Petitti Garden Genter

Petitti's Garden Center

Executive summary about Petitti’s Garden Center by John Caulfield

Petitti's Garden Center overwhelms shoppers with size and color
Petitti's Garden Center here is definitely something different: a 128,000-square-foot store with 57,000 square feet under glass and a 40-foot-wide, 42-foot-high, 205-foot-long atrium where 28-foot-high trees are displayed. One area inside the store is adorned by more than 1,000 hanging baskets of flowers. This garden center, which opened in April, has an international pedigree. The Petitti family wanted their store to reflect aspects of English gardens that they had visited on regular trips to Great Britain over the previous five years. The store does include conventional lawn care products like pesticides and herbicides, but it does nor sell outdoor power equipment and stocks very little in the way of hand tools or irrigation systems.

Anyway, hardlines merely support this store's main feature: its broad array of plants and flowers that is distinctively laid out across the breadth of its selling space.
Petitti's has served this market since 1969. It started growing its own plants in 1992 and expanded into growing vegetable plants two years later through its acquisition of Casaverde Gardens. Its seven garden centers are now 98 percent self sufficient, including its facility in Cleveland that is almost as large as the Strongville center.

The nursery in Strongville is accented by "display gardens" with trellises, statuary, pottery and, sometimes, water systems. A shading system slides along the slanted roof to naturally cool the covered selling space. Checkout counters inside the store are placed under large green umbrellas that match the color of the banner signage, suspended dramatically from the ceiling, which identifies certain departments. "The community has come in and they are awed by the place." said Angelo Petitti Jr., the company's general manager and son of the owner, Angelo Sr. "And the display gardens really help boost sales." "The store brings customers to a whole new spending level," he said, pointing to one display that had 50 plants within it. Petitti admitted, however, that the store has some bugs to be worked out. Petitti's biggest challenge, though, will be to figure out what price image it wants this store to project. Petitti admitted that his store's pricing strategy was still in transition, though to that point the family had resisted lowering its prices to match local competition, which includes "five or six big garden centers within five to 10 miles" of the store, he said. At least one nursery retailer on the tour thought that this degree of discounting sent a mixed message" to customers, especiall with so much high-end furniture on display and with the stores layout encouraging the perception of a pricier environment.

Petitti conceded that it could take a year before the store's operations are straightened out entirely.