Member Profile:
Katie Cantrell, Lead Merchandiser & Gift Department Head
Martin’s Home & Garden, Murfreesboro, TN
Nashville-Area Indie ‘Where Beauty & Quality
Meet’ Wins the Hearts – and Sales – of the
Community
More than three decades ago, John and Helen Martin
opened a roadside stand that sold seasonal produce and
bedding plants. Since then, Martin’s Home & Garden has
grown into an award-winning gardening supplier, nursery
and hardscaping company for the Murfreesboro community.
Martin’s is the area’s full-service resource for annuals,
bedding plants, herbs, perennials, shrubs, outdoor living and
much more - bringing to life the tagline, “Where Beauty &
Quality Meet,” which independent garden retailers will get to
experience in person this June, as the store is a featured
destination on the 2019 GCA Summer Tour Nashville.
The store’s annuals are their best-sellers and the pride of the
business, according to Katie Cantrell, Lead Merchandiser and
Head of the Gift Department. Annual hanging baskets and
mums come in a close second. The greenhouse is a profit
house for Martin’s, generating one-third of sales, she says.
The Martin family grows some of its own plant material for
the business on their farm, which is located about 30 miles
away in Woodbury, TN. In the spring, they grow vinca
baskets and 3,000 Wave petunia baskets. Mums are grown
in the fall – and they’re easily some of the largest mums
offered in the area.
On top of their quality plant material, Martin’s stands out
from the competition by offering fresh produce locally
grown by Amish farmers and other grocery items in the
store’s newly revamped Market, which also carries gifts, wind
chimes, local honey, personal care items made with farm-
fresh ingredients and more.
Over the course of three months last year, Katie turned
Martin’s gift shop from a dark, drab space into a profitable
category for the retailer. She repainted the area in a neutral
gray with blue undertones, added new product lines and
decluttered the space to open it up more. During The
Market’s renovation, Katie made sure to create a new space
for houseplants, dedicating a quarter-size larger footprint
and bringing in more unique varieties.
Since then, houseplants have taken off, with sales up 80
percent. “We’ve definitely noticed more interest in
houseplants, especially from Millennials,” Katie says. “But
they really don’t know what they’re doing with houseplants,
so we brought in some books about them, and we also have
a houseplant specialist in the gift shop for advice – she has
been crucial.”
Martin’s is all about creating that unique in-store experience
to encourage repeat visits. Katie believes the basis of all
exceptional shopping experiences begin with customer
service.
“It’s just so important to have employees who want to help
the customers and don’t have that fake customer service
attitude,” she says. “They genuinely want to talk to people
about the plants they’re buying and give suggestions. It’s
huge that our employees have a passion for this, which
translates to the customers, making for a good customer
service experience.”
The retailer also takes care of its customers, offering them
samples of their produce, coffees, apple cider and other
goodies. “We’ve found if shoppers are walking around with a
cup of coffee, they’re going to spend longer in the store,”
says Katie.
Unlike other independent garden centers, Martin’s has the
ability to create unique, custom, one-of-a-kind displays and
fixtures that cater to their store layout. The Martin family has
several masons and carpenters, who are able to build any
fixture that Katie dreams up.
In fact, the garden center has plans to build a permanent
pergola in the perennials area, as well as fix up the storefront
by planting raised beds to showcase the entrance. They plan
on converting a large barn at the back of the property into a
new classroom space, too.
While these short-term updates help improve the store and
shopping experience, the retailer has its eyes set on the
future and how it can better serve its customer base. Within
the next five to 10 years, second-generation Owner Lester
Martin wants to expand to a second location.
Keeping an eye on the industry has helped Martin’s stay
updated and on top of consumer gardening trends – but it’s
the GCA Summer Tour that motivated the retailer to see
what they could improve and jumpstart the store
renovations.
“I took 700 photos on last year’s GCA Summer Tour Seattle,”
Katie says. “Seattle is just beautiful, and the garden centers
were breathtaking.”
As the Lead Merchandiser and Head of the Gift Department,
Katie was focused on each stop’s interior, so she took a lot of
ideas away on signage and displays. “Sky Nursery was my
favorite for signage.”
She continues, “It was nice to meet and talk to a lot of the
merchandisers. I’m the only merchandiser for our store, so
it’s been a little overwhelming at times for me to manage.
Being able to talk to other merchandisers who have been
doing it for a while was really huge for me.
“Plus, it helps show the owner examples of what they were
doing and what we could be doing. Instead of the same old
rows of flats, they were doing a lot more dynamic displays.
Getting the full experience of walking through those garden
centers really helped me figure out what our direction
should be here.”
In just a couple of months, the GCA Summer Tour buses will
be heading to the Nashville area, stopping by Martin’s, and
Katie will get to see what it’s like on the other side of the
tour.
“It will be nice to get outsider perspectives on the flow of our
store,” she says. “I’ve kind of struggled with the way the store
is set up. It’s going to be really nice to hear others’ opinions.”
Beyond offering affordable discounts on the GCA Summer
Tours, being a part of America’s only association dedicated
solely to the needs of independent garden centers, Garden
Centers of America, has helped Katie and other staff
members garner ideas for their own projects back at the
store.
“Honestly, it kick-started our whole renovation on
everything, and I think that’s going to be really profitable for
us, because we’re going to have better displays, space and
store layout,” she says. “It all comes down to the
membership.”
Katie wasn’t always a part of the garden center industry, and
she admits the opportunity to join it “fell into her lap.”
“It was meant to be,” she says. “I came from a lot of
corporate backgrounds. I spent a few years in large
corporate retail, and sitting inside a cubicle was just so
depressing to me. I’ve always loved being outside.”
Katie started her merchandising career as a visual advisor for
Kirkland’s before moving on to be a distribution analyst.
Then, she took a position as a space planner for Tractor
Supply. “That was a little bit more fun, but I didn’t get to
physically set the product, which is what I most enjoy.”
She continues, “But it really worked out very well, because all
the experiences I gained working there have helped
significantly here at Martin’s.”
Her experiences in corporate retail have helped improve
store practices at Martin’s, as well as modified the way
department managers ran their categories so that they were
more efficient.
Now that she’s situated in the independent garden center
industry, Katie isn’t going anywhere.
“This job opened up, and I took a leap of faith and just dove
right into it,” she says. “I love it. When we went on the GCA
Summer Tour Seattle last year, I fell in love with it even more.
I love everything about this industry, and I’ll probably stay
here for the rest of my career.”
GCA MEMBER PROFILE