For thirteen years I owned a store in Durango, Colorado. We called it The Greenery, because when it began, the houseplant boom got started in the U.S., but we also carried many gift items. After a while we moved the store to a great location in the heart of downtown Durango. We expanded big time into greeting cards, just at the time when alternatives to Hallmark began to appear on the market. Tourists flocked to the store in the summer, and we added two more stores, a candy store next to the movie theater (yummy Jelly Bellies), and a tourist shop next to the famous narrow gauge train.
We decide to try bedding plants. Colorado has lots of high quality greenhouses that ship plants everywhere. Every other week I would get a U-Haul and pull it across the mountains to hand-pick the highest possible quality plants. When I returned to the store, I would lay the trays of plants along the outside of our store. It would create pandamonium!
Well, it so happened that the mayor of the town owned a hardware store that for years had had a total monopoly on bedding plants. He would put up a greenhouse in his huge parking lot, and had the market all to himself...until we came along. Though I cannot prove it, I suspected that he used his powers as mayor to have the police arrest me. I think I was arrested three times that summer. The crime? There was an old statute they found that said that merchandise cannot be displayed more than 9 inches from the building. Each time I was arrested I went to court and pointed out to the judge that the merchants on Main Street, where my store was located, regularly conducted sidewalk sales in the middle of the sidewalk. The harassment continued, though.
Across the street JC Penny had a large arcade in front of its store. Walmart came to town, and Pennys relocated to the Walmart mall outside of town. We moved our store into the spot vacated by JC Penny, and received a letter from the mayor congratulating us on the move! If I would have saved that letter, maybe I could have sold it on Ebay like Rush!
6 comments:
Small town corruption? No way!
shoprat,
No way!
Ah, the downside of small towns. They are only as good as the people, and it seems that characters can be magnified in such a setting.
julie,
As usual, your comment is very perceptive.
Many wonderful memories came from your store as a child, my sister & I would spend so much time hanging out in your store looking at all the knick knacks. I can hear the music overhead. I remember you moving a couple of times. I had wonderful fond memories of Durango the years I lived there, let me with The Greenery being at the top along with Calyco Hill, The Gaslight $1 Tues movie, the Chocolate Factory (1st store) the old Drive In, your store was my sister & I's favorite pastime hanging out walking up & down Main Str!
I loved the Greenery as a kid. My family lived just on the other side of the state border in New Mexico. Going to the Greenery was always a treat for us.
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