Smith & Hawken closing down sale starts today
July 9th, 2009
Smith & Hawken, which was a pioneering green retailer, is closing all its stores, including Berkeley’s at 1330 10th Street. Founders Dave Smith and Paul Hawken are long gone from the store they founded. Hawken has become a leading figure in the environmental movement and a best-selling author.
Smith & Hawken was acquired in 2004 by Scotts Miracle-Gro. The connection between the carefully curated store and catalog group and the mass-market Scotts was never clear. As an occasional visitor to the Berkeley store in recent years, the retail group seemed to have lost any sense of what once made it special.
Photo by Andreas Balzer from Flickr
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By my doorway, Berkeley’s Alice Waters’ Nasturtiums [seeds packaged by S&W and purchased from the old outlet a decade ago] still bloom, like Berkely’s Alice Walker’s mothers’ petunias. Thankfully, some good things go on. marga