In the plant commodities business, filling trays/pots, planting seeds and plugs is all automated. All growing requirements/functions are also fully automated. All is mass produced and many plants arrive at Garden Centers never having been touched by a human hand!
Labeling or identifying a for sale plant is a customization that costs money because it requires human labor more than other operations even with preprinted pots or the slap on labels with bar code that often detatch due to customer roughness/weatheror whatever. Pot size/color/ design are used to distinguish one grower from another, shade/sun, annual/perennial or special brand of plant. Vigarow, for instance prints all plant info on its pots while promoting its brand,
Newest thing in the industry is the QR which is that scanable square now appearing on more generic labels to drive traffic to a website for more info on a plant/shrub.
"If they see it, they will buy it" forget the details seems to be the rule of the day. If it doesn't grow, they will replace it. Plants are 'loss leaders' for big retailers/ impulse purchases, that help drive 'hard goods' sales.
Live goods have high losses (so volume is key) and there as yet is no way to tunr left over plant material into salable product on site like left over rotissary chicken becomes 'salad' ! The perishable problem still remains as well as the waste stream from perished plants and again, the man hours to trash them.
I'll repost this over on the ethics thread, too.
