Many plant retailers experienced an unprecedented spike in sales with the COVID-19 shelter in place orders in effect throughout the country. With that surge in demand, it makes planning for the 2021 season a bit more challenging. This week on the podcast, Bridget discusses scenario planning and gives businesses some ‘food for thought’ as they plan for production and sales in spring 2021. First, consider what are some of the key forces that may be driving big changes? Certainly COVID-19 was one of those forces but now the state of the economy also will come into play in a big way for 2021 planning. Then, consider what implications those big shifts could be causing. One of those is demand – will people buy at the 2020 level in 2021? The other implication is availability. What products may be in limited supply, especially for producers (and then retailers) in 2021? If you have a good POS, looking at items that sold out quickly will help your understand the high-demand products. If they are limited in supply for 2021, they make great candidates for modest price increases.