Reliability, customer service, and quality products is always expected when shopping at the Peter Knippel Garden Centre. The business has been serving the city of Ottawa for 59 years. Since moving to their new location, 4590 Bank St. in 1979, they have been one of the most trusted sources for garden materials in the areas. While committed to providing the best for their loyal customers, 2020 has proved to be an effort for the Garden Centre due to the challenges the pandemic has imposed. This in turn has affected the business’ operating measures.
History and past
Peter Knippel Garden Centre was founded by Peter Knippel in 1961. They started by providing plant material and landscape services to the public. In 1979, he and his wife Joan Johnston opened this garden centre on Bank Street, where they remain. Since 2001, Joan’s son Kennedy has also been on the management team. Ever since, they have been serving thousands of loyal customers around the south end of the city.
Beth Denis, a member of the admin team, who has worked there for over 10 years, spoke about their great relationship with all of their customers. “It is refreshing seeing the same faces back every year, and some new ones as well. Many customers this year have expressed how thankful they are that we opened up.” She also expressed how it is these customers who make her job so great, as they not only contribute to the business but create real, quality relationships with the employees.
Customers shared a lot of the same concerns as the management team did. They did not know whether the business would be able to open, and how that would impact them in the future. With so many small-medium businesses struggling financially during COVID, Knippel’s was fortunate to be able to open up, and have a phenomenal year. With so many people gardening at home due to travelling restrictions, business became surprisingly better than usual, despite the doubt surrounding this year.
Across the city, they have been known for excellent products and even better customer service. They are revered for not only a great variety, but top-notch quality when it comes to all of their plant materials.
Changes and future
With the COVID-19 pandemic, Knippel’s had to change their way of business for much of the Spring. This began with a phase of online orders, which manager Kennedy Johnston described as a “very difficult adjustment.” He explained how they had customers come to the garden centre for curbside pickup, causing some days to be extremely busy and hectic. With no new hires due to the pandemic, staff was stretched thin during these busy months. In early May, they were finally able to open up to the public.
With online ordering however, especially with plant materials, there are a few issues. Most of the purchases made by customers are typically based on seeing the selection and choosing specific items based on appearance. During these difficult months, the online store has required customers to shop based simply off pictures of one of each type of plant, without knowing whether their order will look the exact same. For the employees, many have had to be trained and instructed to run the online store. “they have been so important for us. Some of them had no experience operating any interactive sites before, but learned early this Spring to help us out.”
Joan Johnston, owner of the garden centre also praised her staff “they are incredibly hard-working, we could not have made it through this year without them.” She also spoke about how knowledgeable and reliable their staff is, part of what makes their business run so smoothly. To her, their ability to adjust this year was so impressive, and paramount to the business surviving.
Quite a few day-to-day changes have been made at the garden centre to ensure the safety of both employees and customers during this summer. To begin, they changed their opening hours from a previous 8 a.m. – 8 p.m., to 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. This has helped save time for sanitation, as well as limiting the staff needed to come in and out of the store daily.
Sanitation has been prioritized both during the day as well as after closing. Thorough cleaning of carts, debit machines and other surfaces have become a part of daily routine. This has helped both customers and employees feel more comfortable while shopping and working at the garden centre.
Ordering products have been a huge problem during the pandemic as well, as the impact was felt by major production companies and growers as well. These include Connon nurseries and Sheridan nurseries. Usually, the selection at Knippel’s is unrivaled, with a wide variety of plant material to satisfy their many customers. However, with COVID-19 related production delays for many of these big companies, along with impacts on delivery companies and drivers, this led to many complications, Kennedy explained “it was great to open up to the public, but we couldn’t provide the same selection as we typically do. The demand was simply higher than the supply this year.”
Looking forward to the future, many of the changes required to battle through this pandemic as a business will continue. For starters, online shopping is going to be an option from now on, as many customers may not want to return to stores for a long period of time. The same employees who worked on the online store will do so in the future, as Knippel’s continuously expands and adapts their business.
To view the online store and the rest of Knippel’s site, check the link here! https://www.knippelgardencentre.com/