Paying people for dead/dying poinsettias? Yes, this January, Smith's Gardentown, a garden center in Wichita Falls, Texas, is trying to drive traffic to the store during the slowest month of the year, explains Michael Fiore in a LinkedIn post.
"Here's how it works: during the month of January, bring in any dead or dying poinsettia and we will "buy it back". What you get in return is a $5 coupon to use toward a new houseplant.
We will compost the poinsettias and reuse the pots.
We stole the idea from another garden center (friends of ours) that has been doing it for a few years. So far we've had about 30 people take us up on it. I think we'll get quite a lot more before the month ends. Many of them end up buying multiple house plants or other items.
I think this will get more and more popular each year as we learn to promote it more."