ALSO THIS WEEKEND
Small shop owners have created a three-city artisanal small business event in Chattanooga, Nashville and Atlanta. The first "Pop-Up Collective" is 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. today von the patio of The Farmer's Daughter, 1211 Hixson Pike, Chattanooga. It will feature 13 curated vendors. The shopping events are being held in the organizers' favorite restaurants and coffee shops in their respective cities. Guests will be able to meet the area's designers, makers and small shops, who will share handmade wares spanning from apparel and accessories to prints, paper goods and apothecary. Additional activities include live music and a photo booth, and the event is free to the public. For more information email apopupcollective@gmail.com, or check Facebook at POP-UP COLLECTIVE or instagram@apopupcollective.
Janette Hayes puts together a flower arrangement at Blossom Designs in Chattanooga. Mother's Day is typically a busy time of year for area florists on Friday, May 8, 2015.Moms in this town sure are a business boon around this time of year, thanks to the day set aside in their honor -- a day which will bring in more than $21 billion for American restaurants and stores and florists.
"It's an all-hands-on-deck day, absolutely," said Michael Fulghum, front-of-the-house manager at 1885 Grill in St. Elmo.
Fulghum said 1885 is swamped any given Sunday of the year. Add thousands of Chattanoogans intent on treating the moms in their lives to a nice lunch or dinner, and the restaurant sees wait times in excess of an hour.
"We can only push so much food through our kitchen," Fulghum said.
Normal inflation aside, Americans are expected to spend about $172 -- $10 more than a year ago -- on moms this year, according to the National Retail Federation. Around $3.8 billion will be spent on meals or a special activity.
Mother's Day is now the third-largest shopping holiday in the country, behind the Thanksgiving-Christmas-New Year's holiday season and the back-to-school shopping season.
Mother's Day is also a larger shopping holiday than Valentine's Day, Easter, Father's Day, the Super Bowl, Halloween and St. Patrick's Day, in that order.
For Fulghum and the 1885 staff, Mother's Day is about knowing you have new customers in your restaurant and a "chance for them to see what you're all about."
And hopefully, those first-timers come back and eventually become regulars.
Meanwhile for Samantha Dawson, Mother's Day is also about being at the top of your customer service game, in her case making sure that Chattanooga moms have flowers on Sunday, even if it means she works a seven-day stretch to make it happen.
Dawson's Hixson and East Brainerd floral shops, Blossom Designs, will be open most of the day Sunday for last-minute shoppers.
"I just think it's important to be open," she said.
According to the National Retail Federation, Americans will spend around $2.4 billion on flowers this Mother's Day.
Mother's Day is no Valentine's Day in terms of product movement and volume of business, but it's probably the second- busiest day of the year for Blossom Designs.
"There is a huge push at the end of the week, but we've had a lot of people buying already, probably earlier this year for sure," said Dawson.
She said her shop has sold more plants than usual this year, with some customers forgoing traditional purple Mother's Day flower options.
In the week leading up to Mother's Day, Dawson said extra work goes into prepping the shop, whether it's tidying up the store or making sure there are extra drivers on hand to handle higher-than-normal delivery requests.
"Obviously we scheduled a lot heavier," she said. "There's a lot of preparation."
But when dealing with perishable items like flowers, you also can't get too far ahead of yourself, said Dawson.
"We try to work a day ahead," she said. "We want them all to look fresh and nice when they go out for delivery."
Contact staff writer Alex Green at agreen@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6480.