Farmer Seed And Nursery To Close

After 131 years of service to the Faribault area, the end of an era will happen sometime next month as Farmer Seed and Nursery will close its doors.

As someone who has shopped there a few times and at one time bought a Christmas tree there I know it was probably not an easy decision for them to make.

The employees were told on Wednesday according to the Faribault Daily News report. And Owen Nursery of Bloomington, Illinois runs the mail order operation and will continue to do so.

Becky Richie, who’s worked at the shop for 22 years, told the Faribault Daily news that employees weren’t told why it the iconic store was closing but noted that there has not been a drop in sales.

Discounts are already being offered, trees, shrubs, and perennials are 50 percent off while garden art and grass seed are 25 percent off.

The building has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1982.  No word as to what is to become of that. The Faribault Thresher Company was originally in the stone part built in1890. Farmer Seed purchased the building in 1899.  A two-story elevator was added in 1902, the east wing in 1906,  added in 1907 and 1909 were the second and third stories over the main section and the fourth and fifth stories added in the 1920s.

Again according to the news article,  just a few years ago in 2015 Farmer Seed and Nursery sold 898 fresh trees to families from around the state and region. Thousands of ornaments inside the retail store were sold to place on those trees. In that same year, 2 million copies of the Farmer Seed and Nursery catalog were mailed out to homes across the United States. Including all 10 catalogs the company has acquired over the years, the circulation was at 20 million.

They had fantastic displays around Christmas time. Many stores nowadays do not go to all of that trouble.  The graphic from their website says it all.