Two Truths (No Lie)

Jennifer Polanz

To say that we often get different takes on topics depending on where we gather our information is a pretty big understatement. It’s hard to find out what’s really going on anymore because there are so many ways to interpret and report data.

That’s what’s making this year so hard to predict for the green industry. And I believe we have two main truths happening at the same time:

Americans are excited to continue to decorate their spaces indoors and outdoors with plants of all types.

And …

Americans are under economic pressures related to inflation and supply chain issues that are driving shortages on some products.

We’ve seen an unprecedented number of people engage with our industry over the past two years. They’ve showed they want our products and are excited to keep going, judging by some early data on consumption for 2022.

What we don’t know is how inflation and potential price increases (and it seems there will likely have to be at least some price increases) will impact their spending. Will they buy the same number of plants at a higher dollar amount? Will they buy fewer plants and spend the same amount of money as last year? Will they spend more? I wish I had a crystal ball.

What we can do here at Green Profit is help you with the fundamentals—the products, the business knowledge, the marketing and the industry trends so you can stay on top of your game no matter the market conditions.

We kick off this month’s Industry Trends issue with coverage of a great place to find those trends: trade shows. Ellen Wells took in the warm weather and cool products at this year’s TPIE show temporarily relocated to Tampa, Florida. You can see what she found there, as well as read about her visit to a cool Tampa plant shop. Also, if you’re looking for products that are made closer to home, check out the piece on Made in the USA.

When it comes to marketing, we’ve got you covered with two stories—one on creating and distributing the content that will educate (and entertain) customers and drive them to your stores and how to work with your marketing and e-commerce vendors to get exactly what you need from them. This story is for anyone who started working with a company and realized: “This isn’t what I wanted.”

And finally, you can see the dichotomy of what we’re looking at (and the inspiration for this column) with Bill McCurry’s challenge to stay flexible to meet the moment in a challenging economic climate and Amanda Thomsen’s column on setting yourself apart in a crowded field of successful garden retail.

Multiple sentiments can be true at once: we’re in a moment where gardening is popular, independent retailers especially are having a moment and the next six to eight months (or more) are cloudy with the chance of inflation and price pressure. These are the facts. GP