John’s Blog

Consumers are growing their own food and the UK style allotment, a piece of land in a community dedicated to food production, is booming again. It was obvious that one opportunity was to open “The Allotment Shop” as a serious retail venture and the first one opened in late October in Kingswinford, West Midlands in […]

I was recently in Augusta, West Australia. This is about as far as you can go in Western Australia going south, the next stop is Antarctica. Augusta is a small town famous for whale watching and the tallest lighthouse in Australia. I was there to do a workshop with the retailers. After the talk I

Over the last couple of months the world economy has changed almost daily, alas, very rarely for the better. Many of my clients have asked how I feel this will affect the retail sector over the next few months. As in all situations there will be winners and losers. Firstly, some retail sectors will find

October 2008 will be remembered as the month the world was forced to create a new order when it comes to the financing of business. The ups and downs of the global stock-market (alas, mostly down) means that every business around the world will see change take place. Retailing may take a little longer to

Retail Rethink Promoting your products used to be easy. Placing adverts in newspapers or on the radio or T.V. would ensure that the majority of consumers would be exposed to what you had to sell. But, times change, the new consumer is not reading newspapers, downloading their music on to an iPod and picking up

Australia, like many countries, has an Open Garden Scheme. This year the Stanley’s bit the bullet and opened their garden to the public for the first time. We had no idea what to expect, but it turned out to be a fun two days. Plus, an opportunity to chat to consumers in a relaxed environment.

Rethink Retail I recently went to my local hardware store with a planned purchase in mind of $800. Since no staff were available in store to ask a question I went to the checkout to ask for advice. The reply was disappointing “I don’t know, I’m only a checkout operator” and she let me leave

Arboretum Lifestyle Garden Centre in Ireland their plants as shown. It not only provides a description, but also provides provenance. A great way of showing the source for the consumer.

As a publicist and writer I get to play a part in the promotion of all kinds of internationally marketed products. From electronic goods to sports shoes to business IT services to human resources, plus of course plants and horticulture-related items. This exposure to other markets sets examples of what businesses in the horticulture industry

In 1956, Victor Gruen from Austria built the first shopping mall, Southdale in Minneapolis, USA. Since then the USA has built 1000’s more, however they are one of the fastest countries that are returning to to village square shopping. The ‘coatless’ shopping experience that Americans enjoyed for so long is now on a downturn. The