When I read the story, particularly when seeing the carts loaded with plants in plastic containers, I can understand the author’s frustration and concern about the wasted materials and potential negative effects of the plastic containers on the environment, as they may all go to landfill. These are common responses from regular citizens to such phenomena. However, this is not something unique to plants at garden centers. Such things also occur to fresh produce at retail stores, and the losses could reach billions of dollars according to USDA data.
Such a phenomenon is called SHRINKAGE, as one reader pointed out through the comments. Shrinkage is the loss of products during the process of production, supply chain, and at retail stores. The loss of those plants at the retail stores is unfortunate, but part of the process and out of the control of growers/suppliers. The percentage of shrinkage is around 11-12% for fresh produce, and similar for ornamental plants. As the wholesale growers, they are aware of this loss when planting their crops!
There is a business relationship between the ornamental growers and the retailers, which is called ‘Consignment Sales’. This is how it works: (1) the retailer pays the vendor only after the product is sold to a customer; (2) the retailer keeps a percentage of the sale, and the supplier receives the remaining amount; (3) if the items do not sell, the retailer typically has the option of how to deal with those unsold items. Retailers usually throw away those perishable items, like living plants and fresh produce.
Why do wholesale growers prefer this way of selling their plants? This is largely due to a relatively short selling window for living ornamental plants: they can deliver their plants to the market as soon as possible. It is the chain of retail stores over a wide area that can help growers achieve this goal.
Maybe it is not the perfect system to minimize such loss of plants and provide maximized profit to ornamental growers; however, this business model may provide mutual benefit to both sides and satisfy their business needs. As an agent working with the ornamental industry, I do hope there is a way to motivate the retailers to make extra effort in providing the best care to the plants and promoting their sales so that ornamental growers can receive some extra profit for their hard work.
In addition, there is research on growing plants in biodegradable containers to reduce the potential adverse effects of plastic containers on the environment. It is also possible that garden centers can help reuse those plastic containers and recycle the plant and soil materials through composting. We all can do our part to make the least impact on our environment, and we hope for the best!
Here is the original story:
Frustrated Home Depot employee shares photo of countless carts full of gardening products wasted for no good reason: ‘Not our call’
Susan Elizabeth Turek
Sat, August 30, 2025 at 6:00 AM EDT
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/frustrated-home-depot-employee-shares-100000537.html
1
