April 2007

Having informed you about the great time Californian retailers are having, the same is true in the UK. Horticulture Week, 22 March 07, indicates garden centres are up in sales by about 10% bringing them in line with the 2003 season. Some garden centres are recording sales 20% up over last year.

The debate on the sustainability has, in Western Australia, moved to carrots. Maggie Lilith, Salinity and Rural Liaison Officer, reports in the magazine �Greener Times� (March 2007) that it takes 325 litres of water to produce $1.00 of carrots. 65% of water used in WA goes to agriculture and horticulture and we are experiencing our

Last year I wrote an article on the trend in Pop Up retailing. This is where a retailer sets up a business for a few weeks, trades and then closes down and moves to another location. Obviously, pop up retailing is very popular with sports and events, where the retailer has a large, captive audience

The aim of any retailer is to maximise their profits by obtaining the maximum gross profit in relation to the maximum stock turn. Pricing a product and putting it on the shelf to gather dust is the role of a �caretaker� not a retailer. The role of a retailer is to create some urgency in

Over the last couple of decades we have been told that globalisation is the way forward. Retailing became international and China became the world�s factory, but the tide is beginning to change and now is the era of ‘Neighbour to Neighbour’ marketing. It is time to promote local. Consumers are becoming more concerned with the