The complete package
Kris Shepard, president of Alsip Home & Nursery, oversees operations at the business’ two locations in Frankfort, Ill., and St. John, Ind. Over the past decade, Alsip’s retail focus has broadened to include pet, toy and home décor merchandise. Both stores enjoy a solid customer base.
“The two locations aren’t much different,” Shepard said. “They have the same product mix essentially. The St. John store is slightly smaller in indoor-retail square footage, but has a larger selection of bulk materials since we have several more acres of outdoor selling space at this location.
“The demographics are similar in both stores. We did our homework in advance of opening the second location [in 1994] to make sure the demographics fit our business model. The town of St. John is in the top 2 percent of the entire state in median income.”
While the business has evolved to offer many product categories, we still consider our store first and foremost a “garden center” in every sense; it is the heart of the business. We work hard to offer the best quality and selection of plant material, hard goods and expert service that our customers would expect to find at a garden center. We don’t want to give them a reason to go somewhere else to complete their project. People garden for many reasons—to beautify and add value to their home, to grow food, etc. But no matter what the reason, we find our customers are passionate about what they’re doing. Our other product categories are the same, especially our pet department. People are passionate about their pets. So, we do our best to hire employees that share those passions.
