By JESSICA WETZLER
Daily News-Record 5/9/20
Abby Chick and her staff at Blakemore’s Flowers are used to fulfilling hundreds of orders during Mother’s Day weekend, but typically with a staff of more than a dozen.
In 2019, the Harrisonburg flower shop made $ 20,000 in sales, Chick said, and as of Wednesday already surpassed that mark — all with only five employees.
Due to COVID- 19, Chick had to enforce stricter protocols when designing and delivering flowers, which led her to the decision not to hire outside help during the busy weekend.
“We are down about half of our delivery drivers and staff right now,” she said. “Usually, we have at least four outside helpers throughout the week and fi ve delivery van drivers. This year, people working in the shop are doing deliveries, doing double duty.”
The change in staff isn’t the only thing Chick had to adapt to this Mother’s Day weekend — the business, she said, has been busier than usual.
“More people are sending flowers because they can’t see one another,” she said. “We see people spending more money on flowers and people are choosing to spend more money on flowers more than they have ever. It’s weird.”
To ensure the safety of her customers, Chick said they have been wearing gloves while designing flower arrangements and storing clean gloves in delivery vans. When a delivery is made, staff will put on a new pair of gloves, leave the flower arrangement on the doorstep and call the customer to notify them the delivery has been made.
Chick said their top priority is keeping people safe, which is why they are disinfecting vases and not ringing doorbells when dropping off deliveries.
“We are really valuing our customers safety over profits,” she said.
With a short staff, Chick has leaned on her employees’ spouses to assist with deliveries when available.
“We have never dealt with anything like this and the reason I decided to stay open was because I wanted to help people,” she said. “I’ve always felt doing retail flowers brings a lot of joy. This year there is more gravity to it ... the way they miss one another. I’ve gotten chocked up more hearing from people.”
To make sure they are able to meet orders on time, Chick and her staff have been working well beyond closing hours, just as many other businesses have been doing leading up to Mother’s Day weekend.
Babak Bakhtiar, director of marketing at CrossKeys Vineyards, said he anticipated the weekend will be the winery’s two busiest days.
With Mother’s Day typically one of the busiest weekends at CrossKeys Vineyards, and celebrating in person not an option, the winery partnered with Buttercream Dreams to provide a Mother’s Day special featuring a bottle of wine and two cupcakes.
“We knew we had to come up with some sort of special for our consumers,” Bakhtiar said. “We brainstormed countless ideas and decided that cupcakes and wine paired together would be hard for anyone to pass up. We have worked with Buttercream Dreams in the past for many weddings here at our venue, so we are familiar with their business and know that the quality is top notch.”
In addition to the wine and cupcake deal, Cross-Keys Vineyards is also offering a few specials on its bistro menu that can be purchased throughout the weekend.
Bakhtiar said sales have been steady for the specials, adding that Crosskeyes have seen tremendous support from the community.
“We feel it is very important to try to keep things as close to normal as possible, because eventually we will be able to get out of this,” he said. “With that being said, obviously the definition of ‘normal’ will be changed and we at CrossKeys will do everything we can to keep both our employees and customers safe.”
Bluestone Vineyard also worked on creating a special for Mother’s Day weekend, partnering with Magpie Diner to offer a loaf of cinnamon swirl milk bread, a bottle of Beau and orange juice to make “Beaumosas,” and a bouquet of flowers.
“We tried to do something festive,” said Jackie Hartman with Bluestone Vineyard. “We have sold 22 baskets so far.”
While business is keeping steady for some, places like Got Rocks Jewelry had little work to do in preparation for Mother’s Day due to slow traffic and most people being more comfortable shopping online.
“People have, unfortunately, been so consumed with staying safe and figuring out how to maintain during this crazy time the holiday kind of snuck up on everyone,” said Traci Hill, owner of Got Rocks Jewelry. “Foot traffic is down due to social distancing, but online interactions are much busier than usual.” Hill said one big difference this Mother’s Day is the impact COVID-19 had on jewelry production.
“Personalized jewelry is a popular gift for moms,” she said. “Most manufacturers have just recently opened back up and are not operating with a full staff. With no arrival-time guarantees, customized family jewelry was a no-go for the last- minute shoppers this year.” Hill continues to offer customers to visit the store by appointment only, adding that now more than ever it is important to support local small businesses.