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The last day of June ushered in a busy day for the Sarasota Green Marketplace. Behind the register, owner Mary Anne Bowie answered questions about environmentally friendly household and construction products while customers flooded in and out of the store. Two young women flipped through books of eco-friendly paint samples. A father pulled three polycarbon water bottles off the shelf for his children. An elderly couple debated over scents of natural cleaners.

Unfortunately, the Marketplace has not seen many days like this recently. Yesterday’s hustle-and-bustle is due to the store’s half-off merchandise liquidation sale; Sarasota Green Marketplace officially closed for good this morning.

After sales plummeted drastically at the beginning of this year, Bowie looked to the community for financial support. At the end of March, she got word from two investors who said they would buy 80 percent of her assets and take over the business by June 1. Unfortunately, the investors decided not to purchase the assets just three days before the scheduled close date. “It may be because we had too many zero-dollar sales days over the past few months, where we made no profit,” Bowie says.

While the Sarasota Green Marketplace may have come to an end, Bowie will continue her work with green home improvement through other companies and the Internet. The product displays from the Marketplace will be passed on to reputable sustainable businesses. Her organic gardening materials can be purchased at Florida Native Plants, a Myakka nursery run by Laura Schiller. Her urban development company, Bowie Urban Planners, will move to the offices of Cruise Car Inc., which sells electric and solar-powered golf carts.

Although customers will have to redirect their business to other companies, Bowie will be satisfied as long as Sarasota has ways to practice sustainable development. Her work with Green Connection U.S., a Sarasota-based nonprofit organization, will continue to educate the community on the green economy through free events and informational courses.

“We’re not dead yet,” Bowie says of her enterprise. But still, Sarasota Green Marketplace is no more. Although the store was bustling with customers on its final day, the end was imminent and the atmosphere was solemn. One customer told Bowie, “It feels like a wake in here!” Bowie put on music to lighten the mood, but when the music stopped at the end of the day, it was all over.

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