This year the question on everyone’s lips became “how is your spring going?” Anxiety ruled before the season began, with retailers unsure how customers battered by a recession would react to garden offerings.

Many thought it could go either way – the ‘staycation’ could rule, or the weather and economy could combine to wreak havoc on the industry.

Fortunately for most retailers, it appears the staycation won out over the big, bad wolf of the economy in many instances. The numbers tell the tale, but overall it appears retailers were mostly satisfied with the results of spring 2009.

“Customers remain cautious, but once they make the decision to buy they seem no less willing to spend money on quality to get value,” observes one retailer who took our Industry Pulse survey in June.

About 207 retailers from all regions of the country responded to that survey’s questions about category trending, just-in-time deliveries, overall sales and other observations about spring. For purposes of data collection, we defined spring as March through May, but obviously some regions start earlier and end later than others. So what follows is only a snapshot of those three key months.

To start, the numbers show us everything we’d been hearing anecdotally rang true in terms of foot traffic increasing. More than 60 percent of those who responded said their foot traffic was up this spring over last spring, while 16 percent said it was flat. About 21 percent said it had decreased in some way.

On the other hand, we had been hearing that average ticket was down this year. According to the numbers, 41 percent reported their average ticket was up over spring 2008, while about 20 percent said it was flat. About 39 percent reported it below spring 2008 figures.

Overall, more than half of the retailers who responded said their sales increased for the March to May timeframe over last year. About 11 percent were flat and 33 percent were down over spring 2008.

“We feel that we are ‘holding our own’ in spite of many challenges,” writes one retailer. “Overall, we are doing better than in 2008, although we still have the second half to get through. For many of our customers, gardening seems to be a necessity and they would do without other things in order to continue gardening.”

Veggie & Herb Craze

We can officially call herbs and vegetables the big spring trend with 60 percent of respondents saying their sales in this area increased by 10 percent or more. All told, 87 percent said they saw some sort of increase in herb and veggie sales.

Herbs and veggies were also in short supply in some areas thanks to the increase in demand. Of those retailers who saw shortages in live goods, about 70 percent said herbs and vegetables were the most difficult to come by.

“Our products will always be needed,” said one retailer. “The very affordable: vegetables, fruits, herbs, etc. are decidedly increasing with the younger generations’ purchases. The folks with expendable income are still spending it, also!”

The Economy

Though the recession didn’t seem to factor into getting customers into the stores as much as feared, it did impact sales of big-ticket items like trees, shrubs, statuary and garden art, furniture, water gardening, tools, pottery and gifts. These categories were down the most compared to spring 2008 for a quarter or more of the retailers who responded.

The sale-only mentality pervaded even the most affluent shoppers this spring, a trend that many worried would continue off a holiday season rife with deep discounts.

“My best customers were spending less,” reported one retailer from metropolitan New York. “Customers that used to spend $1,000 to $2,000 in the planting season cut back to $200 to $300. These large stock market spenders have been hit hard.”

Another retailer said: “For us, plant sales continue to grow. Big-ticket items like fountains and outdoor furniture have all but stopped.”

The Impact?

One interesting trend on the retailer side was the amount of just-in-time buying utilized on the live goods purchasing side. More than 60 percent said they used just-in-time for a majority of live goods buying this spring.

Few complained of lack of availability for annuals and perennials, and of those who did it this year, nearly 90 percent said they would do it again next year. This signals a shift in the buying philosophy. Will a shift in the supply channel be necessary to accommodate it?

Only spring 2010 will answer that.