Due to expenses as well as the effects of COVID-19, owner Karen Diercks has announced that her store, The Flower Gallery, will stop selling flowers and instead be The Gift Gallery in 2021.
MUSCATINE — For 26 years, The Flower Gallery has been a part of downtown Muscatine. The fragrant florets are about the become the latest victim of the COVID-19 impact on Muscatine's downtown.
But by the end of 2020, customers will see some changes in the store, including a name change and a change in the offerings to customers.
“I’m going to quit being a flower shop in December,” said owner Karen Diercks. “Starting in January, I’ll just be The Gift Gallery instead of The Flower Gallery. I’ll try it for a year, but I don’t know how successful I’ll be.”
Diercks started The Flower Gallery after being inspired by a custodian at her former Stanley Center job, who had been unable to continue his flower design work. This designer wasn’t able to stay with her throughout the store’s entire run, but Diercks has since met other designers.
Diercks said it is expensive running the flower side of the business. “The cooler costs hundreds of dollars to run every month, and having a design person is also expensive,” she said.
Her designer, Jennifer Summy, plans to open a flower shop on Park Avenue sometime in 2021. “It’s going to be adorable, she’s the best designer in town. I’m really going to miss working with her.”
Diercks also wanted to reduce hours and work five days a week instead of six. “With a flower shop, you have to be open earlier and stay until five… I’d like to take a day off during the week. With flowers, you have to be here every day, because there could be a funeral or a Sunday delivery.”
COVID-19 has also had a significant impact on sales.
“My sales are way down, because people are afraid to come out.” Diercks recalled how, during the mandatory closure earlier in the year, she and her designer opened for Mother’s Day weekend.
“Jen and I came in because that was too much business for us not to have, although it was a third of what it was last year, but it was still something I had to have.”
“When I worked at Stanley’s, I was always involved with the Downtown Alliance. You had to be able to sell the community to people, and Muscatine had a lot to offer in shopping,” she said, “We always understood that the heart of a community are its small businesses downtown.”
In recent years, stores have closed for various reasons.
“To keep another business in downtown Muscatine open, I feel like that’s a commitment that I made many years ago… that I would help this downtown area survive. People who have lived here all their life will come in and say, oh I didn’t realize this was your store, I love it! That does my heart good and keeps me going for another year,” she said. “Likewise, it’s crushing to hear people say that they don’t come down because they think there’s nothing down here, because we do work very hard to make a cohesive downtown.”
Diercks hopes the change allows her to keep the business open.
“I hope that my sales increase, and I’m hoping that with the reduction in expenses, the gift side of the store will support the costs in running the business. If I can even break even in the first year of doing that, I would like to work three more years,” she said. “I appreciate my customers, and I hope they keep coming to see me even when I’m not a flower shop, and I hope all of the downtown businesses have a good holiday season, because we need it.”
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November 13, 2020 at 12:40AM
https://muscatinejournal.com/muscatine/muscatines-flower-gallery-to-stop-selling-flowers-convert-to-gift-gallery/article_8aa8a777-4466-5033-b3d5-134273835b83.html
Muscatine's Flower Gallery to stop selling flowers, convert to Gift Gallery - Muscatine Journal
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