Passion creates the great garden centers!

Anna in Spain wants to start a small garden center and has questions about the water needs of plants, how many plants to start with, and all the other questions that someone starting a garden center would have. I have been trying to find the time to get to the answers in the middle of the spring rush. Hang in there Anna and I’ll find the time.

I am not a cook but I watch real ones on TV. Last night I watched a great biography of Chef Emerill Lugase. It’s the story of a man who worked his way up to the top of his profession. The reason I like to watch his show and I am sure most people watch it is to be filled with his passion for cooking and life. Despite having challenges to face all through his career his passion and joy have always trumped any negativity.

This would be the one quality that a new garden center owner should have in abundance. Passion is going to carry you through the times when the weather doesn’t cooperate and despite you best intentions you loose money that year. Passion is going to carry you through the next year when the same thing happens. How is it possible to get up in the morning and greet the customers with a smile and cheerful demeanor when the pile of bills in the office would scare anyone?

I see many similarities between restaurants and garden centers. Going to a restaurant involves many of the same reasons you go to a great nursery. Besides plants or food we each provide an experience. You go to Home Depot to buy plants, you go to a great nursery or restaurant to buy and take home a piece of the passion you felt when you we’re there. We both want the experience to be so great that you can’t wait to tell your friend’s about the really cool place you have found.

I’ll see if I can answer Anna’s questions well enough to help but the best advice I can give is to look to the great chefs like Emerill and imagine your self as passionate and excited as they are and have been. Create your garden center just as if you we’re creating a restaurant and provide the consumer with an exceptional experience. Get excited and let you passion carry you through the up’s and down’s.

Home Depot say’s, "Sorry we let you down"

A post at Today’s Garden Center Blog about how Frank Blake, CEO for Home Depot has apologized for the lousy service his stores are known for. The reason he is apologizing is the over 10,000 e-mails and messages he has received. The message board registers 423 pages of complaints and discussions about Depot.

This is what business everywhere should fear or delight in. With the internet we are able to lodge our complaints or complements about anything we want. Soon the complaints get grouped together and eventually even large corporations have to respond. To his credit Mr. Blake has responded, but who knows if it’s too little too late. As a business owner I want to be out their communicating with the consumer before any mis-understandings arise. The best way to do that on the internet is through blogging. Invite people to comment on your blog, even if it’s to complain. Just by being out there you send a message that you want to work with people to build your business.

I am disappointed that Frank is not going to start a blog. Right now he wants you to send an e-mail to wehearyou@homedepot.com if you have a concern. With a blog Frank could let us know in real time just what he is doing to make it right. He wouldn’t even have to do it. Maybe there is someone on staff that would be good at blogging and is passionate about the business. It won’t be easy changing the culture at a huge operation but with a blog we could be kept informed of the progress or lack of it.

Smith & Hawken, bring back the hippies!

Just read an interesting article on Smith & Hawken in the latest edition of Garden Chic Magazine. According to the article the company is “now in the midst of a major shift to return to its ‘roots’, its horticultural beginnings.” Senior Vice President Gordy Erickson joined Smith & Hawken after 10 years at Wal-Mart Stores Inc., where he was senior vice president and general merchandise manager. He said he “feels the previous management and various owners lost track of their core focus.” In the article “Gordy proudly points to the original catalogue from the early days of the company, when the hippies-turned-visionary businessmen were still at the helm.”

If you remember back when we talked about Scott’s here it was mentioned “I can’t imagine that Smith and Hawken is the same store that Paul Hawken built and then sold. You can look the same on the outside but once corporate gets a hold of it the culture changes.” I guess Gordy Erickson agrees.

What I find interesting is how Scott’s, who owns Smith & Hawken is trying to recapture something that they can’t possibly bottle. When Dave Smith and Paul Hawken (hippies) started the company it was a new idea and had the interest of the “enthusiast’s” in the garden world because it was ground breaking venture. Those enthusiasts spread the word until now, when it has become the main stream entity that it is today, predictable and boring. The enthusiasts have long since moved on.

How is Scott’s is going to “re-hippy” Smith & Hawken? According to Garden Chic they will go “green”. “The new ‘green’ S&H will get back to a much larger percentage of houseplants and flowering material. While not truly a ‘garden center,’ they will be much more green and less of a furniture store.”

