Garden centre - Café - restaurant?
Garden centre - café - restaurant... Why this title? With the difficulties we faced in 2024, it might be better to concentrate on our core business, don't you think?
And yet, some have tried... And it works!
Rain
Garden centres have evolved over time. Since its beginnings in Europe in the last century, it has evolved from "greenhouses open to the public" to "wellbeing and nature supermarkets".
The first shops were often growers who opened their greenhouses and nurseries, adding potting soil and pots to attract a gardener who was starting to create a decorative garden. The first Garden Centres sprang up, and today garden centres are moving beyond the garden to sell pet supplies, home decoration, clothing, furniture, food and local produce...
Obviously, plants have lost some of their feathers in the battle. We have gone from an average of 50% of garden centre sales in plants in 1980 to almost 20% today.
Management has come a long way, and the face of our garden centres has changed completely.
Good or bad? Who knows?
Overall, we've become a bit more of a distributor, a bit more pragmatic and a bit less of a dream seller.
Hap-py
Why do you have a garden?
The garden is a passion, a pleasure to share with friends, to exchange ideas, to relax. At least, that's the principle for amateur gardeners, who come to the garden to relax, have fun and live in a pleasant environment, far from the constraints of everyday life.
It would seem logical to provide them with what they want in the outlets dedicated to this passion.
But over the years, with our eye on the "supermarket", we have applied the same rules and become profit centres offering products. Communications are essentially about prices. And in the aisles, we mainly offer deals and opportunities, while neglecting the welcome or the dream.
There are reasons for this, starting with profitability per linear metre. We have to optimise space. So between a Tête de Gondole and a decoration that takes an inordinate amount of time to create and maintain, we might as well choose the Tête de Gondole.
A restful, friendly and welcoming corner like the café-restaurant could be the solution?
Utopia?
Given the difficulty of recruiting in this field, and the know-how associated with this profession, why bother with this extra space?
That's the negative side. But there's also the positive side, and the opportunity to welcome our amateur gardeners in the spirit they hope to find in a garden: welcoming, friendly and welcoming.
Looking beyond our borders, garden centres worthy of the name all have their own restaurant. This is the case of Dobbies in England, a chain of over 70 shops. In the UK, the restaurant business accounts for 20% of turnover (Source: Horticulture Trades Association).
At Schilliger, in Gland, Switzerland, the huge garden centre on the shores of Lake Geneva offers a wide range of dishes at Café Agnès. And as the website says: "an unmissable restaurant nestling in the heart of the Garden Centre's sumptuous tropical greenhouse!
In the Netherlands, at Intratuin, the restaurants are also right in the centre of the shops.
We'll end this quick tour in the north of France, at Wambrechies, where "les petites Maryses" welcome you every day to taste home-cooked dishes made with flowers and vegetables from the garden adjacent to the sales outlet.
Jardineries de demain ?
We'll see how things turn out, but the garden centre seems to be moving in two directions.
On the one hand, we will have the "distributors": a traditional outlet offering prices and products. The emphasis is on sales, with sophisticated techniques to optimise sales and m².
On the other hand, there will be "enthusiasts", who will focus on a warm welcome, availability and well-being. The restaurant or café will be at the centre of the space, so that our customer-friends, the amateur gardeners, can have a good time.
Ideally, we'd like to see a mix of the two, and the future of this type of specialist garden outlet may well lie in this area. Looking beyond products and prices, our customers will be able to rediscover the pleasure of gardening.
Let's not forget why they garden... For the passion, the dream, the sharing.
The garden centre-cum-café-cum-restaurant is an avenue worth exploring...
Bon appétit!
Roland Motte... Gardener!
