Economic Impacts of the Green Industry in the - Urban Forest ...

6. Results for the Wholesale and Retail Trade Sectors
A total of seven sectors comprise the U.S. horticultural wholesale and retail trade industries: 1) wholesale flower,
nursery stock & florist supply; 2) wholesale lawn & garden equipment; 3) retail lawn and garden supply stores; 4)
retail building materials and supply stores; 5) florists; 6) retail food and beverage stores; and 7) retail general
merchandise stores. The first two sectors are wholesale establishments that provide horticultural products and
services to the retail sector, including plant material, chemical and fertilizer supplies, and various types of lawn
and garden equipment. Retail lawn and garden supply stores are independent and chain stores that sell primarily
horticultural goods and services to end consumers. Retail building materials and supply stores are largely home
improvement centers, such as Lowes, Home Depot, and Ace Hardware, all of which have lawn and garden
centers. Retail food and beverage stores focus mostly on food items, but increasingly are including a floral section
and seasonal landscape plant material. Examples of these stores are Albertson’s, Publix, Safeway, Winn Dixie,
and Kroger. The last category, retail general merchandise stores would include large chain stores such as Wal-
Mart and Target.
Table 6-1 presents summary information on the number of establishments, paid employees, annual payroll, and
output gross margin for the seven industry sectors for horticultural goods. More than 116,000 establishments
represent the wholesale and retail trade sectors. In terms of employment, two sectors accounted for 55 percent of
all employees (510,512) hired by the industry. The largest of these was the retail lawn and garden supply stores
which accounted for one third (171,149) of the total, followed by florists with nearly 113,929 (22 percent of the
total). Sectors with the smallest number of paid workers were the retail food and beverage stores, and wholesale
lawn and garden equipment stores. Annual payroll ranged from a high of $3.9 billion for the retail lawn and
garden supply stores to a low of $343 million for retail food and beverage stores. In terms of per capita
compensation (annual payroll divided by number employees), the two wholesale sectors paid nearly double the
wages of the five retail sectors. Output gross margins varied from a high of $9.5 billion for retail lawn and garden
supply stores to a low of $917 million for retail food and beverage stores. Output gross margin generated per
employee averaged $45,000 for all seven sectors, but ranged from a low of $25,000 for florists to a high of
$110,000 for wholesale lawn and garden equipment stores.
Table 6-1. Output, Employment and Payroll in the U.S. Environmental Horticulture Wholesale
and Retail Trade Sectors, 2002
Output-
Industry Sector
Annual Gross
Establishments
Employees
Paid
Payroll Margin on
($Mn) Sales
($Mn)
Wholesale Flower, Nursery Stock & Florist Supply 4,816 60,010 1,645 2,094
Wholesale Lawn & Garden Equipment 4,041 29,102 984 3,187
Retail Lawn and Garden Supply Stores 21,065 171,149 3,922 9,503
Retail Building Materials and Supply Stores * 18,623 60,450 1,673 4,108
Florists 22,753 113,929 1,550 2,904
Retail Food and Beverage Stores* 22,465 19,222 343 917
Retail General Merchandise Stores Sector* 22,710 56,651 993 2,544
Total Wholesale and Retail Trade 116,473 510,512 11,110 25,257
*Estimated payroll and employment proportional to merchandise or product line sales as share of total sales.
Sources: 2002 Economic Census (US Census Bureau)
Economic impacts of the U.S. wholesale and retail trade sectors for horticultural goods are presented in Table 6-2.
This industry group accounted for 37 percent of total output impacts of the U.S. Green Industry, and nearly half
(47 percent) of all jobs. It also contributed over $35 billion in value added, representing 37 percent of the Green
Industry total. Of the seven sectors comprising the wholesale and retail trade industry, retail lawn and garden
supply stores were the most prominent, comprising 42 percent of output impacts, 47 percent of all jobs, and
paying 70 percent of all indirect business taxes. The second most important group was the retail building
materials and supply stores, contributing nearly one-fifth of output impacts, 14 percent of employment, and 17
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