The Vanishing Nursery: Changing Lifestyles, Chain Stores Edge Out Struggling Mom-And-Pops
October 25, 2013 | 1 min to read
For the better part of 50 years, every community in the Lower Hudson Valley seemed to have at least one local mom-and-pop nursery. It was where you went on Saturday mornings to pick up grass seed, rose bushes, rakes and flats of impatiens.
Lately, though, once-loyal customers have slowly drifted toward the low-price allure of the big-box stores. Even supermarkets now offer endless varieties of cut flowers, along with poinsettias, pansies and pumpkins.
Demographics have changed — more women work, younger folks don’t seem as interested in gardening — and overhead costs have soared. Everyone is busy, busy, busy on weekends with youth sports and games on TV. Who has time to garden?
The end result: many of these community institutions are in serious trouble, perilously close to shutting down and giving in to development pressure.
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