Plainfield, NJ —The clientele at Ms. Shanya Flowers & Gifts is as varied as this city itself, with people of all races, ages and backgrounds stopping in from time to time in order to pick up something for loved ones. The employees, on the other hand, are all cut from the same mold.
Owner Mary Burgess has her personnel needs filled out exclusively with the help of four children, 17 grandchildren, a half-dozen great-grandchildren and a handful of other relatives living in the immediate area, with a vast rotation of workers all hailing from the same gene pool. After being laid off when a local AT&T office downsized its operation six years ago, Burgess started working for another area florist, but decided after a short while that she and her family could make it just fine on their own.
“I had anticipated going into a partnership with another shop,” Burgess recalled, “but I realized the kids were so good at it, we might as well start our own.”
The shop opened in 2006 on a choice piece of West Front Street real estate, steps away from the heart of the city’s downtown. Today it sells flowers, floral arrangements, grave blankets, balloons and themed gift baskets. They include the spa basket, filled with candles, aromatherapy products, lotions and fragrances.
The custom baskets are “limited only by your imagination,” according to the shop’s Web site, and Burgess and company are agreeable in crafting ones created from the shop’s own inventory or from items customers supply on their own.
“Our custom baskets are always exactly that – custom,” said Rita Johnson, one of Burgess’s daughters and grandmother to Shanya, who the shop was named after. “Each customer gets something different.”
