August 2024 - 56

POHMER ON ...
WHO PACKED YOUR
PARACHUTE?
Whether business or personal, our service
and support to others is our true mission.
By Stan Pohmer
A
s I was doing some research to write this column,
I was taken back to a time many years ago - one
that demonstrates, as much as our industry has
changed, it somehow remains the same.
It seems that the big-box era of retail has been around
forever, with the likes of Home Depot and Lowe's, Kmart,
Walmart and Target changing the market for the locally
owned garden centers, introducing new technologies and
innovations (remember pay-by-scan?).
They had the economy of scale to dictate to growers and
suppliers, focusing on price. With their sheer size, it seems
like they've been around forever. But the reality is that they
really haven't been around that long. Target, Walmart and
Kmart were all incorporated in 1962, and it took years for
these chains to develop the critical mass to impact the
marketplace. Home Depot wasn't founded until 1978, and
while Lowe's has been around since the late 1940s, it didn't
ramp up its lawn and garden programs until the late '70s, as
did some regional building supply chains such as Builders
Emporium and Builders Square.
But even before the big boxes as we know them were on
the scene, there were three national chains that dominated
the mass market in lawn and garden from the 1940s to
'70s - Sears, JCPenney and Montgomery Ward (who
woulda thunk it?). All of these general-merchandise retailers
operated year-round garden centers in the Sun Belt and
seasonal garden centers in the other markets. They were the
dominant competitors for the locally owned garden center and
controlled a significant share of the lawn and garden market.
Some of these retailers no longer exist; others have
made strategic decisions to discontinue their garden
center presence. The beat goes on and the evolution of
retail continues.
In the mid-to-late '70s, I led the national live goods
programs for JCPenney, until management made the
strategic decision to get out of the lawn and garden,
home improvement, automotive/auto service, and other
male-dominated businesses to focus their marketing and
merchandising efforts on home/home décor and fashion
categories, as they wanted to change their positioning to
almost exclusively female-friendly.
In the retail industry, JCPenney was known to have
an outstanding management development program. In
addition to formal training programs that were offered,
the Key Management Group (KMG, of which I was a
member) - made up of the top 100 leaders in corporate
management - went offsite monthly for a day of strategic
updates and a motivational speaker. The speakers were
all excellent, a few exceptional, and one or two had the
power not only to motivate, but to inspire. One message,
which I heard in 1978 from a Navy officer, had a message
so incredibly powerful I still use it today as a personal life
guidepost. I'd like to share it with you.
Teamwork on Deck
First, a little background. An aircraft carrier in the U.S.
Navy has one purpose - to serve as a moving platform
from which to catapult and recover the 70-plus aircraft it
carries on board. Every one of the 5,000-plus crew's sole
56 | LAWN & GARDEN RETAILER | AUGUST 2024
August 2024

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