Is the traditional "growshop" dead?

[seymore_budz]

Hello Growmies,

I remember when I first discovered growshops exist! When I first started, I used to buy my equipment from garden centers. After a while, I met a few guys that used to travel to Sunlight systems to buy equipment. I was blown away by what I saw :) All of the fancy hydroponics equipment and Supernova air-cooled reflectors I also had the privilege of working in one for many years before moving into other fields.

I travelled down to the shop I used to work at a few months ago for a coffee and a chat and got onto the subject. They're struggling to get the customers through the door. The guy now runs another wholesale business as well as the growshop, so travels up and down the UK, visiting shops and talking to the owners and said that a lot of the shops he's visiting are saying the same. He said that many are folding and the ones that are still open are run by Albanians supplying their own grows etc.

That got me thinking; is the traditional growshop dead?! The world is a different place now with much more information accessible online and the price war rages on, so quite often products are cheaper online. I'm guilty of shifting my purchasing habits online. I recently moved to compressed Coco. The only thing I used to buy from a growshop was fertiliser, but I'm moving over to dry fertiliser that can be shipped though the normal postal service for free.

What are your thoughts guys? Do growshop owners need to rethink their business model? Will we see a time where there are no growshops left?

[JJ]

In ohigho my growshop is selling seeds now since canna went legal. They sell everything else too,from lights n tents to nutes and filters. and soils.. First time I went in I didn't know if I could talk cannabis..which i did anyway...but all is good now
They even have a grow show once a year with vendors showing up..free samples..soil,nutes...last year I won big on raffle tics

[seymore_budz]

In ohigho my growshop is selling seeds now since canna went legal. They sell everything else too,from lights n tents to nutes and filters. and soils.. First time I went in I didn't know if I could talk cannabis..which i did anyway...but all is good now
They even have a grow show once a year with vendors showing up..free samples..soil,nutes...last year I won big on raffle tics

Back in the day the growshops here did too. We used to sell, equipment, seeds, books and even hemp clothing and bongs. One day some official police guy turned up all suited and booted and told us to take everything down and to stop selling one or the other immediately or he would seek prosecution for incitement. That's when we switched from calling plants Canna to tomatoes lol Similar thing happened to the guy that sold the ADF foil. Had to remove anything relating to hiding heat signatures from any marketing or packaging.

[Grumpy Toad]

I had a shop less than 5 minutes from the house. Minimal selection & the kid that worked there had no advise other than read the labels. That place folded and now it's a 30 plus minutes drive each way to one of two shops. Honestly these days it's mostly Amazon & the local Lowes or Home Depot for hardware and such. If I had a shop open closer I'd use it just to be supportive but cost is always a consideration.

[seymore_budz]

I had a shop less than 5 minutes from the house. Minimal selection & the kid that worked there had no advise other than read the labels. That place folded and now it's a 30 plus minutes drive each way to one of two shops. Honestly these days it's mostly Amazon & the local Lowes or Home Depot for hardware and such. If I had a shop open closer I'd use it just to be supportive but cost is always a consideration.

Wagwan @Grumpy Toad. Amazon is killing a lot of local businesses, but I'm guilty of using Amazon a lot. I can order pretty much anything and have it the next day and for cheaper.

I think all of the knowledgeable staff working the counters have either moved up into management or moved on. The margins are so tight, it's a struggle to pay someone over minimum wage.

[Herbalist]

We had 4 hydro shops in my area pre-scamdemic now we are down to 1

Is a nice enough place and the 2 older guys that work there seem quite knowledgeable. The young lads, not so much.

Is defo not as easy or as cheap as amazon though. And there is nowhere near the variety of choice but it's nice to speak to people, and more importantly, i like to pay in cash whenever possible. The guy that owns it will also take payment in bitcoin, It's a very popular shop for my local Albanians.

I thought about opening one a few times but they never seem to last very long. Thought about getting a little warehouse unit and creating an online shop too but commercial properties around here are ridiculous money. £20,000pa for 800sq ft

Maybe one day, if the economy turns around or i move somewhere cheaper.

[biosynthetic]

I mainly just buy 45l bags of hydrococo from the grow shop unless it's an emergency or something, the nutrients that I use are not very popular in the UK so I would have to travel quite far to get them so I just buy the 5 litre bottles online which last me around 2 years. Nearly all the equipment and feeds that I need are all from ebay, apart from the lighting and ventilation and tent which I get online as well. I think the only reason I don't buy bags of coco online is because it's a bit more dodgy if the neighbours see you getting it delivered frequently, as I buy new coco for every run. Really should be reusing it but it's too much hassle cheers

[2-Scoops]

My 2 local grow shops both sell online nowadays too. But yes I remember first shop in our city they had a market stall and i only remember that they sold grow-tec and vitalink ferts i can remeber all shelves stack with those, but everyone i knew who grew then used vitalink anyhow. Those 2 small market stall guys ended up owning biggest hydro shop in city in a big ass warehouse and they sold it on at right time to Greens maybe 8 to 10 years back, they struck whiile iron was hot i suppose. Anyhow on a personal level i still like to go grow shop for my coco and other bits n bobs but in past few years even my old fashioned ways i find changing using online more than ever to buy stuff.