Well, this is too bad

Mike’s Organic in Cos Cob has withered and died less than a year after opening

"Several issues impeded our progress, including significantly higher-than-anticipated construction costs, inflation, food prices rising at the highest rate in decades, continued challenges in the retail industry, and more," a caption on a Mike's Organic Instagram post states. "In the end we were not able to get the business to the place it needed to be in the time we had."

Retail’s a tough business, and selling produce at twice the price of conventionally-raised cabbages and peas must only make it tougher. In addition, though his beautiful renovation of the old IHOP building enhanced this area of Cos Cob wonderfully, its cost surely had the opposite affect on his bottom line. There’s a reason Korean greengrocers operate from linoleum-floored shoeboxes.

But there’s nothing to cheer about seeing a small business fail, especially when it’s been run by good people.