Hobson’s Choice was never a chain, and more than five years had passed when the first store was sold and the second one opened.
But the period between 1997 and 2002 and the distance between Wilmington and Hoosick Falls (NY), near the border with Vermont, were trivialized in the eyes of many former customers.
They believed the second incarnation of Hobson’s Choice would be similar to the first.
“Everyone thought there would definitely be fruit and vegetables,” Kathy Hobson said recently. “But we’re not in the fruit and vegetable business here and we’re not open year-round.”
The store, located at 5411 New York Route 7, sells seasonal plants and gifts for the home and garden. It opened for the season on May 1 and will remain open through the end of October, after which it will have limited hours until Christmas Eve.
“Business is going very well,” said Kathy Hobson.
“It was solid,” added her son, Todd LeRay. “Very solid.”
Owner Ken Hobson had already sold Hobson’s Choice, located on Vermont Route 11 in Wilmington, and retired from the business when he met his future wife, Kathy.
While looking for a home to live in, they noticed a building located off a busy state road near Hoosick Falls. The property included a small commercial building and a greenhouse.
Ken decided this would be the perfect location for a vegetable-free version of Hobson’s Choice. The business began in the fall of 2002.
“When we bought this place, he said we would open it and run it for five years,” Kathy recalled. “And then 20 years later, when he turned 70, he retired again.”
Ken Hobson turns 74 on the 28th. He still handles the books and helps unload delivery trucks, but the business is now run by his wife and their son. The two said Ken Hobson is happy to share his wisdom and advice for working with plants.
“They’re very particular about everything that gets unloaded from a truck,” said Kyle DeGraaf of Hoosic Falls. DeGraaf works as a registered nurse at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center in Bennington. For the past decade, she has tended the gardens around Hobson’s Choice. It’s a barter system. In exchange for weeding and transplanting, she gets annuals for the window boxes at her house and perennials for her garden. She considers the work therapy for the stress of her day job.
“You will never find a bad flower or pot arrangement at Hobson’s,” said DeGraaf.
In addition to DeGraaf and a few breeders, and Ken Hobson’s work on the books, Hobson’s Choice is run by Kathy Hobson and Todd LeRay.
“I take care of the watering and taking care of the plants. That side of things,” said LeRay, 49. “She takes care of gifts and decorating and cleaning up inside and outside the store.”
“Don’t let him fool you,” Kathy said. “He does a lot of decorating, too.”
Located on a busy east-west highway and with items displayed on a shoulder facing the north side of the road, Hobson’s Choice is highly visible, attracting many passing travelers and seasonal visitors each year.
“Today, people who were traveling from Texas to Maine stopped here,” LeRay said. “People are making U-turns to come back and look at what’s on the front lawn.”
Tourists buy gifts, but plant sales – which bring in about half of the revenue – are mainly to locals and second-home owners. Plant buyers come from both sides of the state border.
“As I speak to you, I’m looking at 24 large pots on my patio,” Barbara Wall of Bennington said recently by phone. She said she has been shopping at Hobson’s Choice since it opened 22 years ago. Each of the pots was filled with products from the store, including lantanas and zinnias.
“I love their herbs, from basil to oregano,” Wall said. “I love cooking with them.”
Like Wall, Kelly Brown has been a customer since 2002. She said she buys plants for her home in West Hoosick, NY, but also for the Walloomsac Taproom & Brewery in North Hoosick, which she co-owns.
“We have a number of barrels on the river bank and this year we used all of the herbs from Hobson’s Choice,” Brown said. “They’re hearty and we cut them up and use them for culinary purposes.”
Brown began her home garden in earnest in 2018, when her house was a stop on a walk organized as a charity event. She said she planted perennial beds and a vegetable garden and added climbing roses and other plants from Hobson’s Choice.
“It’s just wonderful to shop local,” Brown said. “Kathy knows my name and the names of my three daughters. My sister lives in Saratoga, where there are lots of flower shops. But she drives here to shop with Kathy.”
Kathy Hobson said she has no plans to follow her husband into early retirement. May is always the busiest time at Hobson’s Choice, and as they weather another crisis, she will focus on the rest of this season and think about her annual winter break.
“I feel like I work hard here seven days a week,” she said. “And then I go to Florida and relax.”
