Smith & Hawken to shut down because of weak economy

Put down by a weed killer business. Now that's economic fundamentals.

See, why don't they just let banks and auto companies fail? Oh, yeah, that's right, because they are ruled by the global elite.

Mr. Smith and Mr. Hawkins seem a litle too smug about the demise of their namesake. Of course they did walk away with Millions and Millions of $ when they sold out and why would they care if hundreds of their former employees are out of work now. I guess they forgot that their former employees are one of the reasons why they walked away rich.

Capitalism sucks longdong, doesn't it ?

nice stuff but way over priced
so gone the same way as restoration hardware
who is next?
my bet is the bank takes back the new corporate center buildings in san rafael in the next 2 years
cant imagine they have leased them up in this economy and if not putiing up that much space in a recession/depression is crazy

Dalong wrote:

Mr. Smith and Mr. Hawkins seem a litle too smug about the demise of their namesake. Of course they did walk away with Millions and Millions of $ when they sold out and why would they care if hundreds of their former employees are out of work now. I guess they forgot that their former employees are one of the reasons why they walked away rich.

Couldn't agree with you more! They didn't mind selling their name then did they and now they want to go into internet sales because they didn't sign a non compete. How clever of them.

I will miss the Mill Valley store. Very sad for the employees who are all very professional and pleasant.

And I do have gardening items that I bought there recently for reasonable prices.

Even when the economy was booming I didn't shop at Smith and Hawken. The prices they were asking for merchandise was obscene. I'm sure the former owners could care less, they got the money and ran!

Basics done well. Makes perfect sense to me.

I was completely saddened by the news at first, but now feel better that Mr S & Mr H are happy with the closure. Of course, my family loves the furniture so we need a new source.

I was just there yesterday and bought a completely ingenious device. But what was better was the total devotion of the employee at the Mill Valley store who patiently tried to creatively help my friend with a solution to her disappearing koi from her pond. It is very sad for these devoted and excellent employees.

Just reread the story...former owners Smith and especially Hawken are complete jerks. Hosting a party to celebrate closure of the stores and the loss of jobs for 700 (not so rich) people.

I loved the shopping at the MV store. I shall avoid Mr Smith and Hawken in their future endeavors, not that they care.

Great journalism. A well researched story that was fun to read and surprisingly informative. Who knew these guys were so distanced from their baby?

A year ago, my friend and I said that S&H would fold because all that they sold was teak furniture, over priced tools and English gadgets.It became a place to window shop but not to buy. It was not a gardening store anymore. The local gardening stores in Marin County are always busy. Let's support them.

Greenbrae, CA

walked in there once ... looked at a price tag... snorted.. walked out

clearly targeted to the 'Housewives of Marin' that have more money than sense ....

yeah... it was the economy ... lol

It used to be one of my favorite places. A little sad to see the turnover and the decline. Oh well.

Smith and Hawken is shutting down because they lost the vision of the original business -- to provide high quality, hard to find gardening tools and accessories. The "new" Smith and Hawken has the same overpriced unnecessary uninteresting stuff as everybody else.

Once a company loses it's vision, it's time to say goodbye.

Goodbye!

Support Your Community wrote:

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Couldn't agree with you more! They didn't mind selling their name then did they and now they want to go into internet sales because they didn't sign a non compete. How clever of them.

me too! smug is too polite for these two crooks. more "round-up" please!

Dalong wrote:

Mr. Smith and Mr. Hawkins seem a litle too smug about the demise of their namesake. Of course they did walk away with Millions and Millions of $ when they sold out and why would they care if hundreds of their former employees are out of work now. I guess they forgot that their former employees are one of the reasons why they walked away rich.

Too right. These guys are the worst kind of robber barons imho. Sadly Marin is full of self-righteous "enlightened" jerks like that.

hawken is a FAKE and a non environmentalist! All he ever does is flip houses and waste building materials to increase the bulge of dollars in his pockets.