Aqualok Debuts At Retail
March 29, 2010 
Marketing consultant Jerry Montgomery visited eight garden centers in North Central Florida on Friday, March 26. Below are his findings at each of the retail garden centers:
I visited seven local retailers here in North Central Florida this morning. All of the garden centers were crowded on this beautiful 70-plus-degree day. This appears to be the real beginning of spring shopping with crowded parking lots and aisles. The vegetable displays were being attacked by many consumers, and it looks like a banner year for Bonnie Plants with huge, well-merchandised displays in most stores.
Walmart
I looked for the Confetti SKU at the three local stores but none of them stocked it. There was strong movement in the 10-inch basic and premium hanging baskets, 606 packs and 4-inch basic annuals–and, of course, in Bonnie vegetables.
Home Depot
Home Depot has only one store in my local area and it was very busy, with many full shopping carts leaving the premises. There seems to be some confusion among the brands they offer: Florida Friendly Plants, Proven Winners, Vigoro, and Viva. The Viva petunias retail at $3.97 while the Florida Friendly vegetative petunias retail at $4.97.
Now, we have Proven Winners at $4.97, Florida Friendly premium annuals at $4.97, and Viva petunias at $3.97. Vigoro 1-gallon premium annuals were retailing at $3.97, an indication Viva has dropped out of “best” pricing category and is now in the “better” category.
Also noticeable is the geranium pricing with the Vigoro 1-gallons at $3.97 and the Viva 1-gallons at $3.97 that included the Big Red (Calliope) and the Tex-Mex. Both were originally positioned as high-value items and are now priced at the same level as generic geraniums.
Lowe’s
Lowe’s clearly had the most customers per store, and its garden centers were stocked with a large assortment of outstanding merchandise. For the first time, I saw the Aqualok program in 10-inch hanging baskets retailing at $15.98. The same item without the Aqualok was $10.98. The Aqualok foam is said to allow the consumer to go seven days between watering, hopefully driving increased consumer success.
On the vegetable front, Lowe’s had large inventories of both Bonnie Plants and Grow Your Own (GYO), with the Bonnie displays garnering the most traffic. The GYO program is still somewhat confusing with only Beefsteak Tomatoes offered in the 1-gallon SKU. In one store, none of the tomatoes had a variety label. I did see a few peppers creeping into the gallon SKU and a number of Cole crop items in the quart SKU.
Sam’s Club
Among the items retailing at Sam’s Club were:
– 11-inch patio pots at $19.98
–12-inch fiber hanging baskets were offered at $23.62 in a South Florida store. It was a nice basket but Sam’s Club only offered a dark blue that did not seem to be moving well.
–3 packs of 6-inch Easter Lilies retailing at $16.88. Packs were of great plant quality but the sleeve had so many graphics it was hard to see what was inside from a short distance.
–11-inch hyacinths (10 bulbs) in a square pot retailing at 15.38. This was a nice item but the hyacinths were ripe.
–10-inch tulips (12 bulbs) in a very nice sculptured ceramic container. Flowers were blown wide open.
–10-inch hydrangeas with 10 to 12 blooms. This was an outstanding item retailing for $23.72.
Summary
It is great to see the season in high gear and, as many predicted, the edible category is heating up. I would expect huge increases in both units and dollars with comps through the roof.
Look for more innovation in the edible category. So far this year, I am aware of two new programs–the Grown Your Own from Lowe’s and the Burpee Garden brand from Burpee Seed. There will be more to come.
It will be interesting to see how the consumer responds to the Aqualok concept that seems to have an untapped potential for driving consumer success with the industry’s green goods. There is a website devoted to it at Aqualok.com. If the consumer perceives this concept as a value and the industry maintains the current pricing spread, this will be a successful concept that benefits many.
Subscribe to eNewsletter
