Supermarkets in Garden Centres - is this right?

Our Dobbies has Waitrose now. I never shop in Waitrose so no idea about prices but even when it was Sainsburys I didn't use it. Preferred the shop Dobbies had before they went to supermarkets. Do go for my coffee and garden centre stuff and DGS2 uses the soft play and feeds the fish, sometimes sees ducks on the pond and likes the play park bit. It's a morning out for us.

Germanshepherdsmum

I always take my dog to the local garden centre! Well behaved dogs are welcome there. I don’t advocate leaving a dog tied up outside - thieves and small unsupervised children come to mind.

Totally agree with you there - you should never leave a dog tied up outside any shop. There has been a spate of dog thefts right across the country, so for anyone to leave a dog outside a shop (or bar/cafe/restaurant - whatever) is the height of irresponsibility. I quite often see people with dogs in our local Dobbies and they never seem to be causing any problems.

I always take my dog to the local garden centre! Well behaved dogs are welcome there. I don’t advocate leaving a dog tied up outside - thieves and small unsupervised children come to mind.

Why would you take a dog into a garden centre? There should be a rail to tie them up to in a shady place with ready access to water.

I now buy most of my fruit and veg in my local market, but, generally, when I do buy from a supermarket, my main complaint is that it is under ripe, too under ripe to ripen properly.

What is the problem with this? Apart that I would be tempted to buy more plants?

Our local Dobbies has a Sainsbury’s. It’s fine but you wouldn’t take your dog into a supermarket so why is it acceptable by food in a Garden Centre. I’m not being anti dog, I’ve had several dogs but the shelves are very low easy reach for chewing or peeing on. The other day there was someone with one of those long leads and the dog was wound round the shelf, they couldn’t possibly see what it was getting up to.

Wondering what fruit people are buying that doesn't last.

What on earth are you doing to it? Do you all have extra bumpy cars or pack soft fruit at the bottom of your shopping bags with gallons of wine on top? ?

Or something?

Incidently there were fresh blueberries from Ukraine for sell in Morrisons this week.

I'd have made a special trip to buy them but I have 2 planters with home grown blueberries in. My son was home recently and waxed lyrical about the wonderful blueberries which actually tasted of something. He was very surprised to find out they were homemade!

Our Dobbies has a Sainsbury's but I don't earn points on my Nectar Card and it doesn't seem to have enough of the stuff I need. It has come in useful once when I needed some berries because Tesco's Express had run out and I didn't want to trek out too far. Even the reduced stuff was more than I would usually pay!

Excuse me for being a tad cynical, but I think it’s because they won’t have to shut in the next pandemic. People desperately wanted to be gardening, but the garden centres were shut! If they have a food outlet, they can remain open throughout…….?‍♀️

We have several Garden Centres in our area. Only one has a Farm shop and it is brilliant. They do proper thick yellow Jersey cream!

Why not? I picked up milk in my local garden centre and it saved me a trip to the big Sainsbury.

I don’t see a problem with it. Why would there be?

I remember when an outdoor was an outdoor, a grocer was was grocer , a paper shop was a paper shop loads more aswell, but now loads of shops sell all sorts of things ... also remember when had half day closing & closed Sundays, times just change ... for the better who knows ... some yes some no ... so why not ? Saves having wasted space, also which part of the shop you go to possibly go round to others aswell ... spend more money ARGH ! Method in their madness as they say

Why shouldn't there be a supermarket in a garden centr? It is neither right or wrong. Most garden centres are on the outskirts of towns and if you live nearby it must be very convenient to have a supermarket nearby rather than 5 miles away.

I’m probably just being old fashioned, but whilst you can buy flowers and the odd plant in a supermarket, I like a garden centre to be a garden centre not a shopping mall, which is what the chains seem to be turning into. Having said that Morrisons do have an excellent garden section, albeit the plants required a good watering when I went at the weekend ?

Our local Dobbies is the head office and they've already gone over to Waitrose, so I'd imagine it will be happening right across their garden centres.

Ours has a Sainsbury at the moment but the manager said they are moving over to Waitrose by the New Year. Not sure if that means Sainsbury going completely.

There’s a Sainsbury’s in my nearest GC. The prices are higher than in a normal supermarket but for me, it’s within walking distance so saves a car journey for just one or two small items.

Buy ( almost ) all our food locally. Mainly once a week. We have had no problems with it keeping when stored correctly.
I have occasionally bought groceries from a garden centre. I can’t see what is wrong with combining the two.

One stop shopping and each business sharing the cost of overheads including fuel, I think it’s a great idea.
I get fruit and veg delivered weekly from Tesco, it keeps fine for a week, I visit the farm shop every 10 days and buy local offers.

We have always had a fresh veg area in our local Garden Centre with veg from local growers everything is always freshly picked and very tasty indeed.
There is also freshly butchered joints of meat from farms nearby at prices which are slightly more expensive than Supermarkets and fresh milk/cheese but the produce is so much better if it helps the Centres business I can't see what is wrong.

The prices in the Sainbury's in our local Deobbie's is that the prices are more than in the proper shop.

It makes good business sense for the garden center and the supermarket and is convenient for the shopper. Why would it be wrong?

Why would it not be right?