What a Turnout!

Ellen C. Wells

The folks at Westland Greenhouses Garden Centre in Grand Bend, Ontario, Canada, must know a thing or two about marketing. That could explain how they ended up selling 2,500 Boston ferns in six hours during their Open House Weekend April 24.

According to a story on CBC.ca, the one-day-only Boston fern sale was a “drive-by” sale, but it seems to me it was more of a drive-thru event. The demand for the ferns was so great that cars started queuing up an hour before the sale began and some waited up to 90 minutes for their chance to snag a fern. The cars created a line 3 km (1.86 mi.) long. COVID-19 safety protocols were followed.

The article says this is Westland’s second-annual drive-thru event. Co-owners Anita and Paul VanAdrichem held the first last year when pandemic restrictions forced them to offload product quickly, selling 1,500 plants. I’m not sure if it’s the fun of the event or the quick product turnover that prompts them to do this, but they already have plans to do it next year. GP