There are almost 2800 Kroger Co grocery stores in the United States. That’s more stores from one grocery chain than all the SiteOnes, Ewings, and Horizons combined. Safeway has another 1,300 locations, and Whole Foods has 500 nationwide. That is a total of 4,600 store locations just from those three. There are more than 18,000 grocery stores in the nation. This compares to 2,300 Home Depots and 2,200 Lowes.

There were 16 million new gardeners in 2020. Every one of them goes to the grocery store, probably more than once a week. Grocery stores are looking to cash in on the gardening explosion by expanding their floral departments to include items like tools, seeds, plants, and yes, even irrigation equipment. Imagine shopper’s excitement when they see they can purchase a garden irrigation kit with their basil plants. This week will welcome Chris Sabbarese, Digital Marketing, and Communications for Corona Tools, to detail this emerging trend impacting the irrigation, gardening, and distribution markets we live and work in every day. In this session, you will learn:

What we’re seeing at the retail garden centers, 16M new gardeners in 2020
How new homeowners working from home caused a housing boom, with people moving to larger homes with more property.
What that customer looks like, how they shop, and how they engage in gardening activity.
POS seasonal displays for hard goods – customized displays that drive incremental sales (such as tools) for both live plants and cut flowers
How to utilize QR codes in a post-Covid world (will have examples)
How garden influencers create promotions to drive in-store purchases with addressable online ads that track sales to the store or online/ eCommerce
We look forward to seeing you on Friday.Special Guest: Chris Sabbarese.