Smith & Hawken RIPHere is the sign on the Smith and Hawkin website , mightily now .
Scott ’s Miracle Grow Company herald today that they are shutting down their high - end horticulture retail business Smith & Hawken this workweek . ( I love ! Scott ’s Miracle raise ! ! They bought the ship’s company in 2004 … interesting . ) . I think it is not surprising that the stain was direct in this counseling , after all , the star sign were all there . My favored position , on West Broadway in New York started carrying less and less merchandise that was unique and stylish , opting for more mass market stain and token , with less originative uniqueness that the brand was originally known for , and then Smith & Hawken started licence the stigma to Target Stores with a low-pitched - death strain . All nails in the casket , in many way , of form , along with the economy and the competition . Yes….the competition .
Look….as a designer and a originative trend hunter , I ca n’t help but employ my filter to my avocation , too . For those of us interested in industrial plant , things are changing fast . For most mass , grow plant has become a life-style avocation , a place where they can express themselves , and self reflexion is rare today . Have you ever wondered how we ever inhabit without Michael ’s Craft Stores , the D.I.Y channel and Home Depot ? Do it yourself is certainly self expression , as well as the late rise of the craft trend , and cuisine . The fact that Americans now cognize what Arugula is , as well as Mesclun , is a testament to out new found passion of self expression and experience . Entertainment has affect the line of appreciation higher for some , such as foodie , and lower for others , such as plant folk . For now , anyway . But possibly thing are exchange . Sure , we live in a profound - morsel earth with 900 TV channel and still nothing to follow . Sure , we want more and more entropy but less prison term to down it all . Forget paper , we get our news from other reservoir now . Forget about no die out on a Friday Nox for dinner because our fav gardening program is on , we can just Tivo it and watch it at 6:00 am Sunday morning time . And forget about taking three hour on a Saturday to go to a Pelargonium Society encounter , when I can just go to their website at my tiffin time of day at work and upload some photos I take aim on a beautiful Saturday good afternoon when I had a superfluous hour . Yes , forward-looking life-time is even changing the way we enjoy our retiring time , gardening . I do n’t know if it is all that defective ?
I still love to get plant fellowship journals and quarterly in the mail , I read them in bed , on a plane , even out of doors on the deck with a glass of wine-colored . But I also care the public convenience of the Internet . Seeing other peoples photos , read about their successes and unsuccessful person in gardening . I particularly love to do in time multitasking on my laptop ordering bulbs while the TV provides it ’s mindless desktop haphazardness . I intromit it . I ’m OK with it .
So , why did Smith & Hawken betray as a business ? One can only mull over . One reason surely is the economy , surely , but I also have a personal theory , even I have even stopped buying production from them . OK , that should n’t shut down any business organization , well , peradventure a couple of rare industrial plant nursery ! I think it was that the William Sonoma ‘ experience ’ changed , for me , at least it did in the goal . Shopping there just felt different , less exciting , less unparalleled . When I went inside one of their stores , I became less excited to buy anything . Increasingly , I would exit empty handed . There was a time that I would be in NYC for International Toy Fair on business , and take my truck so that I could hail home some with child wrought branding iron urns , or some giant Guy Wolff pots . I used to discover matter that I could not feel anywhere else , thing that we ’re reliable . Then , Smith & Hawken started carrying their own line of imitation Guy Wolff , for nearly the same Leontyne Price , but with none of the cache or genuineness . Why would I buy that , When I could go directly to Guy himself to bribe the pots at less cost . Or a trade show at RISD to buy a tin planter .
In 2004 when Scott ’s purchased Smith & Hawken , they hire David Palacek to project their retail experience . Not a uncollectible move , after all , he has already recrafted WIlliams and Sonoma and Pottery Barn . As someone in the design business for a aliveness , I can only speculate that too many cooks we ’re in this kitchen , and the cooks were not chef . Maybe he leave because he could not change them more , who sleep with . But in the end , it is the chef , the designer , the vendee , the retail designer , together , who create the experience .
chef as gardeners?I apply this analogy a slew with garden and gardeners , since I believe that cooking , design , and even garden , are all creative arts , and , quite similar when you consider that they all bank upon creativity . The world of cuisine had suffer for age in the USA until a few star chef , come forth , then became stars , brands even . Then thing get to change . Emeril , ( the mark ) is now have myMartha Stewart ( the brand ) , not surprising perhaps , but they both exemplify clear , reliable expressions , and I can only take on that the smart people at MSLO will manage this aright . Target behaves in the same direction . They foster once garden designer and greenhouse possessor turned TV celebSean Conway , who endure near me in Rhode Island , into one of their awful brands ( the Sean Conway line ) , and then he moved his stigma on to cable television receiver , PBS and a now a great book with an apparantly successful modus vivendi programthat I care I could get in the Boston area , calledCultivating Life ( also a book).Then come … TERRAIN ..
But then there isTERRAIN , perhaps the honest expression of how a gardening brand can evolve is what specialty retail merchant Urban Outfitters has create . As one of the premier design - driven company around , Urban Outfitters has exercise it ’s creative musculus in some very raw and unquestionable ways . This Philadelphia base fashion and life style company has opened , or shall I say , redesign a Philadelphia area greenhouse , into what many feel is the newfangled garden centre of attention . young , design centric and arresting , Terrain is catching everyones optic , from publishers to garden geeks like me . Watch how this storage will exchange everything . At least it has for Phily shoppers . Here is the closet discharge from a year ago .
“ The traditional atmosphere , the horticultural and land design expertness , and the wide range of plants in the region are enhanced by a novel sense of style from Terrain – the people who brought you the design innovation of the Urban Outfitters , Anthropologie and Free People store … withdraw on the work of present-day designers and traditional style from around the world , Terrain at Styer ’s integrates home and garden into a personal living blank enhanced by a connectedness to nature , and respect for our surround and our biotic community . ”
This should have been a kick in the bum , to Scott ’s Miracle Grow , that perhaps the needed a makeover fasssst .
Yes , some Styer;s shopper complained , and others felt that this was just another Starbuckification system taking over the world , but many feel that the store is quite dainty . Many bloggers likehiddeninfranceandOh Joyhave mail on the computer memory , and many picks can be seen on Flickr , just hunting terrain .
From the TERRAIN web site .
SO how successful is Terrain ? Well , time will tell , but at the Philadelphia Flower Show , their garden display won Best of Show , and peoplepopularity vote .
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