As a small independent garden center owner it’s kind of fun to watch huge corporations like Scott’s try to reinvent themselves as cutting edge ‘hippies’. They may be successful in luring many new customers and regaining some momentum but they will never again have the interest on the garden enthusiasts who look for the cutting edge and are the ones who spread the word when they find a truly novel idea.

That’s why the small garden center might have a leg up on the large corporations for the garden enthusiasts and other gardeners business. More often than not these days many people make purchasing decisions based partly on a companies "authentic story". Many small garden centers have what Gordy Erickson wishes Smith & Hawken still had, an interesting and authentic story.

Start that small garden center today!

The time is ripe for the small garden center. The mood is unmistakable. People are looking for the unique experience. Weather its cooking, traveling, or gardening people want to try new things. I don’t know about you but I cringe when I see another power mall going in with the prerequisite Borders, Sports Authority, Home Depot, and Baby Gap. The power mall in Folsom looks just like any other mall in the U.S. Sure I patronize some of these places but they don’t inspire me.

Embrace eccentricity! The fun nurseries are always the ones that are a bit eccentric. Generally the smaller stores have the ability to express their “difference better.” The larger independents and the box stores are generally very predictable with out much excitement going on. Running a successful small garden center means having to step put of the current trends and quit being so predictable. Now I am not saying you should open the doors to the shop at any old time of the day. Certain practices should be predictable, but the experience of discovery at the garden center should not be.

I tried to think of some of the ways that we are different than most other garden centers. Our name ‘Golden Gecko’ comes to mind. We wanted a name that was unique and had nothing to do with gardening or us! Our former nursery “Happy Frog” is another example.

We have been arranging our plants in a “theatrical’ manner for the past 13 years. We dropped alpha numeric rowing of plants then and never looked back. Grouping the plants in “vignettes” by color, shape, and smells was quite novel then and unfortunately still is.

Every plant is labeled with Latin names. The sign for a group of plants may not have the Latin name but every plant comes with it. We believe that as more and more garden centers drop the use of Latin names the use of Latin will become more exotic and therefore more interesting to gardeners who care and want to learn about plants. We want to be that source of information.

I am into playing music, jazz and classical mostly. It’s in the background and never obtrusive but helps to set the scene that we are creating. It amazes me how many garden centers don’t use the sound of music to help mask the noise from the road.

We use our mailing list and the internet as our main sources of advertisement. We try not to use mass media much as we have found our best chance of reaching people is through those who have signed up to receive information from us. The internet also focuses our message to those who have an interest already in what we are offering.

We use water a lot! We have two water falls and quite a number of smaller water tub pots, in addition to our creek. The sound of water is a help in masking the sounds coming from the street as well as setting a relaxing mood.

Have Fun! It is sometimes the hardest thing to do when one looks at the bills coming in but is critical to your health and success. Monica and I constantly remind ourselves that if we are not having fun then the customer won’t. The “feel” of a store is directly related to the moods of the people who run it. We have been through some amazing hardships in running our businesses and have had periods where the fun was really lacking. You know what? The sales showed it. It’s not easy but “letting go” and trusting our instincts while trying to keep a playful attitude has been a great benefit.

Good news for independents

Here is some good news for independent garden centers. According to the folks at Open Register the Garden Writers Association , who conduct garden surveys during the year have a new survey which reports, “for the first time in years, more consumers say they plan to shop at garden centers (47%) than mass merchants. Further, according to Open Register “This hasn’t been a neck and neck race. A mere 39% of consumers planned to shop at garden centers in 2006, compared to 52% wanting to shop at mass merchants. The split was similar in 2005, at 40% to 51%. So this year’s turn around is a major shift.”

Whether this benefits a local garden center will ultimately be up to the store and how well run it is. If the store does not offer a better experience than a chain store this study won’t mean much. It is encouraging to see the shift in consumer sentiments however. It appears that quality is one of the main reasons sited for the shift.

We are quickly shifting to spring mode here. Temps today in the high 70’s and 70’s for the rest of the week, at least. Compared to last year when we had 4” of snow on the ground it’s quite a turnaround. While cold weather might still come, “it always snows on the dogwood blossoms” this nice weather and encouraging report is just what nurserypeople in northern California have been waiting to hear.

The picture above is of an old Western Redbud in front of The Vineyard House in Coloma.

