All is quiet as I wait for the gate to open at Down To Earth Home, Garden and Gift in Eugene, Oregon.
Staff are finishing the morning watering of neatly arranged organic herbs and beautiful hydrangeas.
It’s going to be a clear day, and in no time, the aisles will be busy with shoppers.
I’m here to take a crash course in Retail 101. My tutors are Kim Schille-Millier, the head merchandiser, and Eli Van Allen, the store manager. Kim and Eli greet me with a smile and introduce me to Bethany Bennett, their housewares and gift buyer.
Kim has been with the company since 2007. It is clear she knows every square inch of the store like the back of her hand, but that doesn’t stop her from discovering new ways to better shape the space. She is constantly thinking about the flow of customers.
Until recently, they stored their ceramics at the back corner of their garden center. Some of the clay pots were tremendously heavy, teetering on aging shelves. It was a safety hazard and a challenge to help customers move their 25-gallon blue-glazed pot past racks of annuals to their car.
Kim asks, “Where do they put the milk and eggs in a grocery store? At the back!” For this garden center their everyday staples are annuals. Now Kim and her team have the annuals in the back, encouraging customers to further explore the nursery. The ceramics are now at ground level, mixed with plants in tidy islands.
As Eli puts it, “They are mini-stores.” It results in shoppers lingering to browse, and staff quickly loading purchases with fewer bottlenecks. Brilliant!
“Keeping it fresh is really important,” says Kim. “If you touch it, it’ll move.” She explains that they have great customers who sometimes come three times a week. If you touch something to rearrange it, it will be noticed by a customer, and that’s a crucial step towards making the sale.
Another improvement that Bethany wants to show me is how they have bookended the entire store with plants. There is the garden center at one end, and a handsome area dedicated to houseplants at the other. In between there are enough kitchen items and gifts to fill everyone’s wish lists.
Kim reminds me, “We are a plant store.” Plants are what drive sales, and by creating these “mini-stores,” they are further drawing customers in to explore. It all, “makes you want to walk through the nursery.”
I, for one, am truly sorry that my time is up. I would love to keep wandering and discovering.
Editor’s note: This column is also printed in Spanish this month, at the president’s request. Read the Spanish version.
From the August 2025 issue of Digger magazine | Download PDF of article