Winderberry Nursery had some special guests come by when “Retail Gurus” John and Linda Stanley came to talk to the owners about where the future of the business could go.

According to his website, “John Stanley is a coach, consultant, author, speaker and trainer. He has been described as the ‘Retail Guru’ and he has also been described as the leading horticultural consultant in the world today. That is because his skills in perishable retailing: food, plants, flowers and pets, anything that cannot be put on a shelf and ignored, in fact, apply equally to all fields of retailing. That specialist skill translates easily across all retail industries including library and tourism.”

Stanley met the owners of the nursery at a conference in Vancouver in September and took them up on their offer to come to the area.

“One of the challenges is to develop the market at an independent level. We have to start outside the box and develop Community Retailing,” Stanley said.

Owners of the business for 28 years, Jack Steedmand and Glenda Wah said the business is in a state of transition as they are taking a step back.

“I think that after 28 years in the business we have done things in our fashion. With Jack and Linda we are excited to see the next step in the business and community,” said Jack Steedman.

“I think we all get blinkered to keep doing it the same way. It is my job to take the blinkers off and say there is a better opportunity there if you see them and want to develop the business,” said John Stanley.

Lin Steedman and Oliver Egan are going to be taking over during this time.

Egan said there are many things they would like to do moving ahead.

“We want to incorporate more food production and sales while promoting healthy growing through organic production,” he said.

Another area where the group hopes to continue their work is with the youth of the area who frequently come to the nursery and farm to learn about where food comes from.  “I think there is a huge disconnect between where food is grown and how people get it at the grocery store. Most of the kids who come out don’t know there are veggies growing out there,” Egan said.

Another area the group may be going into in the future is catering. “As time goes we are looking at many options that are out there for us,” Egan said.