Job Title: Garden Center Lead / Specialist

Position Summary

The Garden Center Lead / Specialist is responsible for helping create a healthy, organized, and customer-friendly garden center. This role supports plant care, merchandising, inventory presentation, and customer service within the garden center. The person in this position should be knowledgeable, dependable, and hands-on, with a strong ability to assist customers, maintain live goods, and keep the department looking full, fresh, and inspiring. Depending on experience and store structure, this role may also help lead daily garden center operations and support other team members working in the area.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide excellent customer service by greeting customers, answering questions, and helping them select plants, soils, fertilizers, pottery, and other garden-related products
• Care for live goods through proper watering, pruning, grooming, rotating, and removal of damaged or unsellable product
• Maintain attractive, clean, and well-stocked plant tables, displays, and promotional areas
• Monitor plant health and identify issues related to watering, pests, disease, heat stress, or product decline
• Assist with receiving, unloading, staging, and merchandising plant shipments and garden center product
• Ensure proper signage, pricing, and product placement throughout the department
• Help customers load merchandise and assist with carryout when needed
• Support seasonal resets, promotional displays, and outdoor selling events
• Maintain cleanliness and safety in all garden center spaces, including walkways, tables, benches, and watering areas
• Monitor inventory levels and communicate replenishment needs, damaged product, and sell-through trends to management
• Operate equipment safely as assigned, including hoses, carts, flatbeds, pallet jacks, or forklifts if certified
• Follow all company safety procedures and help maintain a safe shopping and working environment

• Lead-Level Responsibilities

If functioning as the lead for the garden center, this role may also:

• Help organize daily workflow and priorities for the garden center team
• Communicate plant care standards and merchandising expectations to team members
• Assist management with ordering input, seasonal planning, and inventory awareness
• Help train and coach associates working in the department
• Monitor overall department condition and take ownership of presentation, readiness, and customer experience

• Qualifications
• Friendly, helpful, and customer-focused attitude
• Interest in plants, gardening, outdoor living, and seasonal merchandise
• Ability to work outdoors in varying weather conditions
• Strong observation skills and attention to detail
• Ability to work independently and stay productive without constant supervision
• Good communication and teamwork skills
• Previous retail, garden center, nursery, farm, or plant care experience preferred
• Plant knowledge is strongly preferred for specialist or lead-level candidates

• Physical Requirements
• Ability to stand, walk, bend, lift, and work outdoors for extended periods
• Ability to lift and carry bags of soil, plants, pottery, and other merchandise, often up to 40–50 pounds
• Ability to work in heat, humidity, cold, and changing weather conditions
• Ability to use ladders, carts, and basic garden center tools safely

• Work Environment
• Indoor and outdoor retail environment
• Frequent exposure to weather, water, dirt, pollen, and plant materials
• Weekend, holiday, and seasonal availability may be required, especially during spring and peak outdoor selling periods

Company Introduction

We are your local hardware store and we are a part of your community. Ace Hardware has over 5,000 stores around the world with the majority of those stores independently owned and operated by local entrepreneurs. These hard working men and women are part of the fabric of your community. They are small business owners who are local and loyal...just like it ought to be. While others have become large and impersonal, at Ace, we've remained small and very personal. That's why we say a visit to Ace, is like a visit to your neighbor.