Curious about what Ji-hyun from Parson’s Flowers had said about the ratio of Chinese to Koreans had been 10 years ago, I went on Google Maps and compared the area around the business 10 years ago and now. As Ji-hyun had said, there were a LOT more Korean businesses around Parson’s Flowers – then Flowers & Things Co. The streets were filled with Korean restaurants, video stores, pharmacies, supermarkets, and clothing stores – many of which do not exist today, unfortunately. In contrast, today, Chinese businesses have replaced their Korean counterparts. Although I have lived in the same area for 14 years, I did not realize this change because I was not interested – all the businesses that I went to have stood their ground, and besides the few that I was concerned about, I did not care about what happened to the other businesses. However, Ji-hyun’s words made me realize that the surrounding environment is very important for a business, and I learned that I should be more aware of my surroundings, whether or not I actually visit the businesses around me.
Also curious about the social aspect of Parson’s Flowers, I searched the Korean newspapers for an article about the business, having found that there was nothing on the flower shop in American newspapers. After going through five pages of Google results, I found one article in the Korea Times in 2013 – it was an article about Korean florists, and a whole paragraph had been dedicated to Parson’s Flowers. The owner, Hyun-sook Hwang had said that order requests exploded to nearly 10 times the amount than usual in May, the reason being that Mother’s Day, proms, and graduations were all in May. She also stated something very interesting, saying “Non-Koreans prefer vases, whereas Koreans prefer baskets, pots, and bouquets.” This reminded me of what Ji-hyun had said about American florists not paying much attention to the wrapping of the flowers while Korean florists dedicate a huge amount of time to the visual aspects of not only the flowers, but to the decoration of the flowers.
Apparently, other florists had the same thinking – in the same article, another florist mentioned that she had hired extra people just to decorate and wrap flowers during their peak time, and yet another florist said that she had to extend her working hours up to 2 A.M., dedicating the extra hours at the shop only to the wrapping of flowers.
After exiting the article, I entered a blog post from 2012 that mentioned Parson’s Flowers. The posting was about a baby’s first birthday party, in which the parents mentioned that they had selected Parson’s Flowers to supply flowers for the party. They had also included the reason for choosing Parson’s Flowers, which was that Parson’s Flowers had offered to wrap up the flowers beautifully.
Obviously, Parson’s Flower’s dedication to wrapping up flowers has led it to survive for more than ten years. This surprised me, for I had thought of the wrapping part to have minimal effect on bringing customers. However, from what I’ve heard and seen, many people seem to enjoy the flowers much more when the flowers are wrapped up nicely, and Parson’s Flowers realized that and always makes sure that their flowers are bundled up in beautiful decorations.
