 |
| Kevin Cohn |
When I started in the greenhouse business and struggled to
establish new customers, I was stunned by the sign at Witmer’s Greenhouse -----
“We are accepting NO new customers”
It was the boom days in the 70’s and
80’s when plant shops were popping up on every street corner. Suddenly, houseplants were the ‘In’ thing. Suddenly,
everybody was interested in collecting plants.
Suddenly, collectors cared about plant names and what was the newest variety?
When I questioned the sign, I was
told that the owners at Witmer’s decided that it was too important not to take care
of their existing customers ---- the ones that bought for years. They couldn’t jeopardize their loyal customers
for the sake of the new upstarts.
My naïve thinking was just grow more
plants and satisfy everyone. But, expansion
is not a causal undertaking. What
happens when the upstarts disappear?
And, of course, they did
disappear---- after a number of years.
The flash-in the-pan burned out.
Houseplants are coming back, there
is no question. I get inquires every
week for our ‘Mini’ plants. I’m happy to
open new accounts.
But, what will be the set of circumstances
when we ask:
“How
many customers are enough?”
