Grozine Cultivation Tech & Lifestyles Mag Issue 12 | Page 62

customers that are available for hydroponics retailers to serve at present versus only as few as 10 years ago. What It Takes To Be A National Success When you think of Santa Cruz, California USA it wouldn’t surprise anyone if you also made an association with hydroponics for home growers. After all, a lot of the earliest hydroponics supply shops for walk in customers grew up and seeded so many others from the areas in and surrounding the Bay Area (we haven’t forgotten about you either, SoCal). What’s interesting, is a lot of the type of thinking that helped create the hydroponics supply industry that exists today-as there was no real “industry” to speak of only twenty years ago-is thankfully still being cultivated to this day in some of the same spots. Only now, it’s different. Pioneering hydroponics retailers still in it for love of the game today, admit some degree of amazement in market growth and the sheer numbers of potential 62 www.grozine.com If you are an existing member of the hydroponics industry in the USA, it’s unlikely you haven’t heard of Eric Shedlarski and Vando Bertaccini: the owners of Gardening Unlimited. And if you are a grower in any part of the world who also shops for growing supplies online, via the world wide web, it’s also possible you know them (while perhaps less directly through www.ehydroponics.com That’s because under the combined umbrella of Gardening Unlimited affiliate stores, they have over brick and mortar retail 14 locations! And they are always growing. As a matter of fact, when Grozine had a chance to catch up with the had just caught his breath from running back from meeting (and hiring) a new member of Team Gardening Unlimited. The 14 locations, listed at www.gardeningunlimited. com along with their new Commercial Sales Division employs over 80 hard working and dedicated people. That’s the right kind of growththe kind people should seewhen it comes to what hydroponics can offer society at large, aside from a fun and exciting business. Retail locations include Buffalo, N.Y. and in Chicago. You might say they have learned to grow as a company from beyond their own back yard. Part of their success in growing from out of the traditional limitations and boundaries has been recognizing and being an early adaptor of social media and building a strong web presence-effectively extending their reach. When you visit their main page, you’ll see all the great ways you