Design for living - outdoor - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

Home Channel News, July 17, 2000 by Brae Canlen

NGA/Gallup survey shows households spent an average of $532 on lawn and garden products last year

Garden lovers crossed the $500 threshold for the first time last year by spending, on average, $532 per household on outdoor living.

As a result, overall consumer spending on outdoor living products expanded last year by 11 percent to $33.5 billion, according to the National Gardening Association's 1999-2000 National Gardening Survey, which is conducted for the group by the Gallup Organization.

"This is the third year in a row where we've seen double-digit increases," said Bruce Butterfield, NGA's research director.

The survey reconfirmed a trend that's been ongoing for at least the past five years -- that consumers are shopping in droves at home improvement stores for gardening products. Of the 64 million households that purchased lawn and garden products last year, 41 million did so in a big-box setting. Another 33 million shopped in garden centers, while 20 million bought their plants, chemicals and other garden products through mass merchandisers. (These data take into account multiple shopping venues for lawn and garden consumers.)

Hardware stores captured business from 18 million households, while the head count for supermarkets and drug stores was 13 million. Mail order and e-commerce accounted for another 7 million households.

"What's driving this industry is not the amount of household participation but the amount of money they spend," said Butterfield, adding that two out of three houses in the nation are single-family detached dwellings with a yard. "It's no surprise that 67 percent of [surveyed] households said they engaged in some lawn and garden activity," he observed. "You're not likely to have a yard and do nothing with it,"

The numbers for 2000 may not be so rosy, Butterfield warned, due to a cold, wet spring in the Northeast, drought in the Midwest and adverse weather conditions in other parts of the country.

Homeowners as growers

The NGA/Gallup survey examined industry trends in 16 categories that encompass 120 different products. Participants were asked what gardening activities they engaged in over the past 12 months and what kind of products they used. Their answers showed a rise in most categories, but especially container gardening and landscaping, which Butterfield defined as the permanent installation of trees, shrubs, and other plant materials.

Vegetable gardening -- which tends to fluctuate from year to year -- registered a 29.3 percent rise in terms of total retail sales last year. "One year does not make a trend," Butterfield cautioned. But he allowed that vegetable and herb gardens have become trendy with today's overachieving homeowners. "All those cooking shows on TV have encouraged people to grow their own fresh food," he observed.

Thanks to media majordomos like Martha Stewart, consumers are extending their reach -- and their budgets -- when it comes to outdoor living, according to Butterfield. Gardening, cooking, decorating and entertaining -- homeowners want to do it all, and with style. "Martha Stewart should get a lot of credit for helping this industry grow," he stated. "She's made it fashionable to garden."

The presence of Stewart's brand at Krnart, where she launched a line of lawn and garden products earlier this year, underscores the favored status of this category to at least one discounter. (Kmart also announced in March that it plans to remodel the garden centers in 200 stores, giving them up to 40 percent more selling space.) But other mass merchandisers, like Wal-Mart and Target, still treat lawn and garden like a seasonal stepchild, according to Butterfield. Meanwhile, independent garden retailers are distinguishing themselves as boutique merchandisers with niche offerings. "They get to sell the really nice stuff," he said.