12/28/2023
Hi everyone, Tegan here!
As we are headed into the new year, there are some announcements I need to make.
I wanted to start this post off by saying thank you to everyone who has supported the store over the last 5 years and allowed us to grow and accomplish what we have in that time. I will forever be grateful to all of our customers that helped me take a small little dream into a huge accomplishment. I have had the honor of meeting so many amazing people through this journey, and never would I have thought the store would be what it is today. I have poured my heart & soul into this place, and I’m often in awe of how many of you can see that just by walking in. I am forever grateful.
With all of that being said, all good things must come to an end, and the Seeds storefront will be closing. We will remain open through the end of March.
Unfortunately, as I posted almost a year ago now.. my health is in bad shape. In the beginning I stepped away to completely focus on my health, with not great odds to start with. With sadness, me entirely focusing on my health came to an end months ago.
The City of Dunedin has not allowed me to create time and peace for myself to continue to step away from the store and do the treaments /surgery necessary for me to actually have a chance to live. I still do treatment every week but it’s minimal compared to what I should be doing. I have had to eliminate a large portion of my treatment so that I can function and be in the store regularly. Which basically means I’m not getting worse but I’m not having a chance to get better.
The City of Dunedin has changed so much since I first opened. The events that helped our revenue have either been completely canceled or changed to the point where they completely take away all of our business. They don’t support retailers at all. They don’t put money back into the town to create a place where people still want to enjoy. They support zero new ideas. Make it absolutely impossible to do anything to make money, unless they are getting a cut of it. I have been repeatedly threatened over doing things just trying to get back our revenue. We used to do so many outdoor sales and early Saturday plant blowouts. We are not allowed to do anything anymore. I have single handedly tried to create events to bring people in and every idea has been shut down by the city. We are not allowed to have any merchandise or do anything beyond our doors. At this point, they just search for things to come down on us for. At the same time of all of this happening, they have created such a huge bubble for how much it costs to have a storefront in Dunedin, it’s completely out of control. We can’t keep up with it at this point. It’s only Emily and I working the store anymore and it’s detrimental to my health to be there. Being there, and breathing in germs has already put me in critical condition in the hospital on more than one occasion. It’s not sustainable at this point. I’ve tossed so many ideas around in my head for another outcome. It’s just not possible, and very sad.
With the closure of the store, I will be able to take on trying to conquer this illness. I’m still at stage 4, and unfortunately within the last few days over Christmas I underwent surgery and have found new cancer growths amongst large blood clots and other problems. In addition to the tumors in my liver & the spleen / pancreas area. I would give anything just to be pain free at this point.
However! We won’t be disappearing completely. Emily will be staying on & We will be fully launching our website open to shipping nationwide and local pick up right across the street in Dunedin. We will also be starting on a new adventure in February where Seeds will be a retail partner inside of the new concept called Ten Rooms in ybor. We will release more details closer to the time of opening!
I know we will never be able to portray the amount of beauty in the store in any other way, but I hope you can all find peace in still being able to shop online etc with us.
Once again, thank you for all of the support.
Emily and I hope to see all of you over the next couple months before closing.
Enjoy this picture of us goofin in the store..
🫶🏼
