Kitchen Garden Forum

After hearing all the advertising hype about these wonderful new garden centres, I thought I would have a look when we passed one yesterday.

What a laugh - When we negotiated our way past the kitchen shop, shoes, clothing etc. etc. then the craft shop, then the household fripperies, we found the plants. Dried and shrivelled herbs and then reached the piece de resistance - Large tomato plants and large pepper plants - GUESS HOW MUCH ............. £17.99 EACH!!!!, although the tomato had a 50% off sign next to it. How many lbs of tomatoes and peppers can you buy for that price? Oh but of course you would miss the thrill of "growing your own".

Even the little seedling tomato plants were £1.99 each.

In fact looking round the rest of the shop most things were poor quality and probably double the price you could get them elsewhere. I'll not be going there again.

Dear Plumpudding, we also have a Dobbies near us, exactly the same.
But i have to admit the car park always seems to be full when i have passed.

Good grief! How can anyone have the nerve to charge £17.99 for a tomato plant?! More to the point, who would be stupid enough to pay that much?
Vivien

vivienz wrote:Good grief! How can anyone have the nerve to charge £17.99 for a tomato plant?! More to the point, who would be stupid enough to pay that much?
Vivien

It sounds as if the stupid ones are Dobbies. If they have enough left to discount them and still have them, it looks as if the customers are the ones with the sense

Hi Plumpudding,
Sounds like a planning scam to me. They do not have to sell any plants because they make more money on all the other rubbish. Just so long as they sell the odd plant the other rubbish can stay there but do away with the nursery then all the other things would need a separate planning consent each. They would be unlikely to manage that.
I'm only guessing mind but I bet that I'm not a more than a mile or so from the truth.
JB.

Some time ago it was widely reported that Tesco's were going to buy the Dobbies retail outlets...I am not sure whether this transaction has taken place yet.

I have been to the largest one (allegedly) at Mancetter near Atherstone in Warwickshire a couple of times in the past and the prices weren't that high then....could it be the Tesco influence?

I feel it correct to point out that Dobies Seeds are nothing to do with the Dobbies range of Garden Centres.
JB.

Thanks JB, that's a relief 'cos I've always liked the look of Dobies seed catalogues.

As for Dobbies Nr Atherstone, my mum and aunt used to take my grandmother there for a day out, lunch, shopping etc etc and they used to love it. They didn't go for the gardening side though, it was just a very easy place to take an old, disabled lady and her carer (also semi disabled) with everything under one roof, free and easy parking and, so they said, not too expensive.

I don't think places like this are actually aimed at gardeners.

Dear Weed ,i read in the paper that tescoe's took over 105 Dobies garden centre, and they were going to open another 45 around the country

That's right OC....my cynical mind thinks it is a ploy to get more of their traditional products sold in out of town outlets by exploiting these established garden centres.(a Tesco by any other name is still a Tesco)

Maybe the land nearer the cities is becoming more difficult to obtain or planning permission harder to 'acquire'.

Says it all...

"The deal, valuing Dobbies at £155m, represents a new departure for Tesco. When the company unveiled its bid in June(2007) it said it was "chasing the green pound" and intended to expand the chain across the UK to sell cut-price eco products such as wind turbines, insulation, solar panels and water butts.

It also intends to cash in on the ageing population and the growing popularity of gardening. The market for gardening products is worth more than £5bn a year.

It has denied it intends to sell food through the stores, but many retail analysts expect Dobbies to start stocking wider ranges of organic and healthy foods as Tesco's answer to the increasingly popular farm shops and farmers' markets. Unusually, Tesco does not plan to put its name over the door and will retain the Dobbies brand."