As the COVID-19 crisis enters its second calendar month in the United States, florists are grappling with some of the toughest decisions of their careers, including one fundamental question that requires them to balance public, employee and personal health considerations with the future — and in some cases the survival — of their businesses: Should I stay open?

“I wake up every morning after nightmares,” said Dana Cook, AAF, of Julia’s Florist in Wilmington, North Carolina. “The internal struggle to figure out the right thing to do — for my business, my employees and my community — is real. And it changes every day.”

As of April 7, Cook is providing curbside services and contact-free delivery. She’s reduced payroll by seven positions — about 50 percent of her pre-COVID-19 staff — consolidated her remaining team to one central location — down from two locations and a design center — and closed her showroom. Inside the shop, new activity, visual cues and terms already feel familiar. There’s constant cleaning and sanitizing, frequent reminders about social distancing among a small group of team members, and, starting this week, cloth face masks for staff, handmade by Cook.

Nonetheless, “anytime someone coughs, we all look up,” Cook said. “I have a headache today. I know it’s all of the pollen outside right now causing it, but… it’s easy to start feeling paranoid.”

Staying Open: Safety First

Cook’s situation will sound familiar to many U.S. florists. While industry businesses in some areas of the country have been required to shut down during the pandemic, most florists are finding themselves in unchartered waters, forced to adapt to fast-changing regulations and a patchwork of policies defining essential and non-essential businesses and the services they can offer.

Even when the rules provide clear classification allowing florists to continue operations— as is the case in states such as New Hampshire — florists wrestle with questions: Can they generate enough revenue to justify staying open? Will they be able to access the product they need? Are they putting customers, employees and family members at risk? Could the decision to stay open create a backlash in the community among anxious customers? And those are just some of the immediate concerns that owners are juggling as they also work with bookkeepers, managers and local bankers to put together loan applications, rework schedules, redefine employee roles, worry over laid-off workers, handle the day-to-day — and, frankly, try to save businesses that in some cases have been around for generations.

One of the biggest challenges right now is uncertainty, said Society of American Florists Retailers Council Member Chris Norwood, AIFD, PFCI, of Tipton & Hurst in Little Rock.

The 134-year-old business closed its three retail showrooms in mid-March but has since been providing delivery services and curbside pick-up ever since. Everyone on the team is working at least six feet apart, with tape on the floor to reinforce the required distance, and sanitation measures have been ramped up, including regular cleaning of delivery vehicles. As of the first week of April, team members also are wearing masks (some sewn by Norwood’s daughter) and receiving hazard pay, based on a percentage of their earnings.

The shop has worked to proactively communicate its practices with customers and has even introduced new Build Your Own Easter Baskets for homebound clients hustling to make the holiday special, but Norwood said the lack of control can be frustrating.

“For me, coming to work and being in my little hole here, that helps keep my mind off of things,” said Norwood. “We’re just trying to constantly remind ourselves that there will be a light at the end of the tunnel. We just don’t know how long the tunnel will be yet.”

That’s a sentiment that probably resonates with Sandy Nielsen of Nielsen’s Florist and Garden Shop in Darien, Connecticut, a family business founded at the end of World War II.

“I’ve made it clear to my staff that the decisions we’re making today might not be the decisions we’re making tomorrow,” said Nielsen, a member of the Society of American Florists’ Retailers Council and past winner of Floral Management magazine’s Marketer of the Year award.

So far, Nielsen has been able to navigate the changes. While her retail showroom is closed — “I can’t even think about the unsold merchandise just sitting in there right now,” she admitted — Nielsen’s outdoor garden center is open, and the business is offering curbside pick-up and delivery. They’ve been busy: Deliveries the first week of April were up by about 25 percent.

“I’ve been surprised,” Nielsen said. “I really was thinking a few weeks ago that we’d be shut down.” Instead, they are seeing firsthand how much people want to connect: “We’ve had so many birthday and get-well orders. The card messages are all saying the same thing: ‘I wish I could be with you.’”

The business has implemented a flurry of safety measures: Only four team members work inside the store/design room at a time, at least “a dozen feet apart at all times,” said Nielsen; staff members are equipped with gloves and masks (which Nielsen had on hand already and didn’t have to rush to find); in the garden center, crowd size has been limited and check-out is contact-free, with distance and a physical barrier between customers and staff; cleaning and sanitizing are constant jobs.

“Through all of this, safety is the thing that’s guiding my decisions,” Nielsen said. “Other than that, I feel like I’m really shooting from the hip.”

Closing, Re-Opening: Decisions and Mandates

Less than 50 miles away in New York City, Nic Faitos and the team at Starbright Floral Design face a much different scenario. The business, located in the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak and considered non-essential, is closed. Given the public health risks in the city, Faitos said he’s just fine with that.

“We’re in lockdown — we’ve closed our doors,” he said. “But, really, from Day 1 we decided that we’re not going to put our people in jeopardy. We’re not going to try to circumvent the system or find loopholes. We’ve had to let some people go, but there are financial benefits to them for being on unemployment now. It’s the safe place for them to be.”

The Starbright management team has redirected remaining employees who have the skillset and ability to work from home toward new projects, including revised handbooks, deep dives into website analytics, social media and photo planning projects, future public relations efforts — and even innovative digital marketing initiatives that allow customers to continue to connect with loved ones through Starbright even while the business is closed.

“We’re asking our team to focus on all of the things we couldn’t do before, because we were so busy,” Faitos explained. “It’s not the situation that we’d hoped to be in, but as crazy as this may sound, we’ve been extremely productive getting ready for ‘the day after’”— a post-pandemic time period that Faitos imagines as a gradual easing of social distancing measures and mandated business closures. “It’s not going to be like the floodgates open, and we have to prepare for that reality, too,” he said.

In Columbus, Ohio, Floral Management magazine contributor Heather Waits of Bloomtastic Flowers & Events also has temporarily closed her business, under state orders directed at non-essential businesses. She plans to re-open May 1, once the stay-at-home orders have been lifted.

“We had to lay off all our staff, which was gut-wrenching,” she said. “I’m a business owner because I am a control freak, so not having control of the situation is a bit unnerving.”

Like Faitos, she’s looking for bright sides — more time with her eight-year-old twins, for instance — and experimenting with new concepts, including a Zoom-based design workshop.

“I wonder what life will be like when the stay-home orders lift,” she said. “Will there be a ‘new normal’? Will things go back to the way they were?” Devasted as she is by the unexpected and unwanted pause, Waits said a part of her hopes some things change for good. “It was nice scrolling through Instagram and not seeing a bunch of vain selfies. I think this was the universe’s way of slapping us all in the face and saying, ‘Wake up! Slow down.’”

In Birmingham, Alabama, the team at Norton’s Florist, Events and Gift Baskets had to temporarily shut down from March 23 to April 5 under a directive to all non-essential businesses from the county health department. On April 6, the shop was allowed to resume delivery, and SAF Next Generation Task Force Member Cameron Pappas was ready to get back to work.

Customers have been grateful — which is something SAF President Chris Drummond, AAF, PFCI, of Penny’s Flowers by Plaza Flowers in Philadelphia also has seen. One customer recently tagged the shop in a social media post that thanked the business for “delivering, even in this pandemic. You really helped me make birthday the best it could be, given the circumstances. What a beautiful job you did on this arrangement. And it smells heavenly.”

Planning, Supply Issues

Beyond safety considerations and government restrictions, other logistics are factoring into florists’ decisions on whether they can operate.

At Julia’s Florist, Cook is often referred to as “Hurricane Dana”— a nod to her impressive Plan B (and Plan C, D and E) planning skills and an acknowledgment of the hardships the business already has weathered, including a near direct hit from Hurricane Florence in 2018. Cook was planning for the COVID-19 pandemic before many small-business owners. In January, she stocked up on cleaning supplies, masks and gloves. Early in March the business added complimentary alcohol wipes to all deliveries, so that customers could wipe down vases before bringing the flowers into their homes.

“Everyone thought I’d lost my mind, but I had a feeling,” Cook said, noting that she declined to renew a lease on a third storefront at the start of the new year, a decision that now “feels like a godsend.”

Even for a master planner — and maybe especially for a master planner — this pandemic is tough. Cook’s sales are down by about 50 percent and she and her manager are deep in the weeds of understanding, getting and (hopefully) using federal loan money. Day-to-day, she’s had trouble sourcing fresh product, a factor that, just as much as anything else, could force her hand on whether to stay open. Her go-to wholesalers are either closed or overwhelmed.

“Yesterday at 1 p.m., I thought we were going to have to close, just because we couldn’t find product,” she said on April 7. By 3 p.m., her manager had connected with a wholesaler willing to ship flowers to the shop. Crisis averted, for now. “The volatility is quite difficult on someone like me, a person who has always prided herself on good decision-making,” she said.

Sourcing product also has been tricky for Tipton & Hurst. The business has been proactive about communicating the challenge to customers, with verbiage at the top of its website and tweaks to product offerings that push clients toward “Designer’s Choice” arrangements that give the staff some needed flexibility in product selection

“We’re scrambling to buy whatever we can,” said Norwood on April 7, estimating deliveries have dropped 25 percent to 50 percent on some days since the crisis began. “That’s still enough for us to keep the doors open. Two weeks ago, it was really scary. Lately we’ve been busier, so it’s really about finding the product to fill the orders.”

Supply chain issues relate to challenges wholesalers, growers and transportation companies face in running their operations during the pandemic — and, of course, to the precipitous drop in demand.

During a March 23 SAF webinar, Dave Pruitt, CEO of the California Cut Flower Commission, Christine Boldt, executive vice president of the Association of Floral Importers of Florida and former SAF Wholesalers Council Member David Armellini of Armellini Industries in South Florida, discussed how the loss of demand has created ripple effects across segments, including the temporary or permanent closure of some industry wholesalers and growers. (SAF is returning to the topic of the supply chain, including what it looks like for Mother’s Day 2020, with a Fresh Product Supply Update webinar on April 9. Find out more.)

The steep drop in demand, and the short- and long-term implications that falloff has for all industry businesses, has compelled floral professionals across segments to work together to ensure that florists understand the services they can still safely (and legally) offer in their local communities — and to educate lawmakers on the emotional benefits of flowers and the capabilities of florists to provide services in contact-free processes that comply with Centers for Disease Control guidelines.

SAF also has worked alongside floral professionals seeking an exemption from their state that would allow them to maintain targeted services that fall within that state’s rules and the national trade association sent a letter to governors on March 25 advocating for the continuation of safe floral deliveries.

Those efforts, noted SAF CEO Kate Penn, are not about pushing boundaries on public health or safety issues or putting anyone at risk. Instead, they are about a need to clarify the services the industry can offer in a responsible way.

“The floral industry can and should do its part to help slow down the spread of the virus,” she said. “Our efforts have been centered on helping florists who want to continue to operate and can do so in a safe manner find opportunities to do so during this challenging time.” 

Resources to Help

While SAF can’t make the decision for business owners to open or close operations, the association can provide the following tools and guidance as you make decisions:

• Understand your local rules and regulations. SAF has compiled and is constantly updating a State Resources page to help industry members navigate the COVID-19 crisis.
• Advocate for your business. Some floral industry professionals have successfully received exemptions and waivers allowing them to continue operating in their communities, offering select services such as contact-less delivery in a safe way.
• Know your numbers — and options. All floral professionals face financial challenges now—but each business is different, making operational decisions highly specific and individualized. Recent SAF financial webinars with industry accountants can help you chart your path. SAF is also closely following the news related to federal loan efforts and has information on its COVID-19 Resource Page to help you understand your options.
• Be proactive. From Philadelphia, Drummond said, “now is the time to market like you’ve never marketed before”—and that’s true if your goal is to generate revenue or stay top-of-mind with your community during a temporary pause. SAF has new social media posts available for the crisis and a host of tools, resources and information on the group’s scientific research proving the emotional benefits of flowers. SAF also has compiled revenue-boosting ideas and Drummond will share his best tips on how to prepare for Mother’s Day during a special SAF webinar on April 14.
• Stay Updated. SAF’s new COVID-19 Webinar Series has targeted information on the crisis and how industry professionals are reacting and adapting, including an April 8 session on social media strategies that businesses can implement regardless of their current operational status (open with limited services or temporary closed).
• Communicate with staff and customers. All of the florists SAF editors connected with have emphasized the importance of communicating safety measures to both staff and customers and reinforcing or adapting those measures regularly in alignment with the latest information from local, state and federal agencies. (See one example, from Norton’s, here.)

Look for more coverage of the decisions floral professionals are making during the crisis and the strategies guiding them throughout SAF publications. Have an angle or question you’d like covered? Email mwestbrook@safnow.org or engage with an SAF staff member via LiveChat.

Mary Westbrook is the editor in chief of Floral Management magazine.