Music at the garden center

These are the blooms of the California Bay Tree (Umbellaria californica). It grows in the foothills below 4000’ elevation, in our case mixed with manzanita and other chaparral. The leaves when crushed have a wonderfully powerful fragrance, more powerful than bay leaves (Laurus nobilis). California bay can be used in cooking but more sparingly than Grecian Laurel.

Another native plant in bloom is manzanita. The flowers are bell shaped and pink. Often the first that you notice the blooms is the sound of bee’s busy flying from flower to flower. Manzanita is a main component of the chaparral that occurs in the foothills.

What music do you hear when you garden? This is an area dear to my heart since I have always made it a point to have music playing at the garden center. We play classical and jazz. We play this music since I have always liked it and have found that it fits in nicely with the garden center experience. We don’t play opera, country, rock, or most other genre. I love most music and have a special spot for good old rock and roll but have found that classical and jazz are great as garden center music. Since people don’t listen to classical and jazz as often it is something different that they associate with the garden center. “I love the music you play” or “Where did you get this CD” is what we hear.

We don’t just play any classical but gear ourselves toward Mozart, Bach, Handel, and other baroque or rococo styles. The melodic melodies are uplifting and not as intense as modern classical. In the world of Jazz we like the classics. We have also started playing some Afro-Cubana, and Caribbean style tunes. The music should be something that is easy or fun and not the normal background music you hear at the grocery store or when stepping on an elevator.

I don’t believe that any music will work. Rock and roll does not work for us but maybe it would for someone else. Monica and our employees are always trying to get me to change the CD or tuner to something more hip. I don’t play the music to be hip but rather to set the tone for what we hope will be a remarkable and different garden center experience.

Spring in northern California

This is where we’re at weather wise in the foothills of northern California. These daffodils are growing in front of the old school house in Coloma. Flowering plums and pears are starting to bloom as spring has sprung! We will still have cold weather and even a little snow but the grass has turned the hills green again and the manzanita is in bloom.

The last two years we’re washouts for the garden center biz around here. We had rain constantly through May of last year and June the year before. This year we are at 60 % of average rain, but that means the spring has been a lot drier which is good for business. The water resource board came on and said we have enough snow and water to supply our needs for this year. So perhaps this will be a year when folks can get out into the yard in spring and enjoy the garden.

Garden Centers, google your name today!

Over at Mr. Brown Thumb he mentions my post on Home Depots new CEO’s plan to bill the mega-retailer as the “friendly local retailer”. Mr. Brown Thumb says “On his blog (thegoldengecko.blogspot.com) he's criticizing Home Depot for their latest ad campaign that tries to brand HD as the "'friendly local retailer.'" I'm not sure Trey has much to worry about because I don't think anyone will ever really buy into the idea, but what I don't agree with is how he puts local retailers on a pedestal.”

Mr. Brown Thumb then goes on to relate how “’friendly local retailer’” is a myth created by Hollywood and people's selective memories of days gone by.” In my post I had mentioned “The only thing that Home Depot has done is work on running most of the local friendly retailers out of business. I’ll admit that some of those retailers needed to go out of business…”.

Mr. Brown Thumb may be correct. I don’t know about the Hollywood myth part but he is right in that the way it's worded I did put the local friendly retailers on a pedestal. It was unintentional and just sounded that way. What I should have said was “most of those retailers needed to go out of business”. Just like Mr. Brown Thumb I have no illusions as to the state of the retail sector as it relates to customer service. Its poor, and shared equally by box stores and local retailers.

We found out about Mr. Brown Thumbs post after I goggled “Golden Gecko Garden Center”. I do that every now and then just to see what comes up. I followed a link Mr. Brown Thumb had on the post to message board by a disgruntled customer of a well known nursery in the Chicago area. This nursery apparently has no web page but they are sure getting interest on the web. The first entry takes you to a posting at Gardeweb.com that has a lively conversation going on. I would think the owner of that store would want to take action to rectify these customer’s complaints. However if they don't check the web they won't know what being said.

People using the computer are exactly the type of consumer that might very well patronize a smaller independent nursery. People are creating communities of like minded individuals on the internet. Because they are communities what is said often has more meaning to the readers than other forms of communication and bad news as well as good spreads fast. Google your name or your business name today and see what comes up.

