Inside Wild Strawberry and More, a sweet floral scent lingers in the air. An occasional rustling of flowers cuts through the otherwise heavy silence. In the corner, a woman gently ties a ribbon around a vase overflowing with flowers.
In February 2020, the florist shop on North Cedar Street in Holt went quiet. Manager Crystal Hunter said the shop couldn’t do any business because it couldn’t receive products to sell at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
“We didn’t have inventory in our flower coolers,” she said. “Our flowers come out of Cleveland, Ohio. It was difficult to get our shipments across those state lines.”
When the store reopened in May 2020, it strictly offered deliveries and curbside pickup.
“We were still super low on staff numbers,” Hunter said. “We were trying to be really safe about keeping the staff as healthy as possible and eliminating the virus from taking us down again because there were only two of us at that time.”
Hunter said business has increased since the doors reopened.
“We have been super busy now,” she said. “People want to send flowers to people that they can’t see. They want to send them to the elderly and a lot of people who are hospitalized.”
Assistant Manager Karey Stid said a lot of purchases are for funeral flower arrangements, a consequence of the pandemic.
“Fortunately and unfortunately, we’ve been busy because of the increase in funerals,” she said. “But also, we’ve seen an uptick in people sending flowers because they’re not able to see each other.”
The business is still facing supply chain issues. Hunter said the possibility of not having the inventory to fulfill orders is scary.
“We can’t get vases, we can’t get floral paints and even some of our flowers,” she said. “There are no workers in the fields to pick the flowers, and there’s no transportation to get it to us. Everything is getting nerve-wracking.”
Hunter said it was initially difficult to hire staff while more generous unemployment benefits were still being given out. Now that more people are willing to work, she said irregular hours are deterring potential employees.
“We have fickle days out of nowhere,” Hunter said. “It’s so fickle that it’s hard to maintain good schedules for people. We’re trying to keep people busy and scheduled and not feel like you’re jerking them around by being like, ‘Come in today, don’t come in today, leave early.’”
Hunter said all employees are wearing “multiple hats” to keep things running smoothly with so few employees.
Jessa Powers, the business’s driver, usually spends her workday driving to homes and dropping off orders. Now, she has taken on more responsibilities within the business.
“On Tuesdays, I process flowers,” she said. “Now on other days, I come in and there’s a lot of flowers to do as well.”
Stid is also adding more tasks to her workday to keep the business running smoothly.
“I am designing, getting drivers on the road, answering calls, processing flowers, just a little bit of everything,” Stid said.
Hunter said it’s been a challenge for the employees to acclimate to their “new normal”, with each employee designing arrangements, keeping the building in shape, running social media accounts and communicating with the community.
“We’re all trying to be flexible and all trying to keep our mental health intact while going through a lot of these changes,” she said.