The Curious Phenomenon of the Garden Superstore

A "category killer" or something else?

The last couple of weekends, my wife and I have gone to Merrifield Garden Center, a small local chain of nurseries/garden centers in Northern Virginia. Our closest location is in Fairfax, along U.S. 29, in an immediate area that hasn’t been too heavily developed. It looks like this from the air:

That might not look too big. But the entire property is bet…