Understanding Ornamental Plant Market Shares to Rewholesaler, Retailer, and Landscaper Channels

Abstract

Market channel alternatives that include garden centers, landscapers, mass merchandisers, and rewholesalers have contributed to the growth of ornamental crops sales in the United States. The impact of growers' business characteristics on shares of sales to these channels by firm size was estimated using the two-limit Tobit model. Important explanatory variables were regions of the United States, sales of plant groups, kinds of contract sales, and channel diversity. There were important differences in behavior by grower size. Overall, the results indicate a stronger than expected role for the rewholesaler channel as a preferred channel for ornamental plant sales.