Working Hand in Glove with S&H

In a blog not so long ago I mentioned “retail museums,” that is, high-end stores whose prices might be out-of-range of the “normal” consumer but still worth a visit, if only to gawk and marvel. A business I’ve always admired is Smith & Hawken and, although not on a level of, say, Tiffanys or Cartier, S&H was admirable for its adherence to a zealous pursuit of organic gardening which, as we all know, seems to also mean “expensive.” But they stuck to their guns and made it work for a couple of decades. Most of their garden tools and equipment were from Britain and that added an attractive snob appeal for us poor urban wretches who labor in the 20’ x 20’ confines of our urban gardens. The stores were wonderfully designed and the displays were attractive and pleasing to the eye, thus tempting the old Visa out of the crumbling wallet.

Unfortunately, through the years and after the retirement of Paul Hawken in the early 90’s, the store went through a series of changes brought on by one profit-mongering conglomerate after another, ending up with, of all entities, Scott’s Miracle-Gro, the dudes with the pesticides and other “grow and kill” products. Although they continued to sell some pretty good-looking gardening equipment, they also went artsy frou frou and, thus, became just another expensive garden-tchotchkes outlet.

Anyhow, Smith & Hawken has, appropriately enough, bought the farm; yet another victim of the tanking of our esteemed economy. With snob appeal no longer a viable marketing tool it was inevitable S&H would follow similarly positioned businesses and rethink their reason for existing.

This bit of economic research has come to you because my very favorite gardening gloves, shown here, have coincidentally bitten the dirt; almost literally, and the torn social-finger is irreparable. I can only hope that someone like Marshall’s or some other outlet store of that ilk will pick up the contents of Smith & Hawken’s warehouse facility; slashing the prices to fall into line with my current gardening budget. Farewell S&H; let’s do brunch!