After over 30 years in the business of selling garden tools and accessories, Smith & Hawken is closing its doors for good. Their website has already been shut down, and apparently their stores will be following suit shortly.
There has been much discussion about this in the blogosphere and on Twitter today (see, for example, Garden Rant). I decided to visit a store near me to see what was going on there. For the most part the employees seemed upbeat and helpful. They were still working hard to help customers and provide “service with a smile.”
Obviously I have no idea what the problem was that caused the company’s downfall, but I have some guesses. For starters, almost everything in the store was overpriced. You can’t sell Felco pruners for more than they are selling for online. And you can’t sell relatively nondescript Ferns for $16 when local nurseries are selling the same nondescript Ferns for $9.99. If you’re going to sell overpriced stuff, then it has to be better than what is available elsewhere, and it has to be unique.
Second, while I don’t really remember Smith & Hawken before Scott’s (of Miracle Grow fame) purchased the company, I suspect that the two companies weren’t the greatest match. Smith & Hawken started off as a high-end tool company started by people in to things like macrobiotic cooking. Scott’s is about as far away from that sort of crunchy stuff as possible. They’re famous for creating a fertilizer that organic gardeners love to hate.
Anyway, that’s my two cents. What do you all think?
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I totally agree w/your reasons why they started going South. I also think it was a bad move when they started selling their ‘high end’ stuff at Target. Mixed messages. Are they ‘high end’ or ‘middle/low end’…plus their Target stuff looked like it wasn’t made as well.
So, so sad. End of a shopping era for me – one of my favorite places to go. sigh…..
I suspected they were closing soon since they have been having mega sales for a while now… It makes me sad since I really like the style of their stuff, but it was mostly too expensive for me anyway (which I agree was probably what killed them).
I have a store a mile away from me though, so I should check it out for sales.
Oh no I can’t believe their closing down. I agree with you 100%, I love looking at their stuff but most of the time it’s just looking. As nice as their stuff is I just can’t justify spending so much on something I can get elsewhere especially in this economy. They had some good sales recently but even with the discount their stuff still cost a fortune. Sad to see a nice store go down
We don’t have any of their stores around here, so never had the pleasure. But I can agree with you, if you want to sell high end, it had better be special. Too bad, I would have loved to check out the website.
Jen
I agree with your assessment. I always associated Smith & Hawken more with Pier 1 or Hammacher Schlemmer than the Miracle Gro people. Obviously the match didn’t work out well.
Wow! I hadn’t heard about them closing yet. It makes me a little sad, because I always loved browsing around in that store, but as other readers pointed out, they were overpriced. I rarely bought anything there. Companies like that are having a tough time in this economy.
I didn’t know about this closing. I used to stop in the retail store at South Coast Plaza at Christmas and a few other times during the year, and I enjoyed the catalog. I agree with Rebecca’s comment about the Target merchandise. And speaking of companies that partnered wtih Target, until yesterday I didn’t know that Shabby Chic had closed all retail stores and stopped making furniture and other items.