I drove to various garden centres and wholesalers yesterday picking up the last of the donations to the Grimsby Garden Club Plant Sale which is today and Saturday.
At almost every wholesaler that I've picked up material at, I've gone in the wrong entrance or location. So many places named Westland, and so many Bayview locations and who knows where shipping and receiving is without any signs. The main offices and shipping and receiving areas are consistently an experience from the late 1960s into the early 1970s in office style, paint colours, furniture and so on. What a reminder of how far offices have come.
My experience yesterday reminded me of this. I went to the Bayview location on Jordan Road which I remember from the 1970s. Brian knew the original greenhouse owner. I walked in the front door and found it was a house whose little rooms were each converted into offices. There was an open door in the back, and it led to a large area that was the packaging warehouse. There was tremendous activity with a dozen people putting cut Gerberas into plastic wrap, into bundles, into buckets onto carts that taken away. Lots of noise from the equipment.
Everyone ignored me walking in. This is typical - perhaps it has to due with COVID. But I generally think this is due to these being closed environments without visitors. Everyone has their own job. I stood and waited for a short time to find out if someone in charge would come over. I looked in at what reminded me of a 1960s factory that I worked in. Mostly women and immigrants on the lines doing repetitive tasks - lots of machinery around making noise.
I did connect with what appeared to be the managers - who explained that I should go to the other location - the big grey new building at Jordan Road and Fourth Avenue. That had an office environment that was new and shiny. What a long way the greenhouse business has come in Niagara. From those little greenhouses at Bayview to the massive acres of glass.
Gerberas came to the floral trade in the 1980s. I remember buying my first one in the Eaton's floral shop and being entranced. Little could I guess that they would be everywhere with us - the cheerful daisy is the fifth most cut flower in the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment