Factors affecting U.S. consumer patronage of garden centers and mass-merchandisers

When mass-merchandisers began to sell ornamental plants, they offered consumers more choices and increased retail competition. We used consumer panel data collected by the American Floral Endowment from 1992 to 2005 to analyze consumers' choice of garden centers and mass-merchandisers. We found that over time there was a decrease in the percentage of transactions made in garden centers and an increase in the percentage of transactions that occurred in mass- merchandisers. However, mean expenditures in garden centers were significantly higher than in mass-merchandisers. There were some regional differences in consumers' choice of the two types of stores and in consumers' socio-demographics affected their choice. In addition, we found consumers bought different types of products in the two types of stores. They cited different reasons why they choose one type of store instead of the other and impulse purchasing behavior was more likely to occur in mass-merchandisers than garden centers.