You Can't Have a Bad Day with Clients around at Retail!
There are so many things I’ve enjoyed about my time at A New Leaf in the retail garden center. It’s peaceful and pretty, especially during spring - that’s my favorite time of year. Fall is always fun because we have pumpkins, mums, and everything going on with Fall Fest. We are just like any other garden center in that way.
But the best thing about working at the retail center is the client job crew that keeps things running around here daily. I like the diversity! I enjoy coming in and seeing the clients - you can’t have a bad day with them around. I enjoy watching them grow. There is normally a crew of 4-6 clients here working with a job coach, and together, we fulfill all of the retail center operations.
One of our newer clients, who wasn’t able to work a job prior to coming to A New Leaf, can now run the register by herself. I’ve been so impressed with another client, who watched us do the register one time, and got it right away. I’ve seen some clients roller-coaster - just like you and me, they’re not going to be working at 100% capacity all the time - but I’m always seeing growth.
I’m impressed with their mentality and all they can do physically! You can’t set limits on them. They’ll always exceed those limits.
For two months during the busiest season of the year, our vocational center was closed. The roles the vocational clients fulfill at the retail center are jobs just like those at any other nursery, so it basically meant that I lost the majority of my staff. Watering, preparing orders for delivery, tending to all the plants, cleaning up - all tasks that are physically demanding and time-consuming. When we didn’t have those clients here, it was hard. The whole team struggled. They do so much! It’s like I lost my entire staff. We’re truly an operating nursery just like any other.
There are often opportunities for growth for myself and our retail job coach, too - not just the clients. Any time a new client joins us at the retail center, it means we get to learn about that individual and help them find the role that best suits them here. Each client communicates differently and can really thrive when we respect that!
We might look like any other garden center - but our clients make us special.