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Some questions.
You keep bringing up the fact you want to sell sod. I don't get this.
Most landscape companies would buy direct from a sod farm. If you can get it for that price, they most likely can too. I don't see much business selling sod other than getting the occasional home owner who doesn't know better and orders through you. It seems like being a middle man for something that really shouldn't have one. Besides a few garden centers that have a few hundred sq ft on hand, no one sells sod other than the sod farms themselves. Is sod in that high of demand in your area? Do you have a 'secret' sod supplier that no one knows about?
As for brick, most suppliers will flat out tell you there isn't much profit in a pallet of pavers. You need to sell volume to low hassle clients such as contractors. Selling a few pallets to homeowners can be a real hair raiser. They get it, disagree with the color, and make you take it back, and all that trouble for about $30 dollars in profit.
If you are talking selling big items like sod and brick, you better think about how much it costs you to own a 150k tri-axle and spider buggy to go along with it, because if you can't deliver it, you aren't going to get much business.
As for plants.....all I can is this. Around here, every other landscaper and his mom has a make shift garden center. Yes, you can make a good markup on the plants but keep in mind there is a LOT of work involved with them. Most guys that start a small garden center are doing it because they can use the material on their own jobs. They aren't necessarily making money selling to the public or other contractors, they make the money in the savings they incurr themselves by supplying their own materials for their own jobs. If you aren't selling anything to yourself, then you have to sell to others. This is the advantage a contractor run garden center has.
As for the other garden centers, they are either selling items that they grow themselves, or...they are BIG outfits with truckloads of materials going in and out daily. There are others, but most of them are well established places (like 50 plus years) that have a little niche going.
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