On Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:46:37 -0500, Derald wrote:

Well, there's no Kmart within a reasonable drive of me and I'm not a
(fill-in-the-blank)mart shopper, anyway. Alas, Baker Creek has no B&M store in
my area. I had a bad experience buying online from them, as well as from
Southern Exposure, so both are on my personal "don't bother" list. Too bad, too,
because the latter means I resume the 60-mile annual round-trip to get my
preferred variety of "crowder" cowpea. Of course, YMMV.

If you don't mind sharing - what sort of bad experience?

From talking with them at the store (including the founder, Jere
Gettle), it seems their home base - a large farm operation in MO - is
susceptible to power outages during winter storms. One of the
attractive reasons for them to have opened the store in Sonoma County
is that it provided them with a second place from which to fulfill
orders (and to store seed) should conditions prevent them from doing
so from MO.