PAGE A6, KEIZERTIMES, FEBRUARY 20, 2015
Keizer Florist set to reopen March 2
By CRAIG MURPHY
Of the Keizertimes
Car after car pulled into the
parking lot of the fl ower shop
both Feb. 13 and 14, with reg-
ular customers getting out to
buy fl owers for Valentine’s Day.
Except there were no fl ow-
ers to be bought at Keizer Flo-
rist.
Lisa Vasquez and her hus-
band Rich bought the busi-
ness from Julie Wallace earlier
this year, with the sale closing
on Feb. 4. Lisa is busy getting
things up and running for a re-
opening on March 2. The store
closed shortly before Christ-
mas.
The new opening date
means Keizer Florist was
closed for Valentine’s Day –
traditionally the busiest day for
a fl ower shop.
“It was torture,” Lisa said
of not having fl owers to sell.
“For so many of the people,
for years they pull up and pick
up fl owers for Valentine’s Day. I
lost count of how many people
came up and saw the store was
closed.”
With the sale closing short-
ly before the big day, Lisa said
there wasn’t time to get things
like taxes, fl ower accounts and
a myriad of other details ar-
ranged in time.
“We didn’t want to open
when we weren’t ready,” said
Lisa, who noted she has hired
three of the store’s former em-
ployees. “All of these things
have to happen before you can
start. Last Friday was the worst.
It was the same on Saturday.
People didn’t see the signs
and just came up to the door.
There wasn’t much I could do.
Whenever we saw them pull
up, I would open the door and
greet them.”
If there was a silver lin-
ing, Lisa found out something
about her customer base.
“My belief is there’s a large,
loyal following,” she said.
“Most people said they would
be back. That made me feel
good. I will have to do some-
thing nice for the loyal people
who come back. A lot of the
loyalty is due to the staff that
was here.”
An information technology
consultant whose husband is
retired, Lisa has always been on
the lookout for business op-
portunities.
“I have always been pushing
to own my own business,” she
said. “This wasn’t on my list, to
own a fl oral shop.”
Lisa saw an ad on Craigslist
in early January about the busi-
ness being for sale, then soon
met with Wallace and her re-
altor.
Lisa and Rich, who moved
to Keizer in 1996, had some
familiarity with the business.
Rich became a regular cus-
tomer shortly after that and
got to know previous owners.
Once the opportunity came
up, it was Lisa pushing forward.
The couple will be an FTD
fl orist, while also selling local
fl owers. In the days since the
sale, they have been getting up
to speed.
“Rich has been reading up
on FTD systems,” Lisa said.
“He will be our driver at fi rst.
He will be the support system.
The business side I have down.
I’ve been a government em-
ployee and I worked for two
large companies, but I have to
be schooled on fl ower arrange-
ments. My team will school
me. I can be trained on the job
or FTD offers courses. They
have courses on the business
side, classes on how to arrange
fl owers and they have webi-
nars. FTD has been around for
a long time, so I’ll take advan-
tage of that.”
In talking with her team,
Lisa has decided not to con-
tinue the drive-through coffee
window.
“They did coffee and baked
goods, but the team said it was
slow,” she said. “It was a lot of
effort, so we’re not going to
keep it. I told them to just fo-
cus on awesome fl owers. There
is a higher expectation here
(for fl owers), because you will
pay more. I want it as close to
perfection as a human can get.”
In addition to fl owers, other
items like vases, truffl es, small
gifts and cards will be avail-
able. Eventually Lisa wants to
give the store at 631 Chemawa
Road NE a more contempo-
rary look.
“The real point is the fl ow-
ers,” she said.
One focus for Lisa will be
different price ranges.
“I want to focus on afford-
ability,” she said. “I want to
KEIZERTIMES/Craig Murphy
Lisa Vasquez is the new owner of Keizer Florist on Chemawa
Road NE.
have it where a customer can
still buy something nice even if
they don’t have a lot of mon-
ey to spend. We will run the
gamut. That is very important
here because this is a working
community, not a luxury com-
munity. I don’t want people to
come in and not be able to buy
anything.”
Along those lines, Lisa has a
picture in mind of the perfect
customer.
“I look forward to the fi rst
time a little kid comes in with
change and wants to buy a
fl ower for mom,” Lisa said.
“That will be the best sale.”
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