How do they get away with it?

[sandersj89]

Over the weekend I nipped to the local garden centre for a few bits and bobs. This is the sort of place more interested in selling you a nice set of garden furniture for £2,000 rather than a bag of compost. (Though I did pick up 3 bags of compost on £5 special so it cant be all bad.)

One of the things on my list was a few dozen 6” pots, thinking they would be a few pence each……NOT. £0.89 each for Stewart pots!!!!! No thank you.

Drove a few miles to another place, more plant orientated here and they do have good selection of most things, still wanted £0.59 for exactly the same item. Still too much for my liking.

On the way home passed a true nursery, popped in for a mooch around and did buy a very nice Daphne tangutica. Spied a pile of pots and asked if they would sell any, positive response and saw about 15 of the right sort of size and they gave me them for 5p a pot…bargin.

Still needed some more so 10 mins on like secured me 2litre pots for just over £0.17 each delivered.

How the garden centres get away with it beats me!!!

Jerry

[sandersj89]

[loulou]

i think its because some people are to (bizzy ) to go looking around for a good deal they go to one place and settle for the price on the label  i drive my oh mad ill go to every shop and them get the cheepest  r the best quality depending on what it is i need ( now where can i swap my husband  ;D)

[Palustris]

Ah, but how much did it cost you in petrol etc. to drive round looking for the bargain?
Packaging and handling are what often makes the difference in prices when buying small numbers of wrapped goods,  but there is a tremendous mark up on lots of things.

[sandersj89]

A fair point, and one I do take in to account. Working in finance I would be shot if I did not take into consideration the full costs of things when deciding to allow purchase or not.

In this case I was going to the second garden centre for a mooch around any way so I have discounted the time/cost in my mind.

The real surprise was not so much the cost, rather the disparity between the two garden centres. No wonder the owner of the first one drives a nice new porsch 4 wheel drive!

???

Jerry

[Roy Bham UK]

Our local garden centre allows you to help yourself to multipot trays when you have made a purchase, very handy when your shelves are narrow and ideal for tooing and frowing whilst hardening off your plants. 8)

[djbrenton]

The most outrageous price I've seen was £3.50 for a Cardoon plant. Such an easy thing to grow and they price it like it's an orchid.

[redimp]

No wonder the owner of the first one drives a nice new porsch 4 wheel drive!

That's why he gets away with it Jerry - he's something that would be filtered on this site (not in the other place though).  It's alright for farmers to drive those things (not Porshe ones though) but not tossers who run garden centres and who only use them to drive on roads (or churn up green lanes for fun)