BLAINE, Minn. – (Feb. 9, 2017) – We all know that Valentine’s Day means big business for flower shops. But just how much rides on this one day for some local businesses?
“For us personally it can be anywhere from 10 to 20 percent of the business we do throughout the year. I think that’s pretty standard in this industry, some may be a little higher than that. On Valentine’s Day alone we’ll see over 1,000 people come through the store. On a typical week we may sell 3,000 roses but we’ll sell over 15,000 stems over three days at Valentine’s day,” said Flowerama owner Tim Duecker.
And, Valentine’s Day is much more than just a bouquet of flowers these days.
“We do an awful lot of balloons, balloons are a great add on. We try to focus a lot on locally grown things so we have locally grown tulips people will add to their flower arrangements, we’ve got some beautiful locally grown plants. I buy all my candy from here in Minnesota. It’s a company down in Apple Valley called Abdallah so we really stress local product. My staff does a great job adding these things to your rose order or your flower order. Nobody wants to get home and have somebody be upset they didn’t get everything they needed so we try to do the best job we can with that,” said Duecker.
Tim has tried to make his store a part of the community. And, when he heard about a terrible situation just a few houses away from his store he deiced to help.
“We’ve tried to always be community involved and it was just recently that a neighbor of ours up the block had a house fire and they are now out of their home. We just happened to see it and I have to be honest I don’t know that I know these people but my staff has really rallied around this cause and we have decided to donate a dollar of every dozen roses we sell from Saturday through Tuesday to the family,” said Duecker.
Duecker plans to try and make a sometimes stressful time for customers as positive as possible, with hot beverages available to those waiting in the long lines. All part of trying to create an atmosphere that is unique and keeps customers shopping close to home.
“Shop local. Their are a lot of great florists here in the Twin Cities, we’re just one of them,” said Duecker.
Your local chamber of commerce or city hall can be a good resource for a listing of local businesses.
