Firmly Planted

When Owner Rachel Baba first opened Seed Factory in Atlanta in 2002, she laughs, “I really sort of left-footed into all of it. I didn’t study business, so the learning curve was straight up.” But, 13 years later, Baba is clearly doing something right. She may have moved four times and re-branded (from Sprout to Seed Factory in 2008), but one element has remained the same: location, location, location. Baba never wanted to leave the store’s original home, White Provision, built in 1910 as the South’s first modern meatpacking plant. “It’s an urban playground with train tracks and a bridge. The kids love it,” she explains. So why all the moves? The savvy retailer always managed to find bigger or better-suited spaces within the historic building. Fittingly, the interior of Seed Factory has an industrial feel with white walls and raw wood floors. With plenty of apparel, gifts and a recently-expanded book collection, all for children ages newborn to 10 years, Baba’s former factory space is now bursting with kid-friendly treats—rather than meats.