October 2009

“Wait Until Next Year”…Again? By Tim Hodson

It was kind of a tough summer in the Chicago area this year.

Both Chicago baseball teams failed to make it to the postseason, and in early October, the city failed in its attempt to get the 2016 Olympic Games.

After both the Cubs and the White Sox made the playoffs in 2008, going into spring, fans on both sides of town had really high hopes that this would be the year.

After two straight trips to the playoffs, Cubs fans were very excited about many of the off-season moves that management made to prepare for this year. But much like the previous 100 years, it just wasn't meant to be — again!

As many of you know, I am a lifelong Cubs' fan, and our battle cry has always been, "Wait until next year!"

I've never really liked that battle cry, but I've kind of learned to live with it.

The Summer That Never Really Was

The weather throughout the Midwest was also rather disappointing this summer. I'm not blaming the weather for the performance of our baseball teams, but it did have an impact on growers and retailers throughout the region.

According to the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., several Midwestern states recorded one of their 10 coldest summers on record. And in Chicago, we had our coldest July in 67 years. It just never really got "summery."

What caused these cold temperatures? "A recurring trough of low pressure across the central United States and interior Canada, which was there throughout the summer," Deke Arndt of the National Climatic Data Center told USA Today.

After a fairly robust spring season (in terms of both weather and dollars), many growers and garden center owners that I talked to in May and June really thought that, despite the recession, this was going to be their year. But when I talked to some of those same people in September, many of them reported that the summer of 2009 was just OK.

While it wasn't a dismal year, they said, it just didn't live up to the expectations they had back in the spring. The cool temperatures and wet weather weren't conducive to gardening this year. So like us Cub fans, many growers and retailers are now saying, "Wait until next year!"

How Was Your Summer?

Was it a wait-until-next-year kind of a summer or did it live up to expectations? How did your baseball team do? How was the weather? How does 2010 look? Drop me a line and let me know how the weather in your region impacted your business.