Meet Me in the Gift Shop: Bok Tower Gardens

Bok Tower Gardens


Photo courtesy of http://downtownlakewales.com/bok-tower-gardens/

Bok Tower Gardens
1151 Tower Blvd.
Lake Wales, FL 33853

boktowergardens.org

AT A GLANCE: Bok Tower Gardens
Date of Visit:	Sunday, December 18, 2016
Parking	Plentiful and free, onsite parking.
Amount of time needed to peruse exhibits:	120 – 180 minutes (2 – 3 hours)
Amount of time needed for gift shop	35 - 50 minutes
Dress code	Again, dress tastefully. This is a “higher end” gift shop and museum.
Be sure to…..	· Sit a spell and watch wildlife from a comfortable vantage point at the Window by the Pond. · Take a self-guided tour of Pinewood Estates (Note: between 12 noon and 2:00 pm are the busiest hours). · Find a bench in a shady spot at 1:00 or 3:00 by the Singing Tower to hear carillon music.
Nearby/other establishments to visit	Like the Reptile World Serpentarium, nothing is less than a 30-minute drive away.
Walkability, general downtown area / amount of traffic	You’ll need a car or other transport.
Safety, in terms of type and number of crimes committed in general area	Generally safe. Even though you are a distance away from any crowds, practice the normal precautions of stowing your valuables out of sight and locking your car.

Edward Bok was the editor of the Ladies Home Journal for 30 years (1889 – 1919), and a philanthropist at heart. Bok purchased 250 acres of land on some of scrub land on Florida’s highest peninsular elevation for the view. Mind you, this is 295 feet above mean sea level. Many of your driveways are higher above sea level than this. Regardless, Bok hired a team to transform this sandy and meager area into public gardens. Bok Tower Gardens opened in 1929, which was the same year that Henry Ford opened Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan in a comraderic spirit of benevolence toward the public. Many know of Bok through this oft-recited quote:

“Make you the world a bit better or more beautiful because you have lived in it.”

Bok Tower Gardens were created along these lines, with outstanding success with the help of Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. Olmsted Sr. is credited as being the father of landscape architecture, designing New York’s Central Park and inspiring the Belle Isle State Park located in the Detroit River. Olmsted Jr. was famous and talented in his own right, and all we need to do is meander around the Bok Tower Gardens as proof of his legacy.

Inspirational words from Edward Bok.

Entry view.

More entry views.

Spanish moss.

On to shopping.

This week, we’ll use the lens of retail analysis to look at the Bok Tower gift shop, by using two common metrics: traffic, and conversion. “Traffic” is how many people walked through the door into the shop. If two women walk through the door, your traffic count is 2. If a group of two adults and eight children walked through the door, the traffic count is 10. Conversion is another way we look retail sales. Of all the people who entered the store, how many of them purchased something? Using the above example, if the original two women in the shop each bought something, the conversion rate is 100% (two customers, two purchases). In the second example, if one purchase was made between those ten people, your conversion rate is 10% (ten customers, one purchase). If no one buys anything, your conversion rate is zero. Simply put, conversion is how many visitors you converted to buying customers. The higher the conversion rate, the more money your shop makes. Logically, traffic and conversion should go hand-in-hand: the more people who enter your shop equals more opportunities to convert your traffic into sales. The average conversion for a brick and mortar shop is 20%, and the average conversion for online sales is 2-3%. Sadly, this doesn’t hold true in the case of the Bok Tower gift shop. . I estimate that 30 people were in the shop, yet no one bought anything. For the 45 minutes that I was shopping or observing, the conversion rate never rose above 0%

The Bok Tower gift shop is baffling. You’ll most likely stop in your tracks upon entering the Bok Tower gift shop, but please don’t. You’ll block the entryway and people will run into you. Step to the side and let your eyes take in all of the beautiful items for sale. It’s often crowded, yet I didn’t see anyone make a purchase or leave with a shopping bag. Visitors browse the entire, then leave. Why? Let’s see if we can break this down and reach some sort of understanding as to why this happens. To begin with, does the gift shop have the trifecta of refrigerator magnets, shot glass, and branded wearables? I didn’t see magnets, but I did see nightlights sporting the Bok Tower logo, so I’ll count this as a “yes.” The gift shop also gets a “yes” for shot glasses and a variety of branded wearables.

Let’s move on to the Phase 2 questions, where we rank our answers on a scale of 1 – 10, with 10 being the highest score.

How well does the gift shop support the mission of the gardens?	10
How is the quality of merchandise?	9
How is the quantity of merchandise?	10
Overall aesthetics?	5
How does the merchandise “fit” visitor demographics?10	10
How would you rate the “vibe?”	5
How is the variety of items for sale?	10
How about the % of shop dedicated toward children?	8

These responses begin to shed light on our dilemma of a crowded, well-stocked shop where few buy anything. The Bok Tower gift shop ranks high on quality and mix of merchandise, yet ranks low on aesthetics and vibe.

