Are Garden Centres the new department stores?

I love large garden centres and am fortunate to have two very close to me. One is also a high quality nursery, and sells beautiful gifts, with a lovely coffee shop/restaurant too. I shop there regularly and have a loyalty card, which entitles me to discounts and the occasional free plant. The second one is vast and includes a farm shop, butchers, furniture, with franchises for shoes, clothes, kitchens, fires and so much more. I much prefer shopping at these retail stores than the high street, which I avoid.

My favourite Garden Centre is really nice. Not overpowering. Wonderful meat and veg and lots of other interesting foods including delicious ready meals plus a small restaurant for light meals. There are a few clothes and books [my favourite section] for all ages and of course plenty of garden implements and plants. Like others I have to drive [10min] there but it's worth it in my book

I think there is now a big gap between nurseries, whose prime role is to sell plants with their added value veing advice and quite often specialising in certain types of plant and Garden Centres, which, as I said, are replacing department stores,

The classic department store was somewhere you would go if you wanted a day or half day in town. It had a good restaurant, loos, a wide range of goods and, with British weather, it was under a roof, which is exactly what a garden centre offers.

Yes, the range of goods is different, but this reflects what people want to browse through and probably buy now.

henetha

There are three within easy reach of here, if you have a car. But the best one, which seems to sell absolutely everything, is about a twenty minute drive away.
I love them, I must admit. It's a day out for me, fossicking around and having a coffee etc. It's great.

I completely agree

GrannyGravy13

I enjoy mooching round a Garden Centre, always have a good wonder at the other stuff before getting down to the serious plant buying.

Tasty cafe/bistro’s a bonus.

Me too and at Christmas….. well they are a veritable Aladdin's cave

There are three within easy reach of here, if you have a car. But the best one, which seems to sell absolutely everything, is about a twenty minute drive away.
I love them, I must admit. It's a day out for me, fossicking around and having a coffee etc. It's great.

My local (ish) big one has a great selection of cards, birthday and otherwise. I quite like browsing all the non plant stuff - they even have my usual brand of DK yarn (occasionally with the colour I need) and now and then it’s been used as an ex-
colleagues meeting-up venue.

During the run up to Christmas I’ve taken the Gdcs (it’s 2 bus rides but they love going on the bus, the car is boring!) to see all the super-exciting Winter Wonderland tat!

The majority of our local Garden Centres (within 10-20 minutes by car) are independent and have been going for 50 + years.

The plantsmen/women are extremely knowledgeable and very helpful.

In my road we have a community owned and run nursery, only open three days a week, they have limited stock but it’s all propagated and grown by volunteers. There is always someone on hand to help.

JenniferEccles sadly my local John Lewis "Home" closed some years ago...

there was the full range of gardening requirements and outside were acres of plants and shrubs but inside......

Well our enormous one doesn't stock all sizes of strimmer cord!
I had to get mine from Screwfix!


Screwfix now offers strimmers...

One close to us also sells a range of Sainsburys food items.

I can understand people liking a department store style nursery, but I think the reason there are so many fewer ‘real’ plant based only nurseries is because the giants are buying them out. So many have closed near us.
So please, if you do just want plants take a little time to find the nearest ‘real’ nursery to you and help keep these businesses open.

I do admit to making for the Burford Garden Co. when in the Cotswolds; such a lovely experience any time of the year and you will get stuff there that's not sold in many garden centres.

Daylesford is worth a look but you need serious money to shop there!

“A tasty hostage” !
Love it Pantglas2 !

I have been so sorry to see the gradual demise of department stores over the years. Thank goodness good old John Lewis is bucking the trend.

Yes, I do think large garden centres have kind of filled the gap, although of course they are still predominantly garden and plant related.

As others have said they are invariably busy regardless of the time of day, especially the ubiquitous cafe!

I think we’re divided here? Maybe the distinction should be between a plant nursery and a garden centre. For the green fingered it’s all about the plants, but for those like me, who doesn’t know a begonia from a bar of soap, I love the big outlets with all the trimmings. DD’s Dobbies has a fresh meat counter and a Waitrose!

I live near four garden centres .
Only one of them offers garden advice and courses the others are frankly massive gift shops selling expensive tat with children's play areas .
They are very popular and bursting at the seams at weekends .
I guess that it's what people want .

We had a lovely garden centre where the staff were helped by volunteers and special needs groups would go there to spend a few hours learning about plants and how to care for them. We bought several small fruit trees and plants from there, with expert advice given.
Now is one of these big commercial centres, where you take your plant to a person on a till who knows nothing about the plants except the price of them. There are different departments selling all kinds of things and an overpriced cafe at the back.
No thank you.

I have one about a mile away. I hate the way you are forced to walk through so many areas to get to the garden items! But for leisure mooching it is good. I ignore the perfumed candles and bath bombs which fill a huge area, but enjoy looking at kitchenalia and clothes. I have just bought a couple of tops there at a very reasonable price. Lovely spacious fitting rooms with a chair too.
The restaurant is always busy, overpriced and so noisy as it is in a cavernous area which magnifies the noise.

For plants, there is a proper nursery just opposite, a long-standing family business, much better.

Yes you could definitely have a day out at some of the larger garden centres, we have two excellent ones that sell, like many now, a multitude of products apart from garden related stuff. Clothes, food, inside the home related goods, toys, games and puzzles. It would probably be as good a place as any to pick up Christmas gifts. One favoured local one gave us vouchers for half price afternoon teas back in the summer after buying some flowers for the garden. We used them on our next visit for a pot of tea and scone with jam and cream, a bargain at £3.50, the scone was magnificent and had a really light texture. The other garden centre we use also has a tea room with some delicious home made cakes, just too tempting and a larger restaurant for hot meals, most do these days.

I would love to have a proper garden centre near me, stocked with just plants, no such luck, just overpriced, struggle to get through tat “department stores” I miss the smell of a proper nursery☹️

I think they are Monica! Ours aren’t huge like Dobbies and are family owned but with all trimmings like gift shops, clothing and the like.

One does a lovely small breakfast 🍳 for £4 and with proper thick bacon and a tasty “hostage” 😉!

vegansrock

I can’t stand those huge garden centres stuffed with Chinese made tat. The one I like best is a proper nursery selling plants they’ve grown themselves or from local growers, not bought in bulk from the Netherlands. They’ve got a nice cafe and a tiny shop just selling seeds and bulbs and basic gardening stuff. The prices of the plants are far cheaper than those huge centres too.

Our local Garden Centres promote UK products and produce.

We also have some excellent nurseries all home grown plants, without any fripperies or cafes.

There are several relatively near us, all with pet accessories, decorative items and garden furniture as well as plants and trees. All have cafes or restaurants. Some have a clothing outlet, some have toys, books and jewellery. I love the Christmas displays.

My local one used to be family owned with lots of knowledgeable staff but sadly it's now become a homogenised Dobies.. such a shame and I long for an old fashioned one.. even our local ironmonger which had been going for over a 100 years and where I could buy small quantities of things I needed from expert staff. has recently closed..

We have a large (and the original!) Dobbies near us which sells almost everything - with other 'stores' like Lakeland, Cotton Traders, Mountain Warehouse etc in a separate area to the rear, and it's always very busy. We are lucky, however, to still have some very good little family-run plant nurseries and garden centres nearby too, which offer a good selection of plants and also advice on hand too. Best of both worlds, I guess you could say.