The eco-friendly blog

Get ready for eco-friendly everything. As we race into the future companies will all be trying to “out-eco” each other in this lucrative market. Joe Gardener.com has awarded Scott’s/Miracle-Gro’s Deluxe™ EdgeGuard® Broadcast Spreader its “Best of the must haves list”. According to Joe Gardener, “In their effort to provide more eco-friendly solutions, The Scott's Company has answered the challenge to this ongoing problem and hit a homerun in the process.” As the web site says “An easy to use on/off control lever instantly activates a shield below the hopper that prevents fertilizer and other chemicals from being thrown onto areas where it is not intended, such as waterways, streets and other impervious surfaces.” So there you go, a spreader that applies the product where its suppose to go is now an “eco-friendly solution”.

Making products that work better is always a good thing. It’s just that calling it eco-friendly smacks of pandering. Where does it stop? Sure a spreader that doesn’t throw fertilizer and pesticides where they are not needed is good, but eco-friendly? Wouldn’t pulling out the lawn be even more eco-friendly? Why not just say the spreader works better? Because it doesn’t sound as cool as “eco-friendly”. We are about to be inundated with “eco-friendly” everywhere we look. It will become just another phrase without a lot of meaning to get consumers interest.

It's taken about 30 years for eco-friendly to become mainstream. It makes you wonder what the people who where there at the beginning of the eco-movement are thinking. Stuart Brand, the publisher of the first Whole Earth Catalog recently started to criticize the international environmental movement he helped inspire. He wrote an article in Technology review that might surprise lots of people who have known of Brand and his work all these years.

(DIFM) Do it for me

My latest edition of Nursery Retailer arrived and in the very back, in the section titled "Consumer trend watch" we find a story titled "Today's young homeowners want you to do the dirty work for them". In the article we hear that Generation X and Y want beautiful gardens and outdoor rooms, minus the sweat and hard work that come with them. The article continues, they take interest in environmentally sound gardening and raising organic vegetables and fruits-though they would  probably prefer to hire you to come over and do it for them. Finally this, "and don't even try to tell them they need to learn the Latin name of the ornamental grass they are eyeing across your nursery yard". This last one is interesting as I have never thought anyone needed to learn the Latin names of plants. They should however be available for the consumer when deciding on purchasing a plant. This also sounds like the boomer generation who is getting on in age. As a matter of fact it sounds like just about everyone nowadays. I am not so sure it's just a quality of Gen. X and Y.

O.K. what's a small garden center to do? At first blush you would think the way to capture this market is to have a landscape designer to design their landscape, a crew to install the landscape, and a maintenance division to care for landscape.

The problem with these reports, as they deal with our garden center business is it ignores the more lucrative niche markets that exist within these demographics. Maybe 8 out of 10 Gen X want you to DIFM (Do it for me) but there are 2 out of ten that find the whole notion of DIFM or not getting dirty silly. Why fight the big companies for the DIFM market? Scotts, Depot, Lowes, and the rest are charging straight into the DIFM market.

We think there is a whole sub-culture of people who desperately want to be different than the masses. They see a generation saying DIFM and decide they want to be different. Not getting dirty? Our niche audiences want to get dirty! They want their kid's to learn about dirt and how plants grow. They come to our kid's classes where parents can share with the kids the joy of nature. I read about groups of Gen. X and Y that go and plant abandoned lots in various cities so as to beautify the neighborhood. That's not very DIFM. Our workshops are sometimes more popular with Gen X and Y than the boomers

We believe a lot of these trends are real. DIFM, dropping Latin names, don't want to get dirty, do seem to be happening with much of the population. We don't think however that a small business should be focusing on such a large demographic. Focus instead on the small niche markets that want something different than the masses. These niche markets often cross generational boundaries. Organic gardening, native plants, xeriscape, garden workshops, water gardening, community gardens, and more are enjoyed by members of the Boomer generation as well as Gen. X and Y.

As everyone rushes to address the DIFM, and not getting dirty market small garden centers should be addressing the other markets that get passed over. That's where the action is.

How can we better serve you?

Garden Rant asks “How could garden centers better serve you? We're looking for the Top Five Ways they could improve.” As I scroll down the list there is a theme to the responses. Most want more information about what they are purchasing! A number mention including Latin Names on signage yet this is one area that the garden centers seem to be running away from. From what I read in various trade publications the trend is to drop the Latin names and use only the common names. We are told that the buying public just doesn’t care about Latin names anymore.

