We’re halfway through Lockdown 2 and despite fewer people being allowed in garden centres, volume sales jumped last week by 20% to set a new record in sales volumes terms for the third week of November.
And it wasn’t just Christmas sales that were up significantly year on year. Growing media sales were up by 60% on the same week last year, plant sales up by 33% and Christmas up by 43%.
As with the period after re-opening in May, transaction values are up whilst footfall is down and with the two traditional peak Christmas weekends to come, garden centres across the country are now planning extra measures to manage entries to car parks and queuing to enter centres.
Whilst there have been some reports in the media about complaints related to queues and parking on roads outside garden centres we’ve not heard of any serious problems that haven’t been managed well by the garden centre teams.
Let’s hope it stays that way. If you have a Christmas Social Distancing idea you’d like to share with other centres please e-mail it to trevor@pottingshedpress.co.uk and we’ll include it in GTN Xtra.
GTN Bestsellers Top 50 sales volumes compared to the same week last year: week 47
- Garden Products Top 50 – down 20%
- Growing Media Top 50 – up 60%
- Veg 2 Gro Top 50 – down 13%
- Wild Bird & Wildlife Care Top 50 – down 24%
- Christmas Top 50 – up 43%
GTN Bestsellers All Sales volumes compared to the same week last year: week 47
- All Plants with Barcode index – up 33%
- All Items with Barcode index – up 16%
See the full GTN Bestsellers Top 50 charts, compiled from garden centre Epos data every week, with a years subscription to the printed newsletter for only £145.00 using this link.
