While many retail stores remain closed and some have announced they can no longer survive the COVID-19 closures, one business in the Edmonton region is booming — or rather blooming.
Blooming Buds, at 5910 99 St. in south Edmonton, more than doubled its sales over past Mother’s Day weekends. The owner of the shop, Don Mah, called the surge in business, “unexpected.”
Mah has been running his flower shop for more than 30 years and was forced to close the store front, but said online sales have been steady.
“It’s actually been very, very busy and very hectic, ” Mah said.
Mah said he was working Monday to fill the backlog of Mother’s Day flower orders and he thinks flowers were the number one choice because shopping inside stores and malls was not an option.
“They couldn’t do that this year, so the best thing to do was order flowers,” he said.
“With the isolation of everybody, and they can’t go out and visit their mom, there was more people buying flowers this year and having it delivered.”
One flower shop owner in Fort Saskatchewan thanked her customers online and said she sold out of flowers.
“You sold us out,” wrote Funky Petals. “You gave us a record-breaking week.”
Florists are now preparing to reopen their stores to the public on May 14, for Phase 1 of the provincial relaunch.
Mah said Blooming Buds will offer sanitizing stations to customers if they choose to come in.