Susan, the post author says she wants of garden centers “More information about the plants they sell especially the Latin and correct cultivar name, but also exposure, water requirement and ultimate size.” This theme is echoed in the comments. People do want more information and Garden Centers are the place to provide it, yet we find ourselves told to reduce the amount of information we provide. “Drop the Latin names and watch sales grow” seems to be the mantra.

Some might say that the comments on a site like Garden Rant are those of enthusiasts, not the general buying public. These are exactly the kind of people we need to market to, the enthusiasts. It’s the enthusiasts that spread the word when they discover a “cool” garden center. Enthusiasts are out in the blogosphere spreading the word about the places they like. I don’t think a garden center could stay in business with just the enthusiast’s shopping, but I do think you need the enthusiast to be the voice of the nursery. They are the megaphone that every garden center needs. They will guide others interested in gardening to your store. Much of our business is word of mouth and it’s the enthusiasts that speak for us the loudest. They often bring neighbors new to gardening in to “get them off to the right start”.

I have a fear of following trends. It seems like when ever people follow trends weather it’s the stock market, housing market, or nursery trends they lose. Following trends is following the masses. My garden center is not marketing itself to the masses. I want to market to that 5% of the consumers that appreciate the difference that a well run garden center with lot’s of information offers. Let the other 95% of consumers head to the box stores where no Latin names are found, the staff is less than knowledgeable, and the plants are in need of help. Box stores lead the way in the "no Latin names and little info about the plants they sell" world. Why follow that?

Ask a wine enthusiast what’s important about the wine they drink and they will tell you it’s the taste, but so much more. Where are the grapes from? How are they pruned? How long in the barrel? Skins left on how long? Bottled when? They want to know this stuff. What would they do if you said “Here, just drink this, it tastes good and it’s in a pretty bottle?” They would go elsewhere, where the winery appreciated their interest in learning more about wine and was willing to teach them the nuances. Look to the small wineries with the cult followings to see how smaller garden centers should operate. Sure they may not sell as much as Gallo, but they get a lot more per bottle and they have enthusiasts out spreading the word and bringing new people in to join the wine club all the time.

The new eco-learning centers.

Open register , the blog of Garden Center Magazine asks about the current state of the "Fall is for Planting Campaign". Here in northern California fall is the best time to plant most shrubs, trees, and perennials yet the turnout by the consumer is less than satisfactory.

Of course we in the garden center business have no one to blame but ourselves. Somehow we are not getting the message through to the consumer. The folks at Garden Rant talked about this at length a while ago.

I don't know what the solution is but we are working on educating the customers that wants to be educated, our mailing list. People who receive our e-news and snail mail newsletter have already given us permission to inform them. We will continue to promote this planting season to them as a sort of "secret to success" that only they know about. Let's face it, the vast majority of consumers don't care that fall is for planting. There is a small percentage of the public that will accept the message. We'll focus on those people.

Garden centers need to be the voice of the "outside world". Many people are divorced from the realities of life outside. We think garden centers have a unique opportunity to become sort of "eco-learning centers". As more people feel the need to connect to nature they will want a place to learn, and share in the discovery of gardening and it's relationship to our well being. Garden centers are positioned perfectly to be that place.

We can't rely on horticultural industry marketing for "Fall is for Planting", which has to this point been ineffective. We'll have to go directly to the consumer. We will do this with e-mail newsletters, snail mail newsletters, our web page, my blog, workshops, and speaking engagements. We believe these methods are for us more effective than mass media.

Boomers rejoice, most of you are now Jonesers!

I’ve got some good news for us "baby boomers." Just when we thought we would have to resign ourselves to being “boomers” we are sent a savior! Thanks to Jonathan Pontell we are now the younger and more hip “Generation Jones”. If you are one of the lucky "baby boomer's" aged 41-52 you can leave the boring "boomer" scene for the trendier “Jones Scene”. I couldn’t find out how old Jonathan is but I would like to think that he is a “Joneser”, since only someone in our generational demographic could come up with such a cool way to redefine ourselves.

The celebrities that were lucky enough to be born between those magic years are jumping on board the new demographic. Rosie O'Donnell, Maureen McCormick, (actress Marcia Brady), and George Stephanopoulus (ABC News) have all proclaimed their joy at finally being able to identify with this new demographic. As the Chicago Sun Times say’s, wherever Pontell goes the subject has “people in that age bracket” responding, “Yeah”.

If you we’re one of the boomers that missed this important demographic cutoff all we “Jonesers” can say is “invent your own demographic!” It’s not that hard. The next step will be segmenting each demographic into even smaller segments. I already feel a bit alienated from the “Jonesers” in the over 50 age bracket. The 50, 51, and 52 year olds must have really lobbied hard to be included in ‘our’ demographic.

As a nursery retailer we are told by consultants to discern the subtle and not so subtle differences between "Gen X", "Jones", and "Boomers" so as to be better able to target each of these three demographics properly. This just seems like to much work so I am going to target my demographic, “The Jones”. “Boomers” will want to be seen to be as cool as a “Joneser” so they will respond while “Generation X”, also know as the “lost generation,” will respond to the more mature and self-assured “Jonesers” marketing that we will produce.

The excitement builds as we all rush to focus on this completely new demographic, which apparently has been ignored or not properly focused on until now. You can imagine all the consultant work that will be needed by companies concerned about how best to approach “The Jonesers”.

Home Depot as the "Friendly local retailer"?

Michele at Wonder Branding point's us to Home Depot’s latest attempt to convince us they care. Their “True Stories” ad campaign is part of new CEO Frank Blake’s attempt to, as he say’s “restore the image of Home Depot as the friendly local retailer run by happy, helpful employees.”

I don’t remember the Home Depot that Frank remembers. “Friendly local retailer run by happy, helpful employees”? This is the same Home Depot that over the last 15 years has been called a “category killer”? The only thing that Home Depot has done is work on running most of the local friendly retailers out of business. I’ll admit that some of those retailers needed to go out of business, but to say that Home Depot was ever looked upon as a “local retailer” seems to be stretching it a bit.

We are being inundated by advertising that attempts to paint a picture that is something beyond reality. When Scott’s/ Miracle-Gro President Jim Hagedorn run’s an ad campaign in nursery trade publications saying he “cares about independent garden centers” yet his two biggest customers are Home Depot and Wal-Mart it just doesn’t ring true.

These attempts by large corporations to paint themselves as something they are not is the small and medium size businesses ticket to attracting more consumers. More and more consumers will want to know if the companies they do business with share their values. If their values include trust and the truth then these attempts by Home Depot and Scott’s will fall on deaf ears. When Frank Blake say’s he wants to return to an image of “Home Depot as the friendly local retailer” we friendly local retailers that are still standing know we have been on the right track all along.

Who are we marketing to?

Over at An Alameda Garden Claire posted about her trip to The Nor Cal Show in San Mateo. This is northern California's big nursery trade show.

Claire mentions how at the end of one of the exhibit halls four displays were aimed at appealing to four different demographics. As Claire say's Generation X, Generation Y, the Baby Boomers, and the generation that I fall into, the unfortunately named Jones Generation. How was each presentation supposed to appeal to each group? You got me. All four of them looked interesting but staged and styled beyond any semblance of reality and none of the individual elements seemed to me particularly suited to any special demographic.

I was unable to attend the Nor Cal Show this year so was unable to see the displays. Claire's comments would seem to indicate that this type of marketing is not going to work in our business. I don't see how it's possible to segment our consumers into such fine demographic distinctions. Can anyone say for certainty how Gen. X gardens differently than Generation Jones, or Gen.Y?

Wouldn't it be better to market to a lifestyle that embraces the out of doors whether it is Gen. Y or the Baby Boomers? T here is too much cross over in what each demographic appreciates in a garden to attempt to segment the consumers into such narrow divisions.

Wouldn't a display aimed at Generation Y appeal to Baby Boomers looking for what's new and hip. How about a display aimed at Baby Boomers that appeal to Gen Y that is looking for something they think of as retro? A modern, colorful, well thought out display should have good crossover appeal to every generation.

We can build our nursery displays in a way that we think appeals to the young and hip Generation Jones, yet I bet most of the purchases out of that display will be made by Baby Boomer's, since they account for the largest segment of our sales in the nursery. Claire couldn't quite discern how each display related to that generation, and the consumer won't either.

P.S.

I have added a link after Carol mentioned in the comments she hadn't heard of "The Jones Generation." Linda, who's comments also appear below left this link to Jonathan Pontell's web site. He first coined the term "Jones Generation." I made the mistake in the post of assuming that "The Jones Generation" was a younger demographic. It's actually used to describe the ages 41 and 52 which puts me smack dab in the middle.