Re-imagining Retail
By Tom Lassiter
Photos: ©2017 Michael Duerinckx. INCKX Photography. www.inckx.com.
Imagine a store that sells quality casual furniture, but doesn’t have a warehouse or delivery truck.
Imagine having an outdoor kitchen design center with a line of grills that can’t be shopped online or at any other nearby store.
Imagine being the exclusive dealer for Jacuzzi spas and Sundance hot tubs in a booming desert county with a population of four million.
David Ghiz imagined all that. Then he made it happen with Imagine Backyard Living.
Ghiz had the clarity to envision this concept store in Scottsdale, Arizona, precisely because he knew exactly what he didn’t want. He didn’t want to replicate Paddock Pools, Patios, & Spas, the business founded by his father, George, in 1958.
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| David Ghiz, owner, Imagine Backyard Living in Scottsdale, Arizona. | |
Ghiz and his brother, Buzz, grew up in that business and expanded it to become one of the nation’s largest pool construction companies. Paddock Pools, also a major retailer of casual furniture, had 17 locations in Arizona and Nevada before the family sold it to a private equity group in 2005.
It was great timing for the Ghiz family, but not so great for the investors. (See: Great Recession, Real Estate Collapse, etc.) Paddock Pools foundered.
Ghiz attempted to repurchase the bones of Paddock Pools in 2012. The business by that time no longer had rights to Jacuzzi and Sundance products, but as Ghiz negotiated, he reached out to Jacuzzi.
The spa and hot tub brands “were an important part of the old Paddock, and I was going to make it a key component of the new Paddock,” he says. “We were the biggest dealer for them for many years.”
But the deal to purchase Paddock Pools wouldn’t come together. Another suitor offered more than Ghiz was willing to pay.
That might have squashed another dreamer’s plans permanently. Except in this case, Jacuzzi stayed in touch with Ghiz, and he had a firm vision of what he wanted to create.
“They kept coming back at me, wanting me to do something with them, even without the Paddock name. They were very interested in putting something together with me,” he says. “We spent quite a bit of time discussing how we would structure the relationship.”
Months passed, and Ghiz refined his dream. One day, as he was driving, the name of his new venture came to him as he listened to a John Lennon tune on the radio. The song? “Imagine.”
“I wanted to develop a brand that had its own identity,” he explains. “I love the name. I like how it represents what we do.”
Ghiz says he learned about marketing and brand identity from his father. “Our dad was a genius at marketing,” he says. “It’s all about market. You’ve got to create a relationship with the customer about who you are.”
Ghiz then found the perfect location to make his concept a reality. It had many windows, high ceilings, and a corner position with a commanding, two-story façade.
“I had a clear vision of what I was going to do with the hot tubs,” he says. “I could see exactly what I wanted to create here with these windows and the way the store is laid out.”
That was in March 2014. Three months later, Imagine Backyard Living was open for business.
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| It’s like a candy store for adults, with products that everyone covets. | |
Location, Location, Location
Imagine Backyard Living is situated on a broad, commercial thoroughfare. The street’s medians are landscaped with cacti. Everything smacks of upscale. Neighbors on North Greenway Hayden Loop include lighting and kitchen design stores. Today’s Patio, a business ally, literally is across the street.
Pottery Barn, Michael Kors, and a Tommy Bahama restaurant, bar, and store are nearby.
“This is one of the hottest shopping hubs in Maricopa County,” Ghiz says. “It’s perfect for the (Jacuzzi) brand, and perfect for me to build my own brand.”
The store has about 12,000 sq. ft. of showroom but feels remarkably intimate. Bright, desert sunlight floods the space. Spas and hot tubs are displayed in thoughtfully constructed, tasteful vignettes near the tall windows. Swim spas – which combine features of a hot tub with enough room for a bather to swim in place against a strong current – are another featured product.
The outdoor kitchen design center, raised a step or two above the main level, occupies a central position. The store makes extensive use of native stone masonry, which imparts a strong sense of place. Imagine Backyard Living has the look and feel of contemporary Arizona.
There’s room for casual furniture in several cozy arrangements that invite shoppers to sit, soak up the aspirational environment, and discuss their Outdoor Room plans. A putting green just inside the entrance adds an extra element of relaxation.
Upon entering the store, a shopper can explore to the left or the right. Planters line the meandering walkway. The place feels like a well-landscaped backyard, albeit air-conditioned.
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| Ghiz sells only Woodard furniture, but sources it from Today’s Patio. | |
“There’s a real strategy to the way this is set up,” Ghiz says. “I wanted people to go from area to area and discover new ideas at every angle. I wanted areas where they could sit and talk.”
Ghiz says Paddock Pools was well known for creating knockout impressions; he wanted to continue that in his new venture.
“The idea was to create vignettes where people could see (the products) as part of a backyard living space,” he explains. He wanted all the possible elements to be integrated into “a great area outside where they can go and relax, watch TV, soak in a hot tub, have a grill and cook.
“We can cool the patios, we can heat them. Suddenly that space outside the back door becomes the favorite part of the home.”
The presentation at Imagine Backyard Living leaves nothing to chance. Ghiz wants the full attention of anyone who ventures inside.
