Scott's of Southend — Local services in Rochford

A very pleasant experience

We had heard about Scott’s of Southend from one or two people and decided to pay a visit this morning (22nd August 2022). We found the place very welcoming when we arrived, had a quick look round before stopping for coffee and a tea cake in the restaurant. I can say without fear of contradiction that the coffee was one of the best we have tasted in a long time. The teacake was delicious and accompanied by a selection of fresh berries, jam and butter. Again, one of the best I have tasted.

Being refreshed, we set about looking for plants on our ‘shopping list’ we asked for assistance from one of the staff and she could not have been more helpful. One item on our list was creeping thyme plants, but they were out of stock. The assistant advised that due the hot weather, they herbs had gone over quicker than usual but that new stocks were due in soon. We moved on to a couple of shrubs that we wanted, found those with the aid of the same assistant. Again, she was extremely helpful. Other staff members that we encountered were very friendly and it was obvious that they were very approachable.

At the checkout the assistant readily found us a box for our plants and we were made to feel valued customers. We do not have a car so I phoned for a taxi to convey us and the plants, we were advised that we could make use of the seats while we waited. I cannot praise the staff etc at Scott’s highly enough and would heartily recommend Scott’s as the premier garden centre to go to for all...

We have been supporting Scott's of Southend for a few years now ever since they took over from Reads by buying all of our plants from there. We were pleased recently to see that they were expanding and even opening a cafe. We decided to try the cafe out this afternoon and arrived at around 1:30pm for a late lunch. There was a sign at the main entrance of the cafe advising that the next available table would be at 2pm so we looked around the garden centre and returned to the cafe at around 1:50pm and joined the queue.

Several members of the cafe staff clearly saw us standing there and by 2pm still no one had approaced us but customers were coming in from the outside seating area of the cafe and being server immediately. I went up to the till to enquire what the setup was to get a table and the lady serving asked a man out the back who very abrubtly shouted out "No, we're not accepting any more customers until we have cleared the backlog". I asked why in that case they were continuing to serve and seat the customers who were coming in by the other door only for him to ignore me and walk off.

Owing to this very rude service we decided to head off to Morleys where we were given a table after only a few minutes wait and were treated very well. Scott's have certainly lost our custom and Morleys have won us back.

I would have emailed this complaint to Scott's but as they don't provide a contact email address on their website have had to...

Just had our first visit to Scott's Garden Centre, this is a situated along Sutton Road and occupies a huge site. They have absolutely everything associated with gardening and also there's a pet and equestrian supplies section. There is also an on site restaurant but after browsing around for some time we decided to try the restaurant another time. At the front & to the side of the garden centre is a large car park but at weekends it's extremely busy during the summer months and there are also several disabled parking spaces with disabled access throughout. As there's a restaurant there's also toilets inside and out (outside at one end of the car park although they may only be for staff use). Prices seem to be fair, we found some things were cheaper here and some were not. This place is definitely worth a visit and browse and we would recommend it. The plants etc looked healthy which in these temperatures is good, although it wasn't easy to find a member of staff and at Alton's and Riverside they do seem a bit more helpful which is why I've dropped them a star in my review. Otherwise all good 🙂 Please see my pictures & videos, I hope...