Saturday, September 17, 2005

small mom and pop vs. BIG CHAIN stores

It was announced yesterday that Rowlands Nursery will be closing its doors after 50 years of serving Albuquerque. This is sad news. The reason they're closing is that they can't keep up with the competition. They had 5 stores in this city. Yes, there are other locally owned nurseries, but the competition that did them in was Walmart, Lowes, and Home Depot.

Rowlands was always a little more expensive than BIG CHAIN stores, but it is SOOO worth it. The quality is so much better. You may not notice when your looking at the plant in the store but once you plant it you start to tell the difference immediately. The plants from the BIG CHAIN stores, don't do as well, they don't grow as fast, they may even die. If they have flowers they don't bloom near as abundantly as the plants purchased from Rowlands. Every spring Rowlands has the largest selection of Roses you have ever seen. The people that work there KNOW their plants. Every year after christmas they run a FREE christmas tree recyling program.

Its sad that this company which has added character (and beauty) to the city will now be closing its doors forever. Not just because of the great plants and the knowledgeable staff. The small mom and pop stores are what distinguishes a city from any other city in the world. Its what makes each city unique. We as a society NEED to support the small locally owned stores. As a young mom on a tight budget I can see the draw of "saving money" by buying from the big chains. But in the process of saving money you would be destroying your community. In the plant world specifically, if you think you're saving money by purchasing your plants from Home Depot, you'll be surprised to know you'll probably end up spending MORE money to replace your dead or dying plant down the road. Spend a few dollars more and buy HIGH quality.

My husband is currently out taking advantage of the 50-75% mark down on these quality plants, trees and shrubs for their "going out of business sale". I would be there with him but because we have a small car, and two kids there would be no way to get home all the things we would want to get. He's planning on getting a couple of Purple Robe Locust trees, some daylillies, and flox. We'll see what else he gets. We're going back this afternoon so I can see if there is anything else that I want that he missed. (If you had the opportunity to get plants marked down 50-75% what would you want?)

When all 5 of their stores are closed it will be a very sad day indeed. One of the stores closed its doors forever yesterday. The other 4 closures will be spread out over the next couple of months. There are other locally owned plant nurseries around the area, and we will support these stores with our patronage. It would be wonderful if Santa Fe Greenhouses opened a store in Albuquerque. They currently only have one store, which is located in Santa Fe. We'll just have to wait and see.

Please support the specialness of your community. Thats what makes it unique from all others. Support locally owned businesses in your town.

Because I'm talking about greenhouses in the Albuquerque there is another rage about plant life that I could go on. But I'll save that for another post another day.


(Ten Minutes Later) My husband just got home from Rowlands. He only purchased a few juniper bushes and some purple sage. Even though he was there as soon as the doors opened this morning it was an absolute mad house of people, and he doesn't do well in large crazy crowds. As he was checking out a woman asked if she could have his cart. She said she would even help him unload! And she did! :-)


(6 hrs later) ...okay I have more to add! I've been thinking about this ALL DAY! I thought about the movie "You've Got Mail!" where her little bookstore gets blowed under by the big, bad bookstore. Which reminded me that is another bit of nostalgia that we've lost in Albuquerque. A few months ago a bookstore called "Bound To Be Read" closed its doors due to competition by Borders and Barnes & Noble. It was a quant little bookstore that had an awesome kids section. The rest of the store was awesome too.

Then it occurred to me that we ONLY go to "hole in the wall" restaurants in Albuquerque. We're not really big fans of the big chains. We never leave feeling like we got enough food for our money. But all the small restaurants we go to we leave with very full tummies and think "how can they stay in business serving so much food for such a small price?" But they do it, and they do it well. A lot of them have been in business for 30 yrs OR MORE!

I guess the reason I thought of the "hole in the wall" restaurants is because we went to lunch at a small chinese restaurant today. HUGE amounts of food for only $3.95!!! Its the only chinese restaurant in town we'll go to! They recognize us when we walk in, they know our children and our children know them. They often give us free soup and egg rolls for our kids and the cook will come out with cookies for my son. We have gone there since he was 6 months old, and have seen me get big in the tummy with my daughter, and then see her grow from an infant to a toddler. My husband goes to this restaurant at least once a week with friends from work.

Anyway, I guess I'm just trying to reemphasize the need to support the small local stores and restaurants.
Posted by ABQ Mom :: 9/17/2005 09:22:00 AM :: 4 Comments:

Post a Comment

---------------------------------------