How a plain, brown bag from a local business helped to form a customer for life.

Since the pandemic, I have formed a new found love for house plants. My mother always had plants in the home growing up but I did not want more than a couple of my own until last year.

Recently, my son and I went to a local big box store to purchase plants for his apartment. it was pretty noneventful, we walked to the front of the store, past stacks of bleach and Lysol and picked out a couple of larger plants for a pretty reasonable price. We were not offered assistance at all during our entire visit in the store, and we even had to carry the plants to the front of the store and act as our own cashier and bagger.

Yesterday, we wanted to buy more plants, but I wanted him to experience a LOCAL nursery. So we went to 16 acres Garden Center on Wilbraham Road. I have been a customer of 16 acres Garden Center for many years and I have also been the recipient of their beautiful plants.

We immediately noticed the difference between the local nursery and the big box store.

First: It was specialized. They did not sell Pepsi or trashbags. But they did sell anything you would need to plant a garden at home or care for plants at home.

Second: We were greeted upon entrance and spoken to several times as we shopped to see if we needed anything. At the big box store, we were not even acknowledged, and even had to check out our own purchase!

And finally, what impressed us the most, was when we paid for our plant the cashier gently placed it into a large paper bag, folded the top oh so carefully, and stapled it. And she handed it to my son she said “it’s cold out! I don’t want the plant to get shocked.” 😍

So of course I began to think about the importance of supporting our LOCAL businesses. To quote Mr. Rogers: These are the people in OUR neighborhood

From now on, instead of going to a big box store, I am committed to buying my item from a local store, or a vendor. And not just on Small Business Saturday’s, EVERY DAY!

Will you join me?