DENVER—After nine decades, The Rocky Mountain Seed Company has gone out of business.
Customers called the company’s historic store in lower downtown Denver “frozen in time.” Even after the business moved to a new location, seeds continued to be sold from wooden cabinets used since the 1920s.
The seed company wrapped up a liquidation sale Saturday, closing its doors for good.
Leading up to the final day, a couple dozen people made their way through The Rocky Mountain Seed Company warehouse in north Denver, past wooden crates, past shelves full of things like mole repellent, and bags full of seeds that included corn varieties named “Jubilee”, “Sugar Buns” and “Early Sunglow”.
A woman and her daughter eyed a package of pumpkin seeds.
“What do you think, should we try it this year?” the woman asked.
A man who said he had supported the company for 50 years bought several packages of heirloom ornamental cabbage.
“Okay, it’s $2.10 out of $5,” the cashier said.
Several people visiting the store on one of its final days said they bought seeds from the company for decades, including Rene Buchholz, who gardens near Fort Morgan. He joked about how long it will take to get through the okra as he piled heavy bags of seeds on top of each other.
“I remember when they were in the downtown store, the old store, and I remember going in there when I was just a young guy, five years old,” Buchholz said. “Fascinating, it was like you know, the old seed boxes and everything, just great. When you’re a young kid, you know, you love that kind of thing.”
The Vetting family owned the store for decades. It was sold in 2005, and a couple years later moved out of downtown Denver. Joel Ramirez worked for the company for four years.
“And to see one of these old companies like this go, I mean, it’s heartbreaking, not only for us, but for our customers,” Ramirez said.
On the company’s website, the owners say they’re facing the same problems other small businesses are during the economic downturn—growing expenses, government regulations and the inability to get credit. Late last week, there were still hundreds of pounds of seeds to sell at big discounts, as well as the little that was left of the company’s furniture, such as tall oak filing cabinets from the first half of the 1900s.
Tom Kirk and Jay Robbins managed the liquidation sale that took place the past few weeks. At times, the store was flooded with customers buying all sorts of things.
“The one thing that was really popular was onion crates,” Kirk said. “We had these knock-down, fold-up wooden onion crates that were kind of dilapidated and rickety and we sold about 300 or 400 of them.”
A couple who own an antique store in Denver started packing up dozens of old accounting ledgers they just purchased as David Sanchez walked over and started flipping through pages of carefully handwritten names next to the amount of credit the store gave them. Sanchez, who owns a small farm about a mile from the store, recognized names in the ledgers.
“Right here, he’s my neighbor, Johnny Malera,” Sanchez said. “Johnny, I’ll be darned. He just passed away about three years ago. He farmed over there for 50 years.”
With The Rocky Mountain Seed Company closing, Sanchez said he’ll likely order seeds through the mail. He said he’s sad the area is losing the store, just like it has lost family farms.
Joel Ramirez is losing his job and he doesn’t have another one lined up, but hopes to stay in the seed business.
“I love it, I really love it,” Ramirez said. “Seeds are amazing. You take a seed, put it in the ground, you see the results. It is amazing.”
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Information from: KCFR-FM,
