Business that lets you smash things for a price

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SAN DIEGO (CNNMoney.com) — When Sarah Lavely gets angry, she likes to break things. Not all the time, but on days when everything seems to be going wrong, she has been known to throw some plates against a wall. Fortunately, she has an easy outlet: Lavely is the founder of Sarah’s Smash Shack, a San Diego shop where customers pay to smash tableware like dinner plates, wine glasses, intricately lined sashimi plates, brightly colored vases and goblets.

The store’s pristine white shelves are filled with china just waiting to be broken.

“I picked pretty things because people are coming in here to do something they aren’t supposed to do,” Lavely says. “And breaking stuff like this is a little taboo.”

The smashing is done in special soundproofed “break rooms” where customers – outfitted in coveralls, boots, gloves and a helmet – stand behind a chest-high barrier and hurl breakables at a stainless steel-covered wall. All the broken glass is donated to schools and art programs throughout the region.

Lavely, 38, is a former veterinarian. She began venting her frustrations on breakables as a child – she started with Christmas ornaments, then escalated to potted plants. As an angst-ridden teenager she targeted telephones and, once, a window.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/17/smallbusiness/smash_shack.smb/index.htm?postversion=2008092510