This weekend my husband and I took our 3-year-old daughter to the fall festival at my favorite local garden center. She had a blast. The kids got to decorate pumpkins, enjoy free popcorn, play in a bounce house and grab a free balloon. Despite threatening clouds, the place was packed. The entire store was overrun with kiddos and their folks.
We had a great time. But I must (sheepishly) admit that I didn’t buy anything. I wasn’t purposefully being a cheapskate. I could’ve grabbed some pansies and violas for my porch pots. A couple of good-looking shrubs also caught my eye. Shopping just kind of got lost in the swirl of activity as my child dragged me from one thing to the next. Before I knew it, I was burdened with a pumpkin dripping with glue and sparkles, an overflowing bag of popcorn and a balloon that was threatening to take off.
Once my daughter had her fun, I gladly bypassed the register and packed her up in the car. I was ready to split. Several families were waiting in line, antsy children in tow, to purchase carving pumpkins and corn stalks. I was glad to see this, for the sake of the garden center’s bottom line.
The experience made me think of an e-mail I received last week from Grossman’s Country Nursery. It reads, in part:
Dear friends,
In the past, many of you had expressed your apprehension to shop with us during October weekends because of how large our fall festival had become. We want you to know that we have listened and have made changes that, we believe, will make a difference to you! In the spirit of fall outdoor gardening, we will not be holding our Fall Festival during October weekends. Our first priority is always your satisfaction, so we have ‘gone back to our roots’ and will be offering you the very best of what we do ... flowers, plants, garden and home decor that you deserve to enjoy …
It goes to show that finding the right recipe for a fall festival is tricky. How do retailers find a happy medium? How do you judge the payoff?
I might not have bought anything during my last visit, but I appreciate the store’s efforts to engage the whole family. I’ll certainly be back to purchase my cool-weather annuals. But I’ll probably wait until this weekend when some measure of serenity returns to my favorite store.
-- Sarah
This is such an appropriate topic! Right now, we are running our most successfuly attended Pumpkin Patch, but the same concern over shopping looms! To encourage shopping for our parents, we include a great fall coupon with the goody bags given away! The coupons are valid well into November, so lets see if community outreach does encourage people to return to your store! What other suggestions do you have for hosting a Pumpkin Patch but avoiding lost sales due to chaos?!
Posted by: Amanda Murdock | October 16, 2007 at 01:33 PM