To bring inspiration to our members we yearly organize a Retail Safari. Members are invited to participate this 3 day trip to an inspiring city and its surroundings. The Efsa organization coordinates the trip and prepares a program full of retail inspiration and insights. In general, one day we visit a city where we can find nice retail concepts and the other day we visit several garden centers/retail in the area.
All this, of course, in combination with good company of industry peers we share, among other things, knowledge and insights on sustainability issues, HRM and developments in garden centers, accompanied with good lunches and dinners.
This Spring, May 13-15, we visited Paris. We explored the full spectrum of retail and visited well-known icons and less obvious locations. We visited retail, hospitality and other places of interest in the city. Leading stores in flowers, plants, interior design, fashion and much more. We went to impressive department stores, such as the more classic department stores Bon Marché and BHV, as well as more trendy shopping concepts such as Le Samaritaine, BAC117 and Merci. We moved around the city by bicycle and on foot. It was interesting to learn from other industries.
The second full day we visited garden retailers, DIY and large-scale retail in the periphery of Paris by bus. We learned more about the French garden market and visited garden centers such as Jardainerie Poullain Maurepas and Les Fermesde Gally.
We look back on an inspiring and valuable Retail Safari!
