Exit from the Garden of Eden

Smith and Hawken, garden store extraordinaire and my employer for the past ten years, is exiting from the scene in all of its 56 stores across the U.S. Small potatoes, you might say. But there are tragic aspects of this tale, a death of a simple relationship between seller and buyer where life counsel is dispensed along with home solutions that make Every Garden Count(an S&H advertising slogan).

Let us define garden as a home space that involves living things in a crafted environment. Products that solve issues like storage, privacy, beauty and function in one's personal individualized space. The store began in the sixties as an importer of quality garden tools and evolved into a broader footprint that included heritage garden items such as pottery, statuary as well as heirloom garden furniture in patented designs. Thirty years and fifty six stores later, the catalog and internet business in full swing, the chain landed in its fourth owner's hands, a chemical company who freely promotes the use of poisonsonous chemicals in a happy, harmless, irresponsible manner by using words like Miracle to brighten their insidious message that nature needs these synthetics to make the good things happen in your garden. A company at odds with the message of S&H and admittedly bought to soften the reputation of the parent.
Well, S&H took many chances and needed to be reigned in during recessionary times. Real estate ventures into extra jumbo stores in strip malls, bizarre product additions with new competitors like heaters, barbeques, mortared fireplaces and outdoor televisions were just plain wrongheadedly complex. No effort to scale make or redesign were made however, and many of us lost a great place to shop and work.

As we close out our days, we at smith and hawken are constantly trying to soothe our bothered customers about this liquidation. At least a dozen times a days since July we hear "I am so angry about this. " I am so sad about this." And still very often do we hear oh I didn't know. It has made me wonder why the media has seen fit not to cover this story. When approaching NPR I was told- there are too many stories like this right now. There was a small mention in our local Seattle papers, (there are two stores in this area,) and if you google the events you get no more than the article in the Marin county paper or the reuters coverage of July 9. No one has touched on the tragic elements of this demise.

To many people, S&H represented a return to the land arising from the flower children of the sixties. It was a soothing, sunny image even though most of us could afford little of the merchandise, most of us could save up for some. It was a feel good place to wander, to bring family, to learn about plants, chat, get design ideas. And as we grew older and faced new challenges it was a return to past values. It was one of the few stores that still felt like a country store with odds and ends, some risky and strange merchandise like antique thumb pots for watering seeds or wooden bird call horns with authentic sound. The staff offered friendliness, concern , advice, orientation and most of all, especially to regulars, slow relationships. Just as you built a relationship with the staff, so did you get accustomed to the product line learning what garden structure offered you, and how to use a water feature or raised bed. I feel this more and more as I say goodbye to the many relationships that I have formed while at work here.

Some quotes from past Mission Statements:
" S&H believes that gardening is a life enhancing activity...we try to be a positive presence in our community and wish to offer goods distinguished by authenticity and integrity and believe these ideals will lead us to grow profitably. The personality of our brand DNA is to be both traditional and innovative, functional and unique."

So as we slip away into oblivion I wanted to take just this moment to ponder the loss.