Georgianne Vinicombe kicked off the new year with a makeover.
Around Thanksgiving, the owner of Monday Morning Flowers and Balloon Company, with locations in Princeton, New Jersey, and Yardley, Pennsylvania, decided a 6- by 12-foot cooler in her Princeton shop needed to go.
“It was in the middle of our showroom and felt like a barrier between customers and flowers,” she said. Flowers are sensory objects, she explained, and people simply don’t take time to bend down to touch and smell them when they’re stored in a big chilly box.
“We have two other coolers, so we weren’t hurting for storage space,” she said. “Besides, it was 18 years old and its insides were rusting.”
Anticipating many costly repairs down the pipeline, she felt justified in pursuing her desire to give the shop a fresh look.
In a mere two days, January 14-15, she had the cooler disassembled, the carpet beneath it torn up and replaced, and new displays in its place.
The change has elicited a ton of positive feedback. “A lot of customers told us we look much bigger. Some business people said the shop seems more upscale now,” she said. Her employees’ reaction: “Who knew that cooler was such an eyesore?” (Answer: Georgianne.)
And she’s seen a spike in plant and cash and carry sales.
“That’s front and center now,” she said. “One woman came in to order flowers for her friend and bought an $80 plant on impulse.”
Georgianne is delighted with her roomier, prettier store and that she was able to debut it before Valentine’s Day. She’s not done though. Throughout 2016, she plans to add more brightening elements, such as a chandelier and new coats of paint.
“We’ll tackle it little by little,” she said.