“Whatever they’re thinking about before they walk in these doors,” he says, “I want them to quickly shift to what I want them to think about.”
Ghiz’s casual furniture strategy has changed since the store opened three years ago.
“My vision for the furniture was ultra luxury, really the highest-level stuff,” he says. His initial brands included Tommy Bahama, for example. “We sold it OK, but there really wasn’t enough volume in it.” Shoppers interested in furniture at that end of the spectrum gravitate to design showrooms, he says. His store pulls in customers whose first priorities are spas and hot tubs.
Ghiz now sources furniture from what most observers would think of as a competitor: Today’s Patio, just across the street. To Ghiz, it’s all about relationships.
“We’re both happy,” Ghiz says of the arrangement struck with Today’s Patio CEO Chad Scheinerman. “He makes a little bit on the stuff I sell. I make a little bit on the stuff I sell. And the customer is happy.”
The arrangement supplies Imagine Backyard Living with Woodard furniture collections that Today’s Patio does not duplicate. The choice of Woodard allows Ghiz to offer a less-expensive, yet high-quality furniture line “with quick turnaround times and a great brand.”
Customer purchases are routed through Today’s Patio, which receives stock from Woodard and delivers the product.
Today’s Patio doesn’t warehouse any furniture for Imagine Backyard Living. “He’s not sitting on any inventory for me,” Ghiz says. “It’s a good business model, and a model that can scale quickly and easily.”
The Rest Is Icing
The Jacuzzi and Sundance products are the foundation for Imagine Backyard Living, Ghiz says. The store owns the spa, hot tub, and pool products on display. Other products, Ghiz says, are “just icing for my core business.”
Spa customers make their choices based on floor models, customizing colors and options. Imagine Backyard Living advises customers to expect delivery in four weeks, Ghiz says, “but it’s usually under three.”
Production takes place near Los Angeles. From there, products are trucked to a modest-size receiving facility in Scottsdale. Ghiz then uses a delivery service to transport the product to the customer’s home. The three- to four-week manufacturing window is usually just right for contractors to do all the necessary plumbing, electrical, and site work, he says.
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| After years with Paddock Pools, Ghiz knows how to merchandise. | |
Imagine Backyard Living doesn’t offer a landscaping, construction, or installation service. It does, however, provide customers with a list of contractors that it can recommend with confidence.
“I put relationships together with great landscape firms that do all the work,” Ghiz says.
The store sells Sunfire-brand grills and other outdoor kitchen components. The grills are a product of the Casual Classics buying group; Ghiz says he was a founder of the powerful buying group during his Paddock Pools days, along with managing director Buzz Homsy.
Customers take the designs worked out in the kitchen design center and rely upon independent construction firms to transform their backyards. Most of the outdoor kitchen work is done on site, Ghiz says, with some pre-fab cabinets provided by Galaxy Outdoor of Las Vegas.
Ghiz says the spa business makes sense in today’s housing marketplace, especially in arid Arizona. Lots are smaller, so a spa gives a family a desirable water feature without the construction and upkeep expense of a pool.
“I wanted people to see a hot tub as a key part of the backyard living space,” he says. “The product is incredible – what it does for your life, for your health, for your family, for your relationships. Ten minutes of soaking – it’s just incredible what it does for you.”
For shoppers needing a little more convincing, Ghiz offers the real deal. Tucked away in a secluded room is a fully outfitted hot tub. There’s a changing room and towels monogramed with the Imagine Outdoor Living logo. Mood lighting, including a ceiling that mimics a starry night, set the mood for an immersive experience.
Imagine Backyard Living has a staff of eight full-time and four part-time employees. It has no stocking warehouse, and no product inventory. Goods are rarely sold off the showroom floor.
“Having money sitting on shelves is not, in my opinion, where it’s at,” Ghiz explains. “It’s more about giving people great options and fast turnaround times. If I don’t sell as much, I really don’t care, because I don’t have to worry about having a million dollars (in inventory) sitting on shelves. So I can make less margin.”
Ghiz worked to ensure that his store has exclusivity in virtually every product line.
“I can’t have product in this store that people can get anywhere else,” he says. “You can’t buy them online; you can’t buy them at another store in town. The fact that I have the brand, and it’s the only place it can be bought in Maricopa County, allows me to survive.”
Ghiz balances exclusivity with creating a destination experience for his customers.
It’s critical, he says, for brick-and-mortar retailers of all types to concentrate on making their store environments stand out and be a worthy alternative to the ease of online shopping.
“This is a scary time,” he says. “If you are able to create an experience that gets people excited and charged up and inspired, then you have a chance to survive.”
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Store Name: Imagine Backyard Living Location: 15551 N. Greenway-Hayden Loop, Scottsdale, Arizona 85260 Owners: David & Melanie Ghiz Key Management: Sharon Van Tassel, Nancy Duffy Year Established: 2014 Web Site: www.imaginebackyard.com E-mail: Email Phone: (480) 607-3529 Number of Stores: 1 Number of Employees: Gross Annual Sales: N/A Av. Sq. Ft. of Building Space: Brands Carried: Advertising % of Gross Revenues: 8% Advertising:Radio 0%, Newspapers 20%, Magazines 0%, TV 40%, Direct Mail 10%, Other Digital 30% |
