‘Shop local and order early.’ Columbia florists prep for first pandemic Valentine’s Day

For Shelley Laird, this Valentine’s Day is a shot in the dark for her Pineview Florist shop. Normally one of her two busiest days of the year — Mothers Day is the other — Laird doesn’t know what to expect during the pandemic.

“Most people order ahead, however we do have a lot of last minute orders and that’s difficult to plan for because we don’t know how much product we’re going to need,” said Laird.

Laird had to put in her Valentine’s Day flower orders to wholesalers at the beginning of January. Laird laughed as she said, “I am hoping that Valentine’s Day will be good!”

This past year has been difficult in the flower industry, Laird said, because of mass cancellations of weddings and funeral visitations. With people holding smaller, if any, events, flower purchases have been reduced or cut out completely.

The last few months, she has seen an increase in business, but not for the reason one would hope, she said. The social isolation caused by the pandemic has caused many to resort to different methods to reach out to loved ones.

“I think they’re ordering flowers because they can’t go visit,” Laird said.

Cricket Newman, owner of The Shops at Cricket Newman Designs, said she delivered a lot of flowers for Easter at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic last year as people were sensitive to friends and relatives who were socially cut off. Newman is hoping for a similar outcome on Valentine’s Day — that people will spread around more flowers and gifts than they normally would after a difficult year.

“We’re anticipating, or at least we’re hopeful, that it’s going to be even bigger than usual because there are limited restaurant reservations available and some people who would normally celebrate in other ways are celebrating at home,” Newman said.

With cautious optimism, Newman extended her shop’s weekend hours to fill orders, deliver flowers and cater to all the last minute shoppers — or men, as she said. Newman is also collaborating with Hall’s Chophouse on Main Street to offer roses with every Valentine’s Day meal order this year.

IBIS World market analysts expect the COVID-19 pandemic to cause the florist industry’s largest single-year revenue contraction in recent history, according to a September report. But they still predict the industry will grow in the next five years.

To support local businesses, Laird encourages people to shop early in order to ensure on-time delivery and guarantee flowers will be in stock. This year, Laird has less flowers than a normal Valentine’s Day because wholesale flower growing has slowed this year.

Newman doesn’t expect a flower shortage for Valentine’s Day, but she did face one earlier when some delivery drivers switched from distributing flowers cross-country to distributing vaccines. She also has a shortage of vases from her wholesalers who are low on glass this year.

In the Upstate, Brag Coggins and his sister Laurie run a third generation florist business. Both the retail and wholesale sides of Coggins Flowers and Gifts and Upstate Flower Market, both in Spartanburg, have had year-over-year growth in the double digits every month since April 2020, said Coggins.

The family added wholesale operations to its florist business a few years ago to get cheaper products to build up the retail store, and this year it paid off. Coggins is expecting his biggest Valentine’s Day in 2021.

Coggins attributes the “delightful surprise” of more sales to people ordering flower deliveries for loved ones on special occasions in place of traveling to in-person events. “Anything in the delivery service industry has exploded,” said Coggins, who will be delivering flowers all weekend for Valentine’s Day, which falls on Sunday this year.

In July, Coggins took over the family business and had to deal with the fluctuating supply-chain system limiting what flowers he could get from other countries and figure out new products to sell in the meantime, “It’s certainly been a year of adapting and changing,” he said.