Many people commented on how much they liked the new venue—Woodmont Hills Church and the ample free parking with easy access.

 

Certainly, there were some things at the sale that we would have like to improve in the future.

 

1. Length of entry line. We were so happy to have a great turnout for the sale.  Line up needed to be coordinated better with a clear line path. This was our first year at this site and we frankly just hadn’t anticipated the issue,

 

2. Length of the check-out lines.  Yes, the lines were long to check out.  We had an internet outage soon after checkout began and had to quickly set up hot sports so there was a delay. We had tested it earlier and all had been fine. Obviously, we regret that delay and will have hotspots ready next year.  In addition, the new smaller space only allowed for six checkers.  We have already reviewed our plans to find a place to add an additional checker or maybe two next year.  That should speed up the line.

 

We heard that a few people had to leave to me other commitments.  To help make the sale more accessible, we hope to open at 8 a.m. next year.  We are also exploring the option of an early evening buy on Friday evening to accommodate those who work or have family activities on Fri, Finally, since many people arrive at the same time, they are ready to check out at the same time, which means many are ready to check out at the same time.  We have tried letting people in in groups before but got negative responses from customers.  

 

3. On the numbers of plants. Ideally all our customers would find every plant they want. Unfortunately, one of our vendors failed to deliver about 25 percent of our ordered plants so there were fewer plants than we had planned.  We are already in discussions to prevent this from happening again. Another factor is that because this is a one-day sale, we try to order with the idea of selling everything in one day.  Unlike a store, we don’t have an inventory as such.  We also were cautious in ordering because last year we had plants left over.  Finally, with generally higher costs of other things like gas and groceries, we are concerned that people might not have as much to spend on plants. The combination of these three things meant that later customers didn’t have a big selection.  We are truly sorry both because we want our fellow gardeners to be happy with just the plant they want. and because we make less money for our scholarships when we sell less. We have already discussed the need to order more plants next year so that customers will have a larger selection.  That said. our long-time customers know that many come early so have the best choices.

 

We are so appreciative of every gardener who came to our sale and sincerely hope they had a good experience and a wonderful garden this summer.  We have already reached out the Woodmont Hills and hope to have our 34th annual sale there on April 3, 2027. We hope we see all of this year’s gardeners there next year to buy the many more plants we intend to offer.  Thank you all again for your support of PPS.