Aug 20, 2015

Don’t Delay … By Tim Hodson

“¦ sign up today for one of GPN’s Plant Health Management conferences that will be taking place in October.

On Oct. 6, GPN’s Plant Health Management Conference will return to Grand Rapids, Michigan.

And on Oct. 27, we will debut our second Plant Health Management Conference in Springfield, Massachusetts.

These one-day conferences are dedicated to helping growers produce healthy and profitable plants.

Both conferences also will feature tabletop exhibits from industry vendors. And attendees will have the opportunity to earn pesticide recertification credits.

If you and your production team are looking to learn more about integrated pest management, disease diagnosis and control, water quality and growth regulator control strategies, then you need to be in Grand Rapids or Springfield.

The early-bird registration fee is $89 before Sept. 28 for the Grand Rapids conference and before Oct. 19 for the Springfield conference. Fee includes the day-long conference, continental breakfast and lunch.

For more information on the Grand Rapids event, click here.

Click here for additional information on the Springfield event.

October will be here before you know it, so don’t delay, sign up today.

– Tim

Lowe’s Overhauls Website for Professionals

With the goal of attracting and retaining its professional customer base, Lowe’s recently announced an overhaul of its LowesForPros.com website. While professionals still make up only a small part of the home improvement retailer’s total customers, the company said professionals generate a larger percent of total revenue on a more reliable and frequent basis. The newly designed site allows users to design their own product catalogs, pick up online orders in-store and more.

Survey: Consumers Want Wal-Mart in NYC

According to a recently released survey from Quinnipiac University, the majority of New Yorkers want their elected officials to permit Wal-Mart to open its first store in one of the city’s five boroughs. Approximately 55 percent of the survey respondents said they would like to have the mass merchandiser operating within the city’s limits and 64 percent said they would be willing to shop there if it was convenient to their lifestyle. The poll is based on a survey of more than 1,100 New Yorkers.

Housing Starts Highest in Eight Years

The United States Department of Commerce reported that housing starts were up 0.2 percent in July. While this number may not seem very large, it is very significant because housing starts are now at their highest levels in eight years. According to the Commerce Department, July’s housing starts were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.2 million – more than 10 percent higher than July 2014. Single-family starts were the leader of the pack up nearly 13 percent over the previous month.