Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This weekend, It's Mother's Day, all things moms. We celebrate
moms this weekend Mother's Day. And he is the owner
of Flower Rama, which is a couple different locations here
in town. Steve Osmond is joining us now, and hey, Steve,
welcome again to the Mark Blazer Show. How you been, brother, I've.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Been great, man?
Speaker 3 (00:21):
How you been?
Speaker 4 (00:22):
You know?
Speaker 1 (00:23):
If I were any better, I'd cancel my insurance as
they say, So I'm doing great, man.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
Thank you for asking. Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Hey, hey Chuck, how you doing?
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Greeting sir? How are you good?
Speaker 4 (00:35):
Good?
Speaker 5 (00:36):
Good?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
So Mark, I just want to say a quick something.
I think you guys do such a great job. You
guys make the drive home so interesting. And I don't
know if I'm speaking on behalf of all your listeners
out there, but it is a pleasure what you guys
do on a daily basis. You bring it every day,
you bring a smile and make things interesting. And I
(00:56):
really appreciate, I really appreciate sit you on the radio
on a daily basis. It's hard to believe how much
it helps you on behalf of all of Ohio. I
don't hope I am or not, but I certainly I
certainly do enjoy listening to both of you guys, and
I really enjoyed it over the years.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Well, you're you're getting a kiss when I see you again,
because that's that's super nice of you.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Tequila and a kiss. We'll do that.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
I'm so scared because I know how much you mean that.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
I know, well, it won't be on the lips or anything,
just you know, a kiss. That's so sweet. I'm I'm
I'm moved to the point of mush right now.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
That's it's genuine man, Thank you. Oh, I know I'm
not just saying it.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
You are not a smoke blower. That's one of the
things that I do know about you from over the
years and years and years that I have known you,
Steve for So that's very nice of you to say.
Flower Rama. Of course, this is uh, this is one of.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
Your super bowls.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
You got many during the year, but Mother's Day is
one of your super Bowls, if you will, and you
know that. It's the h the normal thing that's happening
right now. With regard to I'm sure you you have
a lot of business. Clearly, you know you can't really
have too much. I don't know that too much as
far as it doesn't go with business.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Especially in the flower business. You got to have as
much as you can.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
But as far as you know, sending flowers right now,
that never goes out of styles, sending flowers for Mother's
Day and so on. But I guess a bigger question is,
you know, how is like your team holding up during
this and you have flower Rama has and and again
forgive me for not knowing right off the top of
my head, how many locations do you have here?
Speaker 2 (02:39):
We have we have we have three locations, and then
our website is like another location. And uh, you know,
we we operate out of Rollmsberg Whitehall and you know
the Columbus area, but we deliver all over central Ohio
right right out of our own trucks using our own drivers,
and we bring in we bring in drivers on a
(03:01):
part time basis. For the holiday, we bring in semi
trailers and things. I gotta tell you, I really love
our lineup this year for for this Mother's Day. I
think I think the design team did a a fantastic
job of creating a really it's my favor. You know,
the images look great online, but seeing him in person,
seeing what they've what they've created so far. It's it's
(03:24):
one of the most impressive impressive Mother's Days probably my my,
My two favorites are probably the Tropical Queen and the
retro Sony Skuys. Every holiday we build from scratch, you know,
freshest designs, precious flowers, precious stuff. And this year, I
just I'm just so impressed with with what the design
team came up with and happy with it.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Right, So let me say, you know, this isn't one
of those situations where you're watching, for instance, a some
sort of a fast food place that advertises a burger
that you see on TV and you go, oh my lord,
and then you go there and you order it and
you go, oh my lord, what happened.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
That's not someone that I saw.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
That is not the case with regard to seeing stuff
online as a matter of fact.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
No, we say more vibrant and.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
That take every one of those arrangements and we shoot
them ourselves, meaning we take them down, we build the arrangement,
and we photo we take photos of the actual arrangements,
and then it is our You know, our designers are
have the formulas, they know what goes in it, they
know how to build it. They they created it, and
(04:35):
you know, there's always going to be vary instant. It's
fresh flowers, right, I mean, the stems are going to
bend a little different, the balloons are going to be
opened a little different every time. But they're all ours.
I would say ninety five percent of the arrangements are
all created and built by us, handmade by our amazing
group of people.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Right and Steve, you grow all of these flowers in
your backyard from what?
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Absolutely?
Speaker 4 (05:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (05:01):
So we start in early January, we can get that
frozen flower thing going. Yeah, that's exactly right.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Right. Hey, So the teams, your team, it's an enormous team.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
And I would imagine, you know, anybody that's in this
business for Mother's Day right now, is their teams have
got to.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
Be I don't know, eating their wheaties, if you will.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
And the number of moms that are working this week
too is probably astronomical.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Oh my god. Every one of my store managers, I
don't want to say my store managers, every one of
the managers on our on our team is a mom.
And you know, many times over in some cases, I've
got one who's six months pregnant and she's working her
tail off not works for me. And they're working for
(05:50):
each other, they're working for the person next to them
to get through it. It is long hours, it is painful.
They'll be working well into the night to get everything
ready so we can we can get everything delivered and
have the coolers filled and ready to go. But these
and it's it's it's not just women in there, but
it's primarily women in there and their moms and they're
(06:11):
you know there. It's one of the greatest things is
watching the dads. Some of the dad's coming to help
out too, but bringing the dads. The dads come in
with their kids and mom gets to see the kids
for you know, fifteen or twenty minutes, and the customer
is always so kind to them, letting them have their
time to to you know, give them a peck on
the cheek and give them a hug and let them,
you know, get back to work. So it's it's a
(06:32):
it's a trying time and and for for the for
the for the people that work here, and so proud
of them and so proud of their sacrifices. And they
do it again and again, and it's humbling to see
and it's rewarding because I mean, what they're putting out
is is fantastic, and they're doing it for other moms.
It's it's really it's an extraordinary fun thing to do
(06:53):
and be part of.
Speaker 5 (06:56):
Yeah, people are people are planning ahead this year too,
I think because I went by the Reynoldsburg store was
day before yesterday. I think plenty of cars in the
parking lot. Oh yeah, people are in.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
There getting sales are strong for sure.
Speaker 5 (07:08):
Because thirty eight billion, Steve, that's what they're projecting, is
going to be spent this year on Mother's Day, a
record thirty eight billion dollars.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
If I could just get one of those billions this weekend,
that would be great.
Speaker 5 (07:21):
Just will you talk about your staff? And I'm just
sitting here kind of envisioning because what was I was?
It was it Valentine's Day? Maybe I can't even remember,
but when I came by Reynoldsburg and they were not
a man to be found. It was all women working
in there, but they were like the little happy elves
in a Disney cartoon.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Man.
Speaker 5 (07:38):
Everybody was just giggly and happy and enjoying themselves.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
It's great to see a workplace where people are like that.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
It really is that they are they've done it together
for a long time, and you know they're they're hard working,
and I think there's a euphoria when you get you
when you work as hard as you do to prepare
and plan and do all the stuff, and when the
customers kind enough to show up and kind enough to
come in and show that that respect and will allow
(08:05):
us to be the place that they choose to go,
it makes them feel so much better because what they've
what they've worked so hard for is coming to life.
And they see these people coming in and getting these gifts,
and a lot of times the dad's will come in
and bring bring their kids with them, and there's just
these big smiles and it's very it's a very rewarding experience,
(08:27):
you know, when it pays off. And I'm so thankful
that you know, how many how many customers have chosen
to use us as their as their shop. So and
we've held the line in terms of pricing. I know
that's one of the questions you probably want to ask with.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
Yeah, you know, I was going to ask you about that.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Yeah, yeah, So, I mean our delivery prices haven't changed.
We we have a lot of deliveries going out where
we you know, pricing on that and our rose pricing
is the same as.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
It was last year.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
It hasn't get it, you know. I think we moved
the price up from from March April to from nineteen
nine nine dozen to twenty four ninety nine a dozen,
and our costs go up significantly more than that. But
we want to try and continue to be a you know,
a really good value for for all of our customers.
