Viewpoint

It’s a small world after all

Todd Davis

Published August 16, 2011

 

     Todd Davis  No doubt, American consumers like things big.

Yesterday I bought a medium drink at a drive through and it barely fit in my cup holder. A large popcorn at the movies could feed the populace of Uganda.

My wife came home from Sam’s Club with a package of paper towels so large we’re using it as furniture in the game room.

In years past, nursery products followed this same trend. If your market typically used 3-gallon shrubs, you were looking at growing 5s and 7s. If you resided in a 2-inch tree market, you were getting more requests for 3-inch and 4-inch. If you had 5- to 6-foot ‘Nellie R. Stevens’ hollies in your fields, customers needed 6- to 8-footers.

The bigger the better, and there was no end to this upward curve in sight.

But Mr. Recession has stepped in and changed all that (much to the delight of nursery workers around the country that have to lift, load and stack these things).


Stepping back
Developers are trying to keep costs down, so smaller trees and shrubs are being specified on commercial jobs. Contractors are having a hard time getting homeowner clients to go big on their projects, so plant materials are scaled back.

Consumers are being more thrifty at the garden center, opting for 4-inch perennials when, in the past they’d go for 1 gallons or even 3 gallons.

I spoke with Greenleaf Nursery Co. president Randy Davis (no relation, and he’s thankful) and he agrees.

“We actually monitor the size of product we sell so we can track that. A few years ago larger sized containers were selling at a higher level than they are today. It’s actually going the other way now and I think consumers have less money to spend,” Davis said.


Micro market
The class of trees in shortest supply right now is 2 inches. Why? At the start of the recession, growers backed off planting, and that’s the size many markets have returned to.

So if you’re sitting on 2-inch trees with thoughts of digging them at 3 inches, you might want to rethink that.  We’re operating in a different world these days.

But here’s something else to consider: With smaller products, you can fit more units per truckload. That can mean more dollars per delivery. Smaller products also mean fewer hassles during loading, unloading, etc., and fewer accidents and workers compensation claims.

So this trend isn’t necessarily a bad thing. After all, the bigger they are, the harder they haul.

 

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