Sometimes the stuff we already sell is cool and unusual to those who don't know we sell them. Take these 4'tall cedar stakes which we're featured in a blog I follow called, "Cool Tools". Here is what the author say's about these "cool tools"." I used to buy tomato cages — open-ended, circular wire cages—to secure the plants — but they were never strong enough once the tomato plants got taller than 4 feet. The cages would slowly collapse, taking the plants with them, which was worse than if I hadn't used anything. Last summer I happened upon a simple, yet effective device to keep the tomato jungle under control: the cedar stake."
Did you hear that? The amazing cool tool known a 4' cedar stake. "Cedar stakes come in various lengths and can be found at any home-improvement or garden store. They are inexpensive, especially compared to tomato cages. I bought 6-foot stakes, one for each plant, and some stretchy vinyl tie that expands with the growth of plants." Wow!
The author mentions that you can buy them at home improvement stores and "garden stores" (notice we are not called "garden centers" any more). At the end of the post Amazon is mentioned as a place to by these amazing stakes at "12 4-foot stakes, $25"
I found the post interesting since we in the garden center, I mean "garden shop" business, would likely never have looked at the lowly plant stake the way our potential customers might. We see them as a obvious choice when staking tomatoes while our potential customers see them as an amazing new way to hold up their vegetable plants.
We need to look at our businesses in a whole new light. Not the light of years of horticultural experience, but the eyes of potential new customers where everything about gardening is magical and full of fantastic devices to make gardening more successful Sometimes those fantastic new new devices and ways of doing things are just something we forgot about in our efforts to keep abreast of "whats new".