution. Let’s get to work!
~Art
OK guys, so what are we going to do about this? We are Gen X and we are the ones who have to fix this mess created by our elders. How can we teach consumers that they need plants? Why do they need them in Europe? They buy cutflowers and gift plants at least once a week and they have no guilt in throwing them away when they die. We have guilt about killing plants. I know outside is different, but I think if we teach the X/Y er’s the benefits of plants and give them solutions, they will need them to solve problems. It will take re-educating the masses, but I’m ready to do this. There’s still the Boomers who are gardening too. I think solutions will help them appreciate plants more too. Teaching children (aka) their grandkids) to garden is a great idea. Show them how to teach…
Any other ideas? I love that the next generation is trying to fix this and the older gen’s are just closing their eyes and waiting for it all to go away. It’s a new World peeps and we need to adapt quickly!
plantweenie: That’s the question isn’t it? “What are we going to do about this?” I also agree that our answers, our “adapting,” needs to happen soon. The time is now! What are we going to do about this?