When you combine two good things—like flowers and community outreach—you’re bound to form something popular. Throw a trendy approach into the mix, and you may have a booming business model.
That’s the thought behind Mrs. Bloom’s Direct, a Westchester-based importer and distributor of fresh flowers that also donates a portion of its proceeds to a variety of charities and organizations. Co-owned by brothers Ari and Oren Shapiro, the company now sends flower trucks to various events and locations as part of its new service called Mrs. Bloom’s Mobile.
It began with a program called “Friday Flowers,” designed to distribute flowers to office buildings and corporate parks with a portion of proceeds going to Blythedale Children’s Hospital. When the two brothers realized the difficulty of setting up stands at so many locations, another idea blossomed (no pun intended). They noticed the emerging success of food trucks and figured that they could establish a similar idea with flowers. Soon enough, they were ready to release their “full service mobile flower shop on wheels,” as Oren Shapiro calls it.
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The Mrs. Bloom Mobile |
Ari (right) and Oren Shapiro |
Now traveling in high demand around Westchester and Fairfield Counties, Mrs. Bloom’s Mobile is setting up shop at charity walks, school events, birthday parties, weddings, and several other places to supply people with fresh flowers.
Customers get a better deal than they would at traditional flower shops or supermarkets, the brothers say. When they come to buy flowers from the truck, which can be rented for a day by an organization for a specific event or stopped at a public location, they get fresh flowers for reasonable prices. He explains that flowers purchased from most supermarkets have traveled long distances through distributors and are already several days old, but because Mrs. Bloom’s cuts out the middleman and imports the flowers themselves, their customers get a fresher product. Not to mention, ten percent of their sales (sometimes higher for school events) goes back to charity. With plenty of flexibility as a small business, they can choose to donate to either a charity of their choice or a charity supported by the event they distribute for.
Moving forward, the brothers see great potential to grow and expand their flower truck idea. Both possess solid business backgrounds (Ari has an MBA in Marketing), so they are aware of the possibilities for Mrs. Bloom’s Mobile. Yet, they understand the necessity for flexibility and adaptation in the process.
“There’s a tremendous possibility to franchise this concept,” Oren says. He also mentions the idea of pairing up with corporate sponsors to match their donations in the future. With their popular new idea, the Shapiro brothers certainly hope for even bigger things on the horizon. For now, though, they’re happy watching the steady growth of their budding business.
