Penfield Flower Shop’s Jackie Cellini is ready for Valentine’s Day
Store expects 2 more busy days than usual
For Jackie Cellini, Valentine’s Day 2010 is a four-day holiday.
Normally, it’s a two-day holiday that starts on the morning of Feb. 13 and ends late the next day when she finally finishes sending out the hundreds of vases and thousands of flowers that had been ordered for sweethearts throughout the area.
But since Valentine’s Day falls on a Sunday this year, the madness will start on Thursday when the Penfield Flower Shop will begin two days’ worth of office deliveries.
“A lot of young men want it delivered to their wife or girlfriend’s work,” explained Cellini, owner of the Penfield Flower Shop.
Then comes two more days of home deliveries and waiting on the customers who will inevitably burst through the door on Sunday morning looking for something — anything — that they can bring home to that special someone. (Two years ago, when Cellini ran out of roses, they were grabbing decorative silk plants off the shelves.)
But in some ways, the twice-as-long busy spell will actually be a relief. The shop’s three designers can now spread their floral work out over a longer period of time.
She’ll have to open the store for special holiday hours on Sunday, but the day-to-day work will be a little easier on Cellini than it was last year — and a lot easier than it was in 2008, when she did every single bit of Valentine’s Day design work by herself.
“I was exhausted, but I did it,” said Cellini, 49, of Webster. “It taught me a lot about myself, that I can pretty much do anything if I put my mind to it.”
At the time, Cellini was in just her third month as owner of the shop. But while many business owners are able to go through their entrepreneurial growing pains as they steadily build their customer base from scratch, Cellini had to learn the ropes while dealing with a clientele that had been visiting the Penfield Flower Shop for 40 years.
Fortunately, Cellini had worked for the shop as a designer for four years before taking over as owner, so she already had a few ideas on how she was going to grow the business.
She started working with area churches, supplying them with celebratory flowers for families with newborn babies or get-well bouquets for those with sick relatives. She began emphasizing bridal showers, bringing wedding parties into the store for their flower add-ons. And she made an effort to target area businesses that regularly sent flowers to their customers.
“It’s a smart and easy business move,” said Jeanette Manfredi, office manager assistant at Fitch Construction in Penfield, which sends flowers out to their customers after completed construction projects.
“You always want to keep in contact, and the way we thank them is by sending them a nice bouquet.”
Since Cellini took over the shop, business has grown 25 percent, despite a recession that saw many consumers cutting back on luxury goods. This year, she’s hoping to implement a few new marketing techniques and continue to grow her bridal work, in the hopes that she can increase her revenues further.
But first, she has to get through Valentine’s Day. In a normal week, the Penfield Flower Shop gets orders for about 40 vases worth of flowers; Cellini is expecting between 250 and 300 during her four-day Valentine stretch.
“We got everything several weeks ahead, so we know what we have and what we have to order,” she said. “Everything’s ready.”
SDOBBIN@DemocratandChronicle.com
If you go
What: Penfield Flower Shop.
Where: 1601 Penfield Road, Panorama Plaza.
Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays; 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday; special Valentine’s Day hours of 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Information: Call (585) 586-8330 or go to www.penfieldflowershop.com.
