Friday 6/24 Plans

 Good morning! It’s Friday.

Here is what I’m seeing in stores that every store needs to continue working on - 

Watering has been inconsistent. I’m seeing a lot of signs in store that we are allowing product to get too dry before we water it. Allowing product to wilt completely between watering is not beneficial to the plant at all. This is shocking the roots and will essentially cause product to decrease in overall value a lot quicker - it also kills off good blooms quicker. Less blooms = less appealing product = slower sell thru = higher toss. Let’s discuss how to prioritize our watering.

1. Take the time to look over all of your product when you first get in and visually inspect each area. Do you have product by your front doors? What sections look the most dry, based off the appearance of the plants? What areas don’t get hit by the sprinkler system? Do you have spots in your sprinkler systems that don’t hit your inside tables?

2. Prioritize watering product based off this info ^^ - what is the most dry? Start with this. We do not want it to get too dry before we have a chance to water it. 

3. Once you have completed watering the areas that absolutely need it the most - then go from priories. Front displays (by the main doors away from the garden centers) should be first priority. Racks by doors especially. Consider it this way - it is a front display to show off our product. If it’s looking bad - it’s not going to encourage customers to look at the rest of our product. Second priority should be front tables by the garden center - sun product. Third priority is product inside under the sprinklers. Many stores have spots that the sprinklers don’t hit - especially now that we are a couple months in the season and sprinklers have had time to fail. Please be checking every hanging baskets by doing a weight check and also checking your items on tables for product that is getting missed. I’m seeing this a lot. 

4. Always think about any one offs - Lancaster obviously has their pyramid display which would take a higher priority. Gahanna still has lots of product in the greenhouse which gets hot earlier - that should take a higher priority. 

5. Smaller items will likely need to be rewatered by the end of the day. Remember that smaller potted items are going to dry out faster. Flats, 8pk, 6pk, and 32 pks, proven winners, garden exclusives, the $8.99 planters, etc are all smaller pots and will need checked again. 

***Please note that kitchen minis (the new tomato and pepper product we just got in) do not have drainage holes and should be watered by hand. They should not go out in full sun to prevent drying out too quickly and they should not be under a sprinkler system or they will likely drown. ***

I took most of my day yesterday watering. If you are telling me that everything is done being watered after one hour, I’m not going to believe you. Even if the store is helping watering - you should be walking around and checking that every item is getting watered well enough. Believe me, I love some of the stores and how they will help water. But, not all of them do a very good job. Ultimately it’s our product and it’s our job to make sure that it’s getting watered, so we should be making sure that we are checking everything. Then we can reorganize and condense once the watering is done. If you have multiple people, we should not be working together until we know the basics are done. One person should be prioritizing watering and the other can start cleanup. Or divide your store up into sections. 

No delivery today. Schedule is being worked on and will be out before noon. Water, and get product cleaned up. I am seeing a lot of areas not being condensed. I am less concerned about this when product is well watered but when I’m seeing dry product and items not being organized, I have to be concerned that our time is not being used wisely. Budget is tight and we need to be working quickly to ensure we are getting everything done without wasting budget. 

I will be sending out a reprioritize post and a weekend summary post. 

4th of July * No floral delivery, rescheduled for 7/5 (Tuesday) but garden merchandisers will be working. I will try to accommodate anyone’s special schedule requests for that day. If you have plans, please let me know as soon as possible. If you are wanting or willing to work, please let me know. I cannot guarantee the day off but I will do my best to give everyone what they want. 

For those who have a last day today or tomorrow - Thank you so much for all of your hard work this season. I hope you have a great last day.