Prepping for the big day
For Karen Medlin, owner of Westloop Floral, Valentine’s Day means lots of late nights, last-minute phone orders, hundreds of bouquets and plenty of sticky fingers from the store’s homemade fudge.
It also means that business is good.
“It’s crazy but fun,” Medlin said with a chuckle. “You just try to cut down on the chaos as much as possible. When you’re in a small business, you do everything you can to get things done. But as the day gets closer, the nights get longer. We have at least one all-nighter.”
According to the National Retail Federation, it is estimated that consumers will spend $13.7 billion on Valentine’s Day gifts this year, up nearly 22 percent in the last five years. Other local businesses will cash in on the holiday’s boom. For instance, although it is more of a gift store than a typical floral shop, Acme Gifts in Aggieville has seen an increase in Valentine’s Day flower orders each year.
“We’re still pretty young… We’ve only been open for five years now,” said Acme owner Diane Meredith, “but we order more and more flowers every year. Just when we think that we can’t have another stem, we order more.”
For Medlin and her team, the key to ensuring that everything runs smoothly on Valentine’s Day is preparing as much as they can in advance. From ordering surplus vases and containers, to making sure that the flowers are properly handled, preparations for the Valentine’s Day rush begin months in advance.
