To collect each final stem and ribbon, Mr. Patrikis is on the cellphone consistently, negotiating with 15 distributors to get one of the best offers.
“In case you don’t know easy methods to purchase from the wholesalers, the wholesalers are going to purchase you,” he stated.
Relying on a stem’s size, the dimensions of the bloom and the nation of origin, a dozen roses in New York Metropolis can price a buyer from $10 from a road vendor to greater than $120 from a high-end florist. Mr. Patrikis prefers the Explorer number of crimson roses, which he stated are likely to have bigger blooms and keep recent longer than another varieties.
Gross sales within the flower business, the place same-day, native deliveries are widespread, shot up early throughout the pandemic. So did the worth of doing enterprise, with rising gasoline prices, a flower scarcity and provide chain issues.
The elevated costs put stress on longtime florists like Mr. Patrikis, whose store was considered one of 5 on his block round 2010. Ditmars Flower Store is now the final one left.
“We had been by no means busier in our lifetime,” Mr. Patrikis, 37, stated about reopening in time for Mom’s Day in 2020 after the earliest closures within the pandemic. “We didn’t sleep for every week.”
People spent almost $73 billion on flowers, seed and potted vegetation final yr, up 48 p.c from 2019 after adjusting for inflation, in accordance with the U.S. Bureau of Financial Evaluation.
However there are indicators of instability within the business.
Troy Conner, the president of Kendall Farms, a big flower farm in Fallbrook, Calif., that sells to grocery store chains and wholesalers, stated that a lot of his prices had skyrocketed, too.
Starting final yr, he stated, demand for flowers had began to degree off. He stated he may repurpose some land reserved for rising sunflowers, as soon as a worthwhile crop, to lift goats as a substitute.
At Ditmars Flower Store, Mr. Patrikis stated, the revenue margin has shrunk for the reason that begin of the pandemic, from 20 to 30 p.c, right down to 10 to twenty p.c. The store may need gross sales of $150,000 and $300,000 a month.
He stated increased gross sales quantity had allowed him to make up the distinction to date. This yr, he expects to promote greater than 100,000 crimson roses, his hottest merchandise, up from 70,000 in 2019. On Valentine’s Day, the busiest vacation, he sells 15,000 roses.
The Society of American Florists, a commerce group, predicts that the variety of flower outlets within the nation will drop to 11,000 by 2026, partly due to retirements and consolidation. There have been 11,600 in 2021.
In final yr’s third quarter, there have been 398 florists in New York Metropolis, down from 432 in the identical interval in 2019, in accordance with James Parrott, a director with the Heart for New York Metropolis Affairs on the New College.
Mr. Patrikis’s father, John, a Greek immigrant from the island of Nisyros, bought flowers within the subway and finally opened his first flower store in Astoria in 1983 earlier than shifting to the present 1,500-square-foot store in 2008.
Mr. Patrikis stated he felt obliged to remain within the household enterprise. Gross sales stay brisk, largely as a result of he has a broad vary of purchasers — weddings, funerals, Greek Orthodox church buildings. Nonetheless, he worries about client spending habits, now that the majority pandemic-era authorities advantages have dried up.
He’s optimistic about his personal future, although, as a result of his household purchased their constructing in 2003.
“The one ones who’re going to be left are those who personal their buildings,” he stated.
Ben Casselman contributed reporting.
Produced by Eden Weingart, Andrew Hinderaker and Dagny Salas. Growth by Gabriel Gianordoli and Aliza Aufrichtig.
