Petal Pushers : Shoppers Competing for Flowers Force Police to Cordon Off Street
even if the roses are only $10 a dozen. Don’t poke each other in the eye with the gladioluses. And, please, no temper tantrums over tulips.
What would Mom say, if she knew?
Preparations for the sweet celebration of motherhood turned aggressive Friday at the Los Angeles Flower Market, where crowds became so unwieldy that police were called in to cordon off the street while petal-buyers elbowed for anything with a stem.
“We’re talking mob scene,” said rose purveyor Dan Gonzales, whose family has been in the flower business for 26 years. “You can hardly walk through the aisles.”
It was the busiest day of the year on the one block stretch of Wall Street, between 7th and 8th streets in downtown Los Angeles--busier, even, than Valentine’s Day.
By noon, frenzied flower-seekers had cleared out hundreds of roses from Gonzales’ flower stand--called California Pom Poms, one of about 100 vendors at the mart.
On a normal week, he sells an average of 500 bouquets. By the time Mother’s Day rolls around Sunday, he expects to wrap up well over 3,000.
Traffic was so clogged around the market that police blockaded the street, forcing buyers into circuitous detours in search of parking. The sidewalks teemed with pedestrians lugging newspaper-swathed bundles of flowers. And inside the mart, common courtesy fell by the wayside as shoppers competed for the freshest bouquets.
The cavernous mart is like the Price Club of flower shops--a sprawling group of warehouses brimming with cheap buckets of blossoms. Wholesale business starts at 2 a.m., as florists from throughout Southern California load their trucks and vans until sunrise. The public is allowed to shop from 8 a.m. to noon, but by 10 a.m. the flowers are usually picked over.
Market officials have been considering moving the operation--located just a few blocks from Skid Row--to the City of Commerce, where there would be more room and less congestion. But because of the high cost of a move, the market is staying put for now, said general manager John Mellano.
Early shoppers typically spend $5 to $7 for a mixed bouquet, $4 for two dozen carnations and $6-$20 for roses.
But not on Friday. Responding to market demands, vendors marked up prices 100% or more.
One man, who asked not to be identified for fear his mother would find out, tossed aside a bouquet of tattered tulips after finding out they would cost him $10--instead of the usual $5.
“This is a joke,” he said, stomping off.
Still, some shoppers said the mart was the best place to buy flowers in bulk.
Balancing five bouquets on her arm, Jana Maccabe said she wanted to impress her mother with an array of flowers. In the crush, however, she kept poking fellow shoppers in the head with her bundle of anthuriums.
“Everyone’s been nice about it so far,” said Maccabe, of Wrightwood.
Mary Schildmeyer of Claremont was the designated shopper for a group of five of her friends. Friday evening, they planned to gather at a tailgate party to assemble bouquets for their mothers.
“It’s just a cheap adventure,” said Schildmeyer, toting an armful of gladioluses, larkspurs, tulips and Queen Anne’s lace.
And Jason La Hue of Los Angeles held his 11-month-old son in one arm and a bouquet in the other. Just as he spotted a perfect set of red roses for his wife, someone with a faster hand grabbed it.
His consolation prize: two dozen pink and white roