Tomato plants on Feb.1 in at Home Depot
 

I saw these at the store in Clear Lake Shores, Texas. They had tomatoes, peppers, and many herbs. Although it got into the low 70s today, this is too early for my blood.

Donna, Texas Gulf Coast zone 9

Geez, those are at least three months away for me...:no::cry:

HD here last year had them in very late March/very early April--a full month and a half before you should be planting out tomatoes. I guess they are in the business of selling plants and couldn't care less if they die after they are sold. I saw someone looking at them and I just bit my tongue, I didn't want to come off as a know it all ahole.

I saw a man put several in his basket. Surely he knows not to put them in the ground yet (hope hope). I'll put mine out the 1st of March.

Donna

A few years ago, a Home Depot in my area put their garden plants out pretty early after a fairly warm winter. They lost everything to a late freeze, restocked their shelves about one week later and lost everything to another late freeze. I don't care how warm the winter has been. I'm patient enough to wait and let them grow under lights instead of letting them freeze in the garden.

HD and Lowes do strange things.
If I didn't know better I would think they had some sort of conspiracy going.

Stores put out product at the time when people will buy it. If they don't, the people's spending money will go to another store that has that product. It's rotten that people will end up killing their plants, but remember the store's goal is $.

Nan

I lived just south of clear lake and gardened there many years ago. I bought seedlings around the first week of February and planted them up into larger pots a couple of times before mid march when it was time to set them out. The idea was to get production before the heat of summer set in.
It's been a long time but I think I got my plants in Houston at a place called Sage and there where always plenty of others there at the same time, with the same plan. It worked pretty well.

It appears to me the retailers only pay for what is purchased through the registers. The loss goes to the supplier. Have you ever watched the suppliers deliver? They just pull up and put damaged product on the truck and fill the racks with fresh plants. I may be wrong, but I think that's how it works.

[QUOTE=SteveP;681483]It appears to me the retailers only pay for what is purchased through the registers. The loss goes to the supplier. Have you ever watched the suppliers deliver? They just pull up and put damaged product on the truck and fill the racks with fresh plants. I may be wrong, but I think that's how it works.[/QUOTE]


That's the way Bonnie's works. It's also the same reason you see Bonnie's everywhere. The store owners have no skin in the game, they give Bonnie's space for the display and profit only from what sells.

Been seeing this in my local Lowe's and HD stores for close to a month now. Then again, I had my plants in the ground in Dec. Considering what the weather has been like in many parts of TX since the 1st of the year, however, I can see how you might be wary.

Consignment selling is what it is?????:?!?:

Worth

[QUOTE=Rajun Gardener;681491]That's the way Bonnie's works. It's also the same reason you see Bonnie's everywhere. The store owners have no skin in the game, they give Bonnie's space for the display and profit only from what sells.[/QUOTE]

That's the way I understand & Bonnie is also responsible for watering, upkeep, and culling.

Also, the times I have purchased plants - they will ring up every one individually - even if they are the same make and model. Must be a tracking system in the register.

In Wal-Marts case it looks as if Bonnie gets an agreement from the store not to buy from competitors too.

I shot the breeze with the Bonnie delivery driver at HD a few weeks back down here in Florida. He was a young guy that wasn't very shy with answering my questions. Everything said above sounds correct about HD only getting paid for what they sell because he gets paid for each plant that gets sold. It's his job to know what's selling and what to stock. It's also in his best interest to increase sales by keeping an eye out for dying and damaged plants and replacing them with new ones. He had a big cart and was just randomly pulling flats that he didn't like, some of them almost full and really not too bad looking. He then invited me onto his truck to check it out and there's thousands of plants in there grouped Willy nilly, not organized by type. He just picks whatever he wants to put out for display. The crazy part is what their profit margin must be at Bonnie. Assuming he is telling the truth, he told me gets paid $9 for every large 2.5gal caged tomato or pepper plant that sells. HD has those priced for $15.97. There's about 20 of those on the shelf and he says he has to come 4 days a week and it's wiped clean everytime he shows up. His route has dozens of HD, Lowe's, Walmart, and Ace Hardware stores in the area. Lastly, HD rings them up by size not by type of plant. The receipt states Bonnie plant and then the size container it was in. I know they sell a lot of those caged "patio" tomatoes simply because of the number of snowbirds we have down here that live in condos and leave town the beginning of May.