Just in case we’d all forgotten, when it’s raining, cold and windy garden centre sales fall. Fact. After four weeks of balmy September weather, when sales soared way above previous year levels, storm Alice came along and brought garden centre sales back down to more normal levels for the time of year, all be it still 5% up on last year.
In a normal year we’d be writing headlines about sales being 5% up, but it all seems like a bit of a disappointment after the rocking and rolling year we’ve had since garden centres re-opened.
Even Christmas sales failed to beat last year for the first week of October. Our GTN All Plants index was up by 8% on last year for the week, growing media continued to shine at 22% up and Veg-2-Gro increased by 23%.
As more garden centres open their Christmas displays we wait with baited breath to see how sales continue during the rest of the month.
GTN Bestsellers Top 50 sales volumes compared to the same week last year: week 40
- Garden Products Top 50 – down 12%
- Growing Media Top 50 – up 22%
- Wild Bird & Wildlife Care Top 50 – down 2%
- Veg 2 Gro Top 50 – up 23%
- Christmas Top 50 – down 27%
GTN Bestsellers All Sales volumes compared to the same week last year: week 40
- All Plants with Barcode index – up 8%
- All Items with Barcode index – up 5%
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