The average homeowner spends about 4 hours a week on lawn and garden activities. According to the 2013 National Gardening Association Survey, do-it-yourself lawn and garden activities showed an increase of 2 million more households (2%) in 2012 compared with the year before, translating into an extra $354 million (1%) in retail sales of Lawn and Garden products across the nation. In total, U.S. households spent $29.5 billion on their lawns and gardens last year. This has translated into more dollars invested into lawn and garden displays at retail.
A new survey question added last year and continued in 2013 asked households how much they spent at each type of retailer selling lawn and garden products confirmed that big-box stores and mass retailers account for the largest share of lawn and garden retail sales. The 2013 National Gardening Survey found that U.S. households spent more at Home Improvement Centers (27% of the total gardening retail market) and at Mass Merchants (20%) than they did at local Garden Centers and Nurseries (17%) or local Hardware Stores (15%).
Many industry insiders have speculated about this shift in market ″channel″ share for years, and the 2013 National Gardening Survey has confirmed their suspicions. With a collective 47% share, large national chains now drive the L&G market. This market share data has not been collected before in this or any similar survey and will give industry insiders something to think about.
The 18-34 year old group of householders cite their local Hardware Store as their preferred lawn and garden supplier (21% of sales), ahead of Home Centers (13% of sales) and Mass Merchants (15% of sales).