Local Flower Shop News
The Dutch Florist behind the Met’s Grandiose Bouquets - Artsy
Tuesday, July 09, 2019Dutch horticulture industry (famous for its tulips). His great-grandfather had grown flowers for a living, while his grandfather and father became florists. Van Vliet was raised in his father’s shop and began arranging flowers not by choice, but “out of obligation,” he remembered, with a laugh. “It’s kind of like being the son of a butcher or baker—you have to help out in the family business. So that’s what I did.” He spent the majority of his young life in the family store, arranging as many as 40 to 50 bouquets per day for locals and the occasional royal. Each small-ish arrangement took him around 10 minutes to assemble; he plucked flowers from a patchwork of buckets behind the counter as he went. When he wasn’t in the shop, Van Vliet immersed himself in art. (His grandfather, who’d painted and collected art on the side, had rubbed off on his grandson in this way, too.) In school, he learned painting, etching, watercolors, welding, and art history; he remembers at least two works from the Met’s collection showing up on his final exams. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-dutch-florist-mets-grandiose-bouquets
Inside The Bouqs Co.’s plan to take on the largest online florists - DigitalCommerce360
Tuesday, July 09, 2019The Bouqs Co. is a relatively small online florist, at least compared with online giants such as ProFlowers.com, 1-800-Flowers.com and FTD.com. April Berthene May 8, 2018 Bouqs, for example, attracted roughly 146,000 total visits in November 2018, nearly a 25% increase from a year earlier, according to digital measurement firm SimilarWeb Ltd. That’s a far cry from ProFlowers (1.75 million visitors in November), 1-800-Flowers (1.75 million) and FTD (1.50 million). But Bouqs is growing quickly; its November revenue was up 45% compared with the previous year.And while the holidays don’t account for an outsized sales role for many florists, Bouqs generates roughly a quarter of its annual sales in t... https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2019/01/10/inside-the-bouqs-co-s-plan-to-leverage-engagement-marketing-to-take-on-the-largest-online-florists/
After Nearly 40 Years in the Subway, a Flower Man Stops Peddling - Bedford + Bowery
Tuesday, July 09, 2019My energy is no good no more,” he said with his heavy Greek accent. “I can’t do it no more, I’m tired.”Tsoumas remembered that when he first started his business, flower concessions such as Gus Florist, Flowers for all Occasions populated the train stations in the city. Regular folk bought flowers everyday; they “needed” the flowers, he said. Fridays was a particularly good sales day, as were the long dreary days of winter. But now, the money was to be found doing flower arrangements for weddings, funerals or parties, “nothing else.” Tsoumas bemoaned that young people don’t “believe” in flowers anymore and the big retail companies are snuffing out small tradesmen with their wholesale prices.As we spoke, an elderly woman with big eyes approached the stand and rested her cane against one of the station’s columns as she gazed at the bouquets. Tsoumas came out from behind the flowers and told her he wouldn’t be there next week. “I have bad news, I’m leaving. I’m retiring,” he said, leaning briefly into her.“Oh, congratulations!” the woman replied and patted him gently on the chest. “Thank you so much, I appreciate it,” he said.The gray-haired woman said that she had known Tsoumas for at least 20 years and that whenever she visited the neighborhood she would get flowers from him. She wished him good luck and reminded him to keep doing “something” after retirement... https://bedfordandbowery.com/2019/06/after-nearly-40-years-in-the-subway-a-flower-man-stops-peddling/
Community blossoms at Princeton's Vaseful Flowers and Gifts - Community News Service
Tuesday, July 09, 2019The aim is eventually to hire 12 employees with disabilities at the store, all under the watchful eye of a program manager, Nicole Young, and a professional florist, Kathleen Angelinovich.Above, employees at work in the store, which plans to hire a total of 12 employees with disabilities.Kanjani works at the shop five days a week, from Monday to Friday, as a floral trainee. He called working there “pretty good” and said his duties include feeding the flowers, putting them in vases, and sweeping the floors. Jose Saez, another employee, felt it was exciting to be a part of a new business.Employees work part-time, 20 hours a week, and get paid at the state minimum wage. Their tasks run the gamut, like working the cash register, keeping the store clean, and making deliveries — all intended to build job skills that they can take to their next employer.“This is a stepping stone for them, so we’re looking for them to gain competitive employment outside of here,” Young said. “So this is their training ground. This is where it all gets started. This is where they get the taste of what employment is.”They work with the flowers too, said Angelinovich, who has spent 30 years in the flower business. Before this job, she was a floral manager for a ShopRite in Neptune.“They’re learning about processing the flowers, cutting them, hydrating them, the different names, different varieties,” she said. “I think for me walking into this, it was a flower shop, but it was so much more. It was just so much more of an opportunity for me to get to do this and get a sense of purpose.”Community Options purchased the current Vaseful site five years ago and first used it as temporary offices. Stack said his vision was always to make it a flower store, a step that required getting a variance from the town and renovating the building.At a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the store’s grand opening on June 5, state Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney said he was proud of his adult daughter, Lauren, who has Down syndrome and loves her job at a daycare center. In 2018 the unemployment rate nationally for the disabled was 8 percent, compared to 3.7 percent for those without a disability, the federal government reported earlier this year.“Giving people with disabilities an opportunity to gain employment matters a great deal because people with disabilities have the ability to work,” he said. “Really looking beyond the disability and looking (at) what the person is able to do is critically important to get people with disabilities into the working world.”The store gets its flowers from local wholesalers and is home to 20 varieti... https://communitynews.org/2019/07/01/community-blossoms-at-princetons-vaseful-flowers-and-gifts/
She drives a tiny flower truck, and business is blooming - CBC.ca
Tuesday, July 09, 2019Crawley said."I've had this in my dream box for quite a few years now and just decided that now is the time to put it into play." She has no formal training as a florist. A former stay-at home mom to her three children, she spent seven years working as a secretary at a local elementary school.After a string of family illnesses and mishaps last year, Crawley felt overwhelmed and craved change.Then she realized being a florist on the move was her dream job."You really try to sit back and try to figure out things that really make you tick, the things that you really love."If you could pick anything in the world to do, what would those things be? For a long time, it was really hard to make that list. "And then I came across that picture and I thought, 'You know what? I think I'm ready to try this.'" It just makes people smile, which was exactly what I needed.- Laura CrawleyShortly after, Crawley quit her steady job at the school, found the perfect tiny truck for sale in Lacombe, and hit the road. Selling flowers by the stem or bouquet out of her flatbed has been a challenge, Crawley said.She had to customize the truck's bed to ensure the flowers are well protected from the elements and don't wilt en route. Some varieties fare better on the road than others. But business appears to be blooming and it's a rewarding job. The perfect bloom bring can brighten a home or a bad mood, Crawley said. And that's why she got into the business. To spread a little happiness."It gives me more than I give to it," she said. "It just makes people smile, which was exactly what I needed and I think what everybody needs."... https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/edmonton-flower-truck-business-1.5197252
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