One week after temporarily closing last March during the COVID shutdown, Lush Flowers began focusing on food gift baskets as a quick pivot in an attempt to stay in business.
But once the shutdown mandate relaxed and Lush was able to reopen with no-contact deliveries, the Clear Lake area floral shop discovered that demand was strong again for flowers. But this time, something was different — orders flowed in for what owner René Johnson calls “just because” flowers.
‘Ridiculous amounts of flowers’
“I mean, ridiculous amounts of flowers were being sent out just because, just because,” said Johnson, 51. “People started sending flowers to essential workers at hospitals, for new babies, birthdays, anniversaries or just sending ‘I love you’ and ‘Get well’ or ‘Thinking of you’ messages.”
Ashley Cain, who does marketing for Lush and manages the front desk, also took note of the change.
“Our main foundation was weddings, parties and events — that was the big part of our revenue before COVID,” said Cain. “But now we’re seeing more repeat customers and new customers for everyday flowers.”
More people are wanting fresh flowers in their homes — and Johnson attributes that to COVID.
“I saw a resurgence in the appreciation of flowers, kind of the way it was in the ’70s and ’80s. That love of flowers, having them in your home on a weekly basis is coming back,” she said.
“We started realizing that (the pandemic) wasn’t going to end soon, that it was going to go on exponentially,” she said. “People were going to have to stay in, protect themselves. More people were getting sick, more people were dying, hospitals were filling up, people were told not to meet, not to go to weddings, no get-togethers. And that’s when I saw the real change happen.”
‘You could feel their grief’
Johnson’s staff began writing messages by hand instead of using printed cards on certain orders for the personal impact it would have on the recipients.
“We do that because a handwritten message for some situations is so much better than a printed out, computerized card,” she said. “It does have that personal touch.”
Johnson’s daughter, Alyssa Munson a floral designer at the shop, said that words seem to carry more weight now.
“You help them pick a design, the type of flowers, and sometimes people have trouble with sympathy cards and don’t know what to write; so you help them with coming up with a message,” Munson said.
One recent order came from a family that had lost a loved one to COVID.
“That was very hard, because you could feel their grief,” Munson said.
Johnson said she sweated about the future after Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and felt that same anxiety for Lush at the start of the COVID shutdowns.
“I’d listen to her concerns, and it was a very real concern,” said Munson.
After the shutdown, Johnson used gift baskets as a way to pay her staff even as the immediate future seemed uncertain.
This was before Johnson learned about the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which provides loans to small businesses to keep employees on payroll during the pandemic.
Every week, Johnson, would “dress up like a lab rat” and go buy cheeses, crackers, fruit, chocolates, while her daughter ran the shop.
“I was doing what I could to keep us afloat (with the gift baskets), while still paying my employees — I wanted them to be there me on the other side.”
Since opening in 2013, the shop had thrived as an independently owned business.
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Johnson, a Clear Lake native, originally studied geology to pursue as a career, but had gotten the bug for floral designing while working at a shop called The Bird’s Nest Florist in Nassau Bay.
She discovered she had a talent for arranging and enjoyed being able to serve as the messenger for people’s thoughts and emotions.
“It stole my heart and I fell in love with industry right away,” she said.
Opening her own shop was like a wish fulfillment. Lush is a high-end floral design company that specializes in creative arrangements with a customer base that stretches to Austin to California and Connecticut. Johnson has also traveled extensively to explore and develop unique ideas for her shop, including meeting celebrity wedding planner, David Tutera.
Johnson has always credited the shop’s success in large part to her customers, especially in the past year.
“It was the community,” Johnson said. “As soon as they saw us opening and selling flowers again, they would call and call for orders.”
Johnson says she wants to repay customers’ loyalty.
“I know that what we do helps when people can’t make it to that funeral or wedding or be with family,” she said. “That’s what it is to me — to be able to help fill that void of not being able to be there and, in a sense, still be there.”
yorozco@hcnonline.com
February 05, 2021 at 04:38AM
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/neighborhood/bayarea/news/article/Pandemic-prompts-surge-in-just-because-15925628.php
Pandemic prompts surge in ‘just because’ flower orders at floral shop - Houston Chronicle
https://news.google.com/search?q=Flower&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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