Celebrating Good Living

Grower-retailer Pandy’s Premier Garden Center in Elyria, Ohio, kicked off its spring season with its Good Living Festival, April 26 and 27. New this year was a "Growing & Living Green" angle and a completely transformed retail area. And 6,000 of Pandy’s customers received a phone call from "Kermit the frog," asking them to come to the fun-filled family weekend. More than a dozen vendors from the industry and the community supported this two-day event by manning displays. A series of free educational seminars on a wide range of gardening and home improvement topics were another attracation, along with free balloon animals for the kids (pictured).

"This winter we closed for six weeks and remodeled," J.R. Pandy says. "We redid the floor, created a new layout and added new signage. I’ve been gathering ideas at educational programs for the last five years and I’m a note freak! We implemented what was feasible." Out of all the consultants and speakers he has heard, he really likes John Stanley from Australia. "He tells you what you have to do, how to do it and get it done," he says. "Others leave it up to you to figure out."

J.R. confesses he was the one who was Kermit in the voice broadcast to 6,000 customers in Pandy’s loyalty program. "This service is provided by a company that manages loyalty programs out of Canada," he explains. "You can record your own message or give them a script. If you buy minutes ahead of the season, each minute is nine cents a call, which is not too bad compared to the cost of ailing something. We buy 30,000 minutes each year and use them mostly for events. The broadcast is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., when most people aren’t home and it leaves a message. We thought Kermit was good for green. We did Elvis last time. I’m able to imitate just about anybody."