And and that's, uh, that's an area we trust.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
And you know what, and you know what, Steve, that's
that that's impressive given we know right now it's you know,
four eighty eight four seventy four, four ninety nine a gallon,
and that's something that a lot of businesses, especially if
they were in the delivery business, have been passing on.
So that's I'm so happy that you brought that up.
(09:34):
You're like, hey, it's the same delivery price as it
was you know, several months ago before. This is you know,
but I think the good thing about what we're seeing
with regard to gas prices and stuff, it's going to.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
Go down sooner rather than later.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
And so I think you're probably kind of thinking about
that as well as far as long term.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
You know, yeah, I mean we we have we have
a you know, every Mother's Day in Valentine's that we
bring in semi trailers at each each location and we
load them up. We have diesel. So we do have
a small surch charge that we do for at the holidays.
But this is the same pricing that we had last year,
with the same you know, small small surch charge on
delivery that that that's reflective of the holiday expenses, not
(10:17):
necessarily the increase in peace And do I expect the
gas prices to come back down. I do, But you know,
we're we're we we we are we are doing everything
we can to keep the pricing as as fair and
competitive as we possibly can, right And uh, it's it's
it's just part of.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
The mantra is I'm looking through your website here.
Speaker 5 (10:38):
I got to ask, what is this These rainbow roses,
those are gorgeous?
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Are those grown that way? Or are they painted?
Speaker 2 (10:44):
So those are not painted? Those are What they do
is they take a white rose and they and they
split the stem at the bottom where like where were
it's cut, and they split it and they put part
of the stem in a couple of different colors of water,
like an eggs like you you know, Easter time when
you heart you know that great eggs, you have a
(11:05):
colored water. So what they do is they put the
stem in different in different waters that have dye in them,
and that guy works its way up the white rose
and it makes it into a colorful rose.
Speaker 5 (11:18):
Yeah, and it's alive, which so yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Yeah, the backyard in the middle. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Wow, Chuck just turned his computer screen around and I'm
seeing it and that's the first time I've ever seen that, Steve.
Speaker 4 (11:32):
That is that is really unique. It's very different. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Yeah, they're cool. They're very cool.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
Is that a big cellar? What is your best cellar?
Speaker 3 (11:41):
That's best cellar?
Speaker 2 (11:43):
You know, it's it's clear what the best seller is
at at Valentine's Day, red roses are best. But it's
surprising how many roses sell during Mother's Day as well.
I mean, it is it is. It isn't interesting how
many roses we moved through despite all of the arrangements.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
So it's a lot.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Closer like when you do the mixed arrangements, because you know,
you know, because of the fact that you know there's
there's the arrangements are are a bigger seller, but I
would say it's pretty close between the roses and the
arrangements when you when it gets down to it, it's
a it's a surefire winner of Valentine's Day, you know, roses,
but Mother's Day it's a lot more. There's a lot
(12:25):
more variety of selections that people make, and I love it.
I love the arrangements they they are. I love the
roses too, but I do love I really love this
lineup this year. I really love it, you know, seeing
him in person. I really dig the retro Sineskuiss is
(12:46):
really neat in person, and the Tropical Queen is really cool.
Of course, all the roses, and then I like the
Violent Dreams is another one. I really really like. There's
a lot of really good arrangements this year.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
And you can also in closing here you can also
add like, you know, stuffed animals and different stuff like
that as well.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Correct, Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely so. Shout out to all
those moms out there, man, we love you.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
Yeah, yeah, we do too.
Speaker 5 (13:14):
Obvious Aurama Columbus dot com is what I'm on right now.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
There's a lot of inspiration on here.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
Yes, that's really really cool. Steve Osmant, who's owner of.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Flowerama Flowerama Columbus dot com.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
Is that what you say?
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Y yeah, yeah, Hey dude, thanks for jumping on with us.
Appreciate you very much, continued success, and thanks for taking
a couple of minutes with us.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
You're welcome. Thank you guys for having me. Really appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
You got it. Thanks Steve, se you brother,