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The conclusion of our buying local series with Keith Ramsey from the Garden Supply Company in Cary, North Carolina.
Show Notes
Keith: [00:00:20] So we were talking about last week, the importance of shopping local. I think it's extremely important. It was a good conversation. We finished up last week about creating community it's a mental game-changer, it's a social experience when you know that the person that you've dealt with last week you feel comfortable with them.
[00:00:54] They're a friend of yours. One thing that always blows my mind and always makes me feel really good is when I see people that haven't seen their friends run into each other in our garden center oh my God, I haven't seen you in a year. And then they stand there and I'll, I'll jokingly say, Is it in place just to catch up, however, we're supposed to be buying plants or whatever, it really, that's the best compliment in the world when two like-minded people or two people that go to church together, two people that, they went to school together, run into each other in our in, at garden supply company.
[00:01:28]Or if I go out and I'm at Logan's trading. And I run into one of my customers. And it's funny because I'll be at Logan's trading and run into a customer and they're like I don't shop here that often. And I'm like, oh, I do. They're embarrassed almost that they're not shopping at The Garden Supply Company.
[00:01:43] And I'm like, oh my God, it's a phenomenal place. It's where I go when I need a break from Garden supply company. And I want a garden I'll run down to Logan's and wander around and have the same experience that my customers have when they come to us. And then I'll eat lunch at the cafe. It's a really relaxing, real-life small business experience.
[00:02:06]I talked about in the last episode, stopping in the Garden Hut. I got down there and I had tomatoes. I was in between fresh tomatoes and tomatoes are like a religion to me. I can't wait for that first homegrown garden, fresh tomato, or a farmer's market tomato.
[00:02:22]And I stopped in the Garden Hut and Nelsa grows all these crazy tomatoes and she grows them in her parking lot. She's got a farm, she grows them on. So people come to her for fresh tomatoes and the spring and in the summertime. I picked up a couple of tomatoes and, that whole experience of just being there and being in a local business and picking up something that's fresh.
[00:02:42] And it's I know where it was grown and I know Nelsa didn't spray toxic chemicals on it. That feeling is amazing. And then supporting your friends and businesses. Is a key. We had talked about the local spending with respect to the fact that when you spend locally at all stays, the bulk of it stays in the community.
[00:03:00]Very few of our checks go out of state. And a lot of them are as close as possible. The nursery industry as a whole it's mind-boggling. You can go to another local garden center and ask them how they do something. How do you market, or how do you do this?
[00:03:14]And they're totally sharing with information. Our industries It's an anomaly. It just it's like family. We get to a trade show and you're getting back together with all your friends and people you've known for years. And wholesale growers that we deal with I've been dealing with for 25 years.
[00:03:29]The same people Landis halls, Carol plant center. He owns the farm several farms and he delivers. The plants on his truck himself, on a regular basis. And every time I see him, it's like seeing an old friend. We started growing plants and when I asked him, how do you do this?
[00:03:45] Or how do you do that? he's forthcoming with that information and just shares how I can compete for, growing plants that he's selling to me, but we're still trying to buy as many plants as we can from him, because it's important to us, to maintain those relationships and
[00:04:01]these people are friends. That is your community. The people that you call when you need something and boom, they're there, they can deliver it. Yeah. Yeah. I think
[00:04:08] Joe: [00:04:08] you hear so much focus on community as if it's something that's more difficult than it is.
[00:04:16] Keith: [00:04:16] yeah, it's not hard to do, but if you walk into a large box store, you can make a connection there and you can build community. It's probably not likely that the community's going to stay there for you, but when you're dealing with a smaller business, the owners there. I've got Chip Ford that has worked for me on an ongoing basis. He pretty much manages me. He's been there 24 years. I've been there 25, Steven that's been there for, 15 years.
[00:04:42] Katie, runs the whole thing for me. She's been there almost 20 years. We've built a community within our business people will ask me, like how long do you think you're going to work?
[00:04:51] Or when do you think you're going to retire? And I'm like I don't know that I'll ever retire completely because in the springtime when my customers are coming in. I'm getting excited because it's getting busier and sales or sales are moving along. The biggest thing is, I get to see my Fairweather friends.
[00:05:06]None of my friends come out in the wintertime. It's the wildest thing, so I really truly have fair-weather friends April pops up and all my friends go out to see me, they want advice. We catch up on what they've been doing or what they're, what's happening with their family or their kids. I get to watch customers come in whose kids
[00:05:22]we're riding, when we had pony rides, they'll bring a picture of them on a pony and they're applying for a job and they're 20 years old or they're 16 years old. And the community of high school kids that we've had over the years, we've taken kids from absolutely useless with no work experience whatsoever to some really good aerospace engineers.
[00:05:43]I'm not saying I taught them anything about aerospace engineering, but I taught them how to work and gave him work ethic, that's a wholly separate piece of it. All these young people that kinda, that kind of move through and that, that grow up in our local community when somebody spends money at our store, the average is about $27.
[00:06:01] That, that leaves the community. When you spend money at a large box store $57 leaves the community. You're talking about a drastic difference in as far as jobs go 52% of the jobs in America are small local businesses, which is kinda mind-blowing.
[00:06:19] When you think about how many box stores are out there. So that's the value scenario. There's
[00:06:24] Joe: [00:06:24] local owned businesses are not the ones that are doing the bare minimum when it comes to paying their employees are just barely hitting minimum
[00:06:31] Keith: [00:06:31] wage. Exactly. They're paying better wages, but they also employ a lot more people,
[00:06:37] So if you spend money locally on you spend a hundred dollars at a locally-owned place, $32 is going to leave the community, but 68 is going to stay. But if you spend it at a non locally owned, Plays $43 is going to stay in the community and $57 is
[00:06:53] Keith: [00:06:53] going to leave. Exactly. We've got 60 to 75 employees, that in that range.
[00:06:58] And when we pay them, they're turning around and spending the money in the community. Like a larger box store, like a Lowe's for instance, which is, I can still consider that a local company but Lowe's home improvement probably has close to the same number of people on staff, in a given day.
[00:07:15] And they're doing 10 times the sales. So, that money's leaving the community for sure, a lot of the product comes from outside of the area.
[00:07:23] Joe: [00:07:23] This reduces climate impact because it's not it's a ton of shipping or even packaging, just all the things that go into not having to get it from the other side of the country to here to buy it.
[00:07:34]Keith: [00:07:34] Exactly. So when we buy Japanese Maples and conifers, a lot of our Japanese Maples and conifers come from Oregon it's the one small category that we get from way outside of the state. The shipping cost used to be 15%. It's now 30, 35%. So that's an additional cost that the consumer pays.
[00:07:53]It's still a value because it's a better product in Oregon or Washington, it's a zone seven kind of area but we're paying. 35% to ship it here. And then you've got all those emissions. You've got all, all the other additional things that go along.
[00:08:10] Joe: [00:08:10] And I often find let's talk about Sam's club. You buy way more than you need. He ended up wasting a bunch of it. Cause you feel like you got a good deal. Exactly. But when you buy, as you go to the farmer's market, you don't feel like you got to buy 47 bushels,
[00:08:27] Joe: [00:08:27] buy food for ourselves. Like we buy it for a dog, yeah. A hundred-pound bags of frosted
[00:08:31] Keith: [00:08:31] flakes. That's what I need. For sure. Yesterday I was in a place. That the restaurants run so well that I asked him I had heard that it was a local owner and I thought it's a local owner, but it must be a chain restaurant, it's just run so well, the bartender there was amazing. The service is unbelievable. The quality of the food is unbelievable. And it's reasonably priced. The atmosphere is amazing, the whole experience and that's what you get out of a small local business.
[00:08:59] So I asked the manager, is this a chain or is this something that's individually owned? And. And they said, no, this is individually owned. It was a person in Fuquay that had a business that partnered with somebody else and opened up the first one and apex and a scratch kitchen.
[00:09:14]They're putting one in Carey, they're putting one in Cary. So I've got one to the right of man to the left of me. It's going to be impossible, not to have a good bloody Mary. And if you haven't had a good bloody mary, a scratch kitchen, go there and have them. They're extremely expensive.
[00:09:30]And they're the best value bloody Mary you'll ever eat. It's topped with almost a meal before you get to the bloody Mary tempura fried shrimp, olives, bacon, and it goes on and on. The first time I went there the bloody Mary was $12 and my mail was 11. And it was literally the best valued bloody Mary that I've ever had.
[00:09:50]People get so focused on price sometimes. I mean that they spend more money than they need to.
[00:09:57] With plants it's extremely important that you get the advice and you get a good quality plant for one, one that's locally grown and that sourced locally. But you get the experience, you come in and it's a great environment.
[00:10:10] And then you get the experience of the staff to get you the right plan for the right place because you can buy all the plants in the world. If you buy shady plants and put them in too much on or sunny plants and put them in too much shade or wet plants that need to be in a dry location, It doesn't matter if they were 50% off it, you are going to lose a lot of time and it's not going to be a fun, gardening experience for you.
[00:10:32] And I think that same thing just goes across the board. You go buy a flower arrangement from somebody besides John at the Flower Cupboard. And all of a sudden, your flowers are wilting a week later and you're like, cut flowers really aren't that, that great a deal.
[00:10:47]You paid $20 for the arrangement. It lasted a week. Yeah. Paid 40 and it lasts three weeks. I'll take the $40 range, and I just, I think you got to buy from people that really know their trade that know their product. You find the company or an individual tradesman that knows what he's doing. And it's a little bit more, and he has the time to get the job done. And he's got the experience bidding the job and the experience putting it down.
[00:11:11] And it's a great scenario. And you get to know these people and they are your community. To me, it's a game-changer and I try to spend money locally. Anytime I can.
Creators and Guests
What is In The Garden?
In the Garden with Keith Ramsey is a podcast aimed at helping you grow and maintain a beautiful and healthy garden and landscape.
Each podcast will focus on a new specific topic. Check back every two weeks for the latest episode!