John’s Blog

Easter is literally around the corner and retailers should now have their promotions in full swing. Eden Gardens in Sydney have a great promotion at the entrance to their store to remind the consumer. My local supermarket has Easter Holiday Fun and provides children with information on how to colour eggs and cook Bunny Bikkies. I am sure we will come across other ideas on how to promote Easter, if

Jennifer Schamber of Greenscape Gardens in the USA was voted Green Profit Young retailer of the Year for 2007. Some of the great ideas she has come up with were reported in the Ball Publishing Sustainable newsletter this month. They include: Be A Greenscaper Program – Seminars on how to manage water in your garden, the program looks at “ Rain Gardening” Bring Out Our Natural Beauty – This is

Valentines is now well and truly over and what have you done with that card from a loved one, did you eat it? How about getting a card that is completely different and from someone who has made Valentine cards for Prince Charles and Sting! Flo Dunlop owns the chocolate factory in the village I used to live in, Rode, in Somerset in the UK. She is the chief chocolate

By John Stanley Talk to a lot of people who have visited Disneyland in the USA and included in their comments will be how the team members at Disneyland helped to make their experience memorable. At the same time survey after survey identifies that we, as consumers, feel customer service is on the decline. This must be an opportunity for team members to help your business make a difference. As

I was recently approached, by Kerry Johnstone, Editor of Commercial Horticulture magazine in New Zealand about doing an article about me. Not about my work as such, but about my life and how I got to where I am now. So for those of you who are not aware of my path through life, here it is. I hope you enjoy it. Download John Stanley Commercial Hort Profile here …….

By John Stanley It was 1985 when Billy Ocean made the above a classic “pop” song. Okay, it may show my age, but this quote is relevant to retailing in 2008. Over the last few years retailers have experienced economies around the world where consumers continued to have more money in their pockets, it was an expanding market. But, global economies are changing and business growth is now coming from

By John Stanley The words “recession” and “change” seem to be bound around the retail world quite freely at present. But, at the same time this is a period of opportunity for small retailers to grow their business, as long as they are good neighbours. I was recently in Seattle, the home of the pioneer Neighbour to Neighbour Marketing. Jim Diers who was one of the early “movers” and the

One of the issues in the retail world at present is the food debate. Supermarkets versus farm markets, fast food versus slow food, organic versus inorganic. The West Australian newspaper did an excellent article last week on the issue and you can read their article by clicking below. Download Food Fight article here …..

Cauliflower cheese will never be the same again. Scientists have developed amazing variants of vegetable where the traditional white florets have been changed to a garish orange, purple and green. The “rainbow cauliflowers” are said to taste the same as the normal varieties, but add a splash of colour to the dinner table. Some scientists have even claimed that they are healthier for you. Andrew Coker, a spokesman for the

I spotted this last week in the Sunday Times in the UK. The two biggest publishers in Britain are to offer dozens of likely bestsellers to read on a hand-held screen this autumn in a sign that, after many false dawns, the electronic “ebook” may finally have arrived. Random House and Hachette, which together control just over 30% of the British book market, are to offer downloadable versions of titles

The independent garden centre is constantly changing as a model. Thermafor, in their latest newsletter, reveal their view of the future garden centre. I like their thinking process and I beleive this could be a great model for future discussion. One thing is for sure, the old model in garden centre design is rapidly changing.

I started my working year in Seattle, the home of the sitcom “Frasier”. Apart from presenting a workshop for garden retailers in Washington State, Oregon, Utah and British Columbia I also worked for the award winning Swansons Garden Centre (Nursery Retailer Garden Centre of the Year in the U.S.A. for 2007). Swansons is situated in Suburban Seattle and surrounded by a mix of cranes building condominiums and already built condominiums.

I was in the USA at the start of the primaries in New Hampshire and Iowa. At this stage in the presidential elections there are about ten candidates wanting the top job. Put C.N.N. on and listen to their speeches and every one of them was repeating one word “change”. At the same time Tom Peter’s, the Management Guru is stating “Any business that does not change will be dead

Alot has been written about local foods in recent months. In the January edition of Time magazine, Joel Stein in his essay article took a controversial approach, it’s worth a read. Extreme Eating By Joel Stein I knew the farm-to-table movement was out of control when Chris Dodd mentioned it at a presidential campaign event in Muscatine, Iowa. Eating food grown within 100 miles was, he argued, an important part

Definition: A person who eats food raised and harvested within a 100 mile radius. For more info visit http://www.locavores.com/

Thanks to Norman from Johnsons of Whixley for sending through this article from their company newsletter. Click on the image to read the article …..

“Job Slump Latest Omen of Recession” Pick up Saturday the 5th January Los Angeles Times and this would be the heading that would have greeted you. A news headline to welcome you to 2008, with an effect that could affect retailers around the world. We are being warned that 2008 could be a tougher year for retailers around the world than we have seen for a number of years. The

The 2008 Independent garden centre trade Show and Conference in Chicago is already proving to be the event to be at this year. Keynote speakers include Diarmund Gavin the Irish Landscape designer talking on Landscaping on the Home front Diarmund is recognised as one of the most adventurous designers on the planet. On Thursday John Stanley will be the keynote speaker and will be revealing new incites into how to

Coles is one of the two national supermarkets in Australia. Last week, their Christmas catalogue arrived at our door, this normally goes straight in the bin, but this one caught my eye. Instead of the boring list of products and prices, the brochure contained recipes with a checklist of what you needed to purchase. I liked it and this idea could easily be converted to other industries. “Don’t forget the

By John Stanley We all need hero’s in our life, for me I would include Nelson Mandela and Al Gore in my list, but we would all select different people to put on personal list. The real challenge is that in your local community are you on the list of your consumers and neighbours. I remember Bobbie Gee ,the Californian based image consultant give a speech a few years ago

Check this out! A new form of in-store marketing lets advertisers place their messages right between shoppers’ hands, on shopping cart handles that have been modified by Modstream. Messages are wirelessly streamed to a small screen in a hard plastic case that replaces the standard shopping cart handle. Advertisers and retailers log on to modstream.com to enter their messages and to select stores where they want their message to appear.

Heightened health awareness is prompting an overwhelming majority of Australians to purchase organic products. A new study released by The Nielsen Company, exclusively to Wholly Organic, revealed the level of consumer acceptance of organic options is now at its highest. Conducted twice-a-year among 26,486 internet users in 47 markets including 500 Australian consumers, the Nielsen study surveyed consumers on their purchasing habits and attitudes toward organic products and foods and

We all realise that Christmas is the busiest time of year for retailers, it was therefore interesting Phil Ruthven’s article in the latest edition of the Qantas Magazine that highlighted how the Australian consumer was the big spender. Australians spend more in December than in any other month of the year, but we do keep our debt under control. DECEMBER IS ALWAYS an interesting month – one with many contrasts.

How do you combine tourism and retailing, that’s the real challenge? I love the idea of ‘Chic in the City’ as a marketing concept in combining retailing as part of the tourism experience. This article, in The Perth Sunday Times, shows what can be done in Sydney. What could you do in your town? SYDNEY has stepped up in the style stakes with its own celebrity shopping tour now on

This article I spotted in this months edition of Commercial Horticultre. A new and already popular attraction at the Auckland Botanic Gardens in the Stoneleigh Sculpture Trail, an exhibition of 27 sculptures form many of New Zealand’s top artists. Opening the sculpture trail on Saturday 3 November, the Prime Minister Helen Clark said, “The role of art is to give fresj insights and perspectives and that both art and gardens