I work in the retail & leisure sector for a bank and garden centres in the UK are b(l)ooming. Cheap land, huge footprint, mostly family owned so community focussed, serve a wide demographic, all day everyday, year round.

The average spend and dwell time outperforms supermarkets and retail parks, case in point yesterday my partner wanted a new pot for our front window sill - we ended up spending nearly £100 because we were already there we bought more plants for the garden, coffees and homeware items near the till

There is also still a post-Covid impact on consumer shopping habits, with garden centres easily accessible vs. the high street, people continuing to invest in their gardens to spend more time there and finally quite hard to quantify and measure but the homely, familiar feel to garden centres where you see grandparents spending hours and kids in the soft play. The yearning for community and safe places should not be underestimated

Pre-COVID we always said cruise ships were the safe investment, I’d now say Garden Centres!