Editor’s note: This is part of an occasional series about how locally-owned, small businesses in the Longview area are faring — and in some cases surviving — in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Reactions because of the COVID-19 pandemic have turned the usual rosy receptions flower delivery drivers receive a bit thorny, but Longview Flower Shop’s Zack Oden takes it all in stride.
“They’ll see you walking to the door and wave at you to stop and tell you to, ‘sit them down right there,’” Oden recounted. “I had one guy tell me, ‘Don’t ever come up here again; we’re practicing social distancing!’ “
However, not all recent changes at the 85-year-old business have been negative says Oden’s mother Kim Oden-Bryan, who purchased the shop from her mother Nancy Van Dyke ten years ago.
“We had a major overhaul in the front,” said Oden-Bryan describing the recent remodel that showcases a vintage cooler for the flowers and removed a suspended ceiling to reveal the original, tall windows lining two sides of the showroom. “When mother did it (remodeled) in the seventies, of course, that was the time when they had carpet on the walls and the drop ceilings. We had all these fabulous windows up there that weren’t even seen from inside.”
Oden-Bryan’s husband Jerry added, “So we took advantage of not having people inside and we put it back the way it was when her aunt Gifty originally built the building.”
Oden-Bryan’s great, great aunt Gifty Francis founded the business in 1935, later moving from the lobby of the Hilton Hotel in downtown to the current location at 701 E. Methvin St. in 1948.
“We were affected at first because we were not allowed to be open because we’re non-essential,” Oden-Bryan said. “At that time, we were only servicing families in need, flowers for funerals. The hospitals shut down flowers as well. But then Mother’s Day came along, and we were hit really hard because people couldn’t see their mothers so they were sending flowers. We did mothers day for three weeks.”
While business from large events and weddings has wilted due to the pandemic, since being allowed to reopen, Oden-Bryan says her sales have begun to blossom and she also believes her customer base has expanded because several shops were not as quick to again open the doors.
“So, we picked up new customers there,” she said, “and we saw an increase in out-of-town orders or online customers ordering flowers because they couldn’t go see their loved ones.”
Oden-Bryan said it has been difficult finding some types of flowers due to suppliers and transportation being hampered in different parts of the world as the coronavirus pandemic continues. Just this past week, she said they were told by a supplier that snapdragons would soon be hard to get.
Oden-Bryan said customers and staff are required to wear masks in the front of the store, but in the large backroom of the business, her staff are allowed to work without masks.
“We work six feet apart; we’re lucky that we have the space to do that,” she said.
September 08, 2020 at 07:30PM
https://www.news-journal.com/news/local/longview-flower-shop-staff-keeps-it-rosy-despite-pandemic/article_253d987e-e627-11ea-9ef0-3bd75bf82ec5.html
Longview Flower Shop staff keeps it rosy despite pandemic - Longview News-Journal
https://news.google.com/search?q=Flower&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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