According to my previous research, a gift shop should sell items that educate and create curiosity. It should support the brand (image) of the site. Gift shops give tourists a reason to linger, to soak up the essence of an area, and to perhaps spend more money. Why is this important? Word of mouth advertising means a higher probability of new customers as well as return trips for former visitors. I have seldom seen such a variety of merchandise in any of the gift shops I have visited so far. Did you enjoy listening to the carillon? You can purchase a cd of carillon music, or even a scale model of the real thing. Curious about the plant or animal life that’s native to the area? There are many, many books to choose from to satisfy this curiosity. The stained glass pieces hanging in the window are rich with color, and would brighten any home or office work space. There’s jewelry behind the glass cases, local honey, gardening hats and gloves, wind chimes, coffee mugs, scarves and much more. I’m including a goodly amount of photos with this blog because of the vast selection and diversity found in this gift shop.

In my opinion, the Bok Tower gift shop needs to correct several issues if it hopes to increase its conversion rate:

Display items for sale in such a way as to encourage people to pick up and touch the merchandise. It currently is displayed very nicely, but looks more like a museum exhibit than a gift shop display. For example, display books in piles on tables instead of displaying one or two copies in an upright display unit.

Remove or rearrange the displays that are in the interior section of the shop. Right now, there is no obvious traffic path to follow, because the displays seem placed in a willy-nilly fashion. It currently is difficult to examine the items for sale on the interior displays because there is little room to maneuver around other customers.

Display items in such a way so that, upon entry, customers can see all the way to the back of the store. The book displays blocks that view at the present time, and it’s difficult to make that initial judgement as to whether or not the shop is worth your time.

I truly like this gift shop because it not only sells books on gardening, it sells actual plants that you can take home and plant in your yard, so you’ll have a reminder of your visit to the gardens. Bok and Olmsted Jr. are smiling at your determination to make the world better and more beautiful. The plant shop caters to a variety of tastes. The dainty flowers are there, but so are the odd, vulgar pitcher plants, known for their carnivorous habits of capturing and digesting flies. Each of us carry individual notions of beauty, so I’ll lean toward the “making the world better” point of view regarding pitcher plants. After all, how many folks do you know that actually like flies? Regardless, visit the plant shop to take home your own notion of beauty and to make the world a better place because you have lived in it. Pay no attention to the dead flies.

Photos from the Bok Tower Gift Shop

A photo showing the enormous amount of items displayed for sale. This looks like your Great Aunt Rose's living room.

Stained glass is always pretty in the sunlight.

The children's corner.

The Bok Tower gift shop is affordable and shoppable for children.

Plush for sale.

An example of what I mean by books being on display, as opposed to being on sale.

Very cute owls.

The gift shop has a remarkable titles regarding Florida and its natural history.

Jewelry behind the glass counter.

Cardinals.

Acorn bells.

Adorable ladybugs.

Local honey for sale.

I love windchimes!

Colorful gardening gloves and hats. Please color coordinate your purchase.

Those pesky squirrels.

A fun alligator pin.

Revenge of the flying squirrels!

Photos from the plant shop

Epiphytes (air plants) on the wall and bromeliads on the ground.

Plants of all shapes and sizes.

Dainty and pretty flowers.

The Pitcher Plant. The light-colored, banana-shaped things are the part of the plant with the digestive juices.

Lunch this week is going to be an easy one. Since the Bok Tower Gardens are isolated, with the nearest town of any size a good 30 minutes away, we’re going to eat at the Blue Palmetto Café, which is onsite near the gift shop. The food is good, and I recommend their grilled cheese sandwich. The Café also makes a good stop for ice cream after touring the gardens. The tangerine sorbet is refreshing and will restore your sense of all that is right and good in this world.

If you have an opportunity to visit Bok Tower Gardens, jump on it. The grounds are peaceful, restorative, and comfortable. Even though I have a few issues with how items are displayed in the gift shop, please allot some time for it. You could complete your gift-buying for the entire year here, with the unique and stunning merchandise offered for sale.

For inspiration, I leave you with one more of Bok’s quotations:

“Preserve the legacy. Steward the future.”

You, dear friends, have a good start on this. You have preserved the legacy of Florida by visiting the smaller, secondary museums and gardens. You have also regaled your friends and family with your experiences of the wondrous places you have visited. You are acting as the the steward of the future by keeping these places alive in your stories and in your memories. I am so proud of you.

Photos of Pinewood Estate decorated for the holidays