HInes Bankruptcy
James Waddick (Sat, 13 Sep 2008 13:05:26 PDT)

Dear All,
This may be off topic to a certain degree, but I just learned
that Hines Hort., the 2nd largest commercial nursery in the US filed
for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 a few weeks ago. There is
an interesting commercial nursery blog discussion at
http://thegoldengecko.com/blog/?p=230 tracing Hines' problem to the
practices of big box stores.

The big box stores get plants from growers at no cost. They
pay only for those that sell. If they die under the box store care or
just get discarded at the end of the season, the box store has no
investment and the grower takes all the risks.

Some of this may of interest to some of you. I found it
intriguing especially in context of the US economy.

Best Jim W.
--
Dr. James W. Waddick
8871 NW Brostrom Rd.
Kansas City Missouri 64152-2711
USA
Ph. 816-746-1949
Zone 5 Record low -23F
Summer 100F +