Opening Flower shop in Chittaden area (Burlington, Windsor: how much, to buy, closing)

[Oriz]

Hey guys, I have a question

My wife(originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin) and I (originally from Israel) are thinking about moving to Vermont and opening a flower shop there. My wife has been a floral manager for 15 years in Wisconsin and honestly I'm saying that not just because she's my wife she's done the best job I've ever seen anyone do, was number 1 in the company(which belongs to roundy's) in sales, opened every new store they wanted her to(like 13 of them), etc etc...and we figure we can do alot better in opening our own shop than her bein employed by a big corporation. However, Wisconsin seems very saturated and Milwaukee in particular seems to be going down the same route as Detroit, everyone is leaving or closing, nothing much to do there anymore.

From some of the research we've done so far, it seems like Chittaden county whether Burlington or anything around it is nothing but. If anything it seems like it's in dire need for good florists(no offense to any florists here). Are we correct? Would it be a good idea? How much do people like to buy flowers there?

[Chadd1014]

I don't know about flowers shops but all the grocery stores sell flowers.
I heard a line today "just getting by is the new normal"
Good luck with whatever you decide.

[Oriz]

Well that's kind of the new normal everywhere....like I said Milwaukee is even worse off. I know grocery stores sell flowers(my wife worked for one) but it's not the same. From your stand point as a consumer though is it a successful business to be had right now though? Or too disposable? Thanks for the reply!

[vter]

There are quite a few florists in the Burlington area. Chappels probably being the most well known. Burlington Vt. Flower Delivery Chappell's Florist. Voted best florist in Burlington VT. 05401 802-658-4733

[Oriz]

Yeah I know Chappels and Kathy and some others but that still didn't seem saturated, but I'm looking for more opinions from someone who actually lives there

[Chadd1014]

Originally Posted by Oriz

Yeah I know Chappels and Kathy and some others but that still didn't seem saturated, but I'm looking for more opinions from someone who actually lives there

We all live here,I know I'm not comfortable telling you that's a great idea.You say your wife is great at it but if nobody buys flowers because they choose gas for their car or food for their table over flowers that will die in five days then things won't be so good for you. Vermonters are extremely practical people.
Only you can decide where to open this shop.Again,I don't know the business of flower shops because I always got mine at the grocery stores because of cost.

[vter]

Like Chadd I live within commuting distance of Chittenden County and do a lot of my shopping/errands there. I can tell you that I can't remember the last time I bought flowers in a shop. They are just not something I need. I can speak the same for friends - they either grow their own or go without. They are not a necessity. I will occasionally buy them at Farmers Markets in the summer/fall and can tell you that LOTS of people grow their own during the summer months.

[68vette]

The last time I bought flowers in a shop was about 2003. I'm not saying that because I'm anti flower shop Flowers are an expense that most people can go without. With all the gardens around, we are flooded with flowers in the summer. The other point is the internet. For those special times of the year, I purchase flowers online. When my son was born a few years ago, we had local florists deliver and they don't last anywhere near as long as some of the online shops. I'm not sure why, if it has to do with age, further distance or what. My second oldest sent flowers to my wife the second week of December (online) and they are just starting to die off. If you do a Google search for "flower shops Burlington, VT, you may be a little surprised how many shops are around. I'm not discouraging you, but I would do a fair amount of research before jumping in head first. Remember, the county is the biggest in Vermont, but the whole county has a smaller population than most small cities.

[Oriz]

Thanks for all your replies guys, they're much appreciated and will be taken into consideration. As for the research - well this is exactly what I'm doing here. Actually this is the later part of my research, like I said I know the stores that are there(Kathy, Chappels to name a couple and I have a google map with many others + I know stores like price chopper sell them so yes research is being done). This is one of the reasons why we would prefer the Chittaden area - as small as it is it is still better than say, Windsor. I looked at white river junction at first and well even if you include people from NH it's still not populated enough. Anyway thanks everyone we will keep looking into things and make our decision.

[arctichomesteader]

My advice would be to have another more reliable income source. A flower shop might fail or might succeed, but you don't want all your eggs in that one basket. Make sure you can afford to fail.