On June 1, Don and Lynn Short will end 39 years of owning and operating Arjuna Florist & Gifts in Brockport. The popular store on Main Street will have a new owner and manager, Allison Andrews, who has been their employee for nine years.
The family business began soon after newlyweds Don and Lynn made a routine trip to the Brockport laundry. They stopped in the “Arjuna Plant and Craft Center” on Main Street near the Methodist Church, started in 1972 by a couple they had known at college. Their friends asked the Shorts if they wanted to buy the store. “We walked out of there thinking we had no experience and were a little naive,” Lynn said, adding that Don had helped in the Arjuna store on occasion. “We had toyed with the idea, and had even looked at a place in Lewiston.” The idea soon became a reality in a quick succession of momentous events.
Don had graduated from the College at Brockport with a master’s degree in 1972, and Lynn graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1973. They married in 1974, and purchased the store in 1975. In 1979, the year their first child was born, “We made a decision to grow the business by buying the building down the street (78 Main, its present location),” Don said. “The rest is history.”
“In that era plants were very big,” Lynn said, “then flowers became more popular.” Don took floral design courses with a master florist from Holland, and has run that aspect of the shop along with flower buying. Lynn has the business end, including managing the books and making purchases.
The couple managed a family in those early years, too. Heather was born in 1979 and Kaitlin in 1982. Lynn had her office at home. “We decided not to do evenings or Sundays, as other stores were doing,” Lynn said. “We made family a priority.”
For over 25 years the store’s prosperity has been greatly due to the college as their best customer, the Shorts said. Providing flowers for graduation each year, “we got more recognition on campus, so individuals and departments became loyal customers, too,” Don said. The business also received a boost 30 years ago when Arjuna and other florists started a delivery pool to deliver each other’s flowers from a central location, avoiding long-distance expensive deliveries in the greater Rochester area. And, weddings and funerals have been a staple for the business, along with individual customers.
The thriving store hit a tough time of transition in 2007 and 2008, the Shorts said. It was a period of depressed national economy. Several employees left at once, including the head designer and manager. “We did not hire right away,” Lynn said, “Things were bad for a couple of years. We worked more hours.”
But, they had hired Allison Andrews part time in 2005. She soon emerged as a talented designer with previous wedding experience and with Don’s training in floral design. Two years after she was hired, “The wedding designer retired and I took on that division,” she said. “Don and Lynn also let me do wedding coordination from the shop.”
Allison’s career began in 1983 in the Boston hotel-restaurant industry managing different parts of hotel services. “I started as a waitress and hostess at age 20,” she said, “and quickly moved to supervisory positions.” After working in several fine hotels, she ended up at the famed Boston Harbor Hotel where she worked for 12 years, including designing large weddings.
Allison married Bill Andrews, Jr. in 1996 and had four boys in four years. In 2000, while pregnant with her last child, they moved to Brockport, across College Street from Bill Andrews, her father-in-law. Bill Jr. had attended Brockport schools, received a master’s degree at the University of Rochester and is director of information systems for pathology at Strong Hospital.
Looking ahead
How does Allison feel about owning the shop? “I always felt like I was kind of an owner anyway,” she said. “I really feel invested in the place and put my heart into the design in the front of the store and the windows. I love the relationships I develop with customers, especially brides and families planning funerals.”
The Shorts expressed great optimism about the future of the store in Allison’s hands. “She has lots of energy, enthusiasm, and creativity,” Lynn said, adding that “she is the best designer we have ever had. “We have an emotional investment in the business,” Don said. “We are known for really high quality and good service with an attitude of ‘We can make it work.’ I think she fits that exactly.”
“We will miss all the people who have become wonderful customers and friends,” Lynn said. Don added, “We’re at a point now when women who planned their weddings with us are bringing their daughters in for the same thing.” Looking to the future, the Shorts say they will enjoy their lake house and sailboat, gardening, visiting their daughters and grandchildren, and traveling to visit friends.
Photo by Dianne Hickerson
