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35 |
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10 |
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11 |
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24 |
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| SUI |
3 |
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| NED |
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Florists smelling Feb. 14 challenges
Businesses urging people to order their flowers early
By Carrie Kennington
Deseret News staff writer
Downtown florists are in a Valentine's Day delivery quandary this Olympic year — some roads in Salt Lake City are blocked, security is tight and traffic threatens to worsen.
If florists had the luxury of planning their Valentine's delivery routes, it would be no problem. But the bulk of florists' business usually comes from last-minute callers.
Art Floral has been in business for 50 years. But it has never seen an Olympics, which makes it tough to know what to expect.
Vasi Sergakis, owner of Art Floral, has posted a sign urging customers to order early for Valentine's Day. Other than that, she can only keep stocked, play it by ear and stay optimistic.
"It's not going to be easy, but we can do it," she said. "If worse comes to worst, we'll jump on TRAX."
Sergakis said that, due to security and roadblocks, some flower arrangements may have to be taken to designated meeting spots.
Whatever it takes to get people their flowers, she said, they'll do it.
Though florists prefer customers order early, Sergakis and her daughter, Stefanie Wedemeyer, are hoping the Olympics won't discourage people from ordering altogether.
"People get freaked out with the Olympics," Wedemeyer said.
Since Valentine's Day falls on a Thursday this year, Wedemeyer said statistically speaking this should be a better year for sales. When the holiday is on a weekend, people tend to splurge on romantic getaways rather than flowers.
Rhiannon Smith, manager of the downtown Flower Patch, said she is "worried about the Olympics knocking us down." The Flower Patch also has a sign urging customers to order early.
"The anticipation is killing us," she said. They're waiting to see how bad downtown traffic really will be when Thursday rolls around, Smith said.
Thursday is a day packed with Olympics sporting events. The only thing scheduled for the downtown venue, the Salt Lake Ice Center, is men's figure skating in the evening. However, the streets downtown are already filling with people for one reason or another, and getting certain places by delivery van may mean detouring.
Come Valentine's, the ideal situation according to one downtown florist is this: shoppers who pick up their own orders. And why not a day or two in advance?
"There's no problem remembering early," Pamela March of Every Blooming Thing said. And when you bring your sweetheart flowers in person, "you get to see why you sent it . . . an immediate reward," she added.
She said it took an hour and a half to get through traffic and security to deliver flowers to the Museum of Art near Olympic Village this week. Though such delays will likely continue in some areas, March said they want to accommodate as many people as they can. She hopes when Valentine's Day comes they won't reach the point where they have to turn business away. In some cases, flowers may have to be delivered to homes rather than downtown businesses.
Aside from all that, area florists are excited to be in the middle of all the Olympics excitement.
March said they've wired a lot of orders from family who miss the visiting press and visiting press who miss friends and family from home.
She said they even filled an order sent to a torchbearer. The tag read: "Don't trip."
E-MAIL: ckennington@desnews.com
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February 12, 2002
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