At Aladdin, Good Will and Service Blossom : Third-generation florist Eddie Condiotti shows loyalty to his employees even when business isn’t blooming.

Early mornings at Aladdin Florists, two employees spend their hours making up bouquets of mixed flowers: $3.98 for a small bunch, $8.98 for a large one.

They make rose bouquets too, small and large, which sell for about $2 more.

The bouquets require a lot of labor, and the low prices don’t cover the expense. But owner Eddie Condiotti says the bouquets bring people in the door.

“It’s not a money-maker, but next time, they might want something a little better,” he said.

Condiotti does other things that, on the surface, don’t make him money.

For example, the business moved from its corner spot at Bristol Street and 17th Street in Santa Ana into the depths of a strip shopping center for 20 months. During that time, Aladdin’s 31-year-old building was replaced with a new one, twice the size, that opened in May, 1992.

But business dropped off about 30% because the shop lost its street visibility. And construction took much longer than the 12 months the builder had predicted.

Condiotti refused to lay off a single one of his employees during that time.

“It cost me a bundle,” he said. “I didn’t need that many people when we were there. Maybe it wasn’t technically the best decision, but I wanted to keep good people.

“I had a crew that worked together, that did a good job for me. They were a team, and I didn’t want to break that up.”

As a result, some of Condiotti’s employees have been with him for 13 years or longer.

Keeping good employees is important in his business, Condiotti said, because florists’ service is a very personal one. The motto florists use, “Flowers convey what words cannot,” indicates just how personal.

If you’re trusting flowers to convey condolences when sent to a funeral, thanks when sent to a parent or love on Valentine’s Day, those buds are carrying a heavy burden.

On a recent morning, an Aladdin employee mistakenly attached balloons to a bouquet that was meant to mend fences between a man and a woman. The woman thought the balloons were tacky, and Condiotti sent another bouquet out immediately. Then he called the man to apologize.

“The money it costs me to make it right is worth it in goodwill,” he said.

The Condiotti family has been in the flower business for three generations. Eddie’s grandparents moved from Turkey to the United States and started a small flower and fruit stand. His parents, Sam and Lea, took over the business and moved it to its current location in 1961.

Though it is now in a strip center with a Ralph’s supermarket and a huge Blockbuster Video mart, Aladdin was the only business in the area when it opened.

Condiotti worked at the shop as a boy, starting at age 12. He attended college across the street at Rancho Santiago College and put in time at the flower shop after school.

He and his wife, Joan, who is British, met at an FTD (Florists’ Transworld Delivery Assn.) meeting aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach and were married 17 years ago.

His parents retired, and he and Joan took over the business. They opened a second store, Flowers of Orange, in 1986.

Together, the two shops employ 35 people.

Condiotti, a burly man of 50 who calls to mind the old Frank Purdue motto, “It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken,” looks incongruous as he winds a wide yellow ribbon into a complicated bow.

“This is a hard business, it’s very complex,” he said. For one thing, “everything is fabricated. Nothing is sold the way you get it.”

For another, the business relies in large part on discretionary income--and people don’t have much of that today. Grocery stores have been getting into the business of selling flowers lately, too, which also cuts into the market.

“This has been the hardest recession I’ve known,” Condiotti said. “I’ve been through others, and they were a breeze compared to this.

“My philosophy is to carry a wide variety of flowers and prices, starting with very inexpensive items. And I tell my people, the way you make the customer feel is as important as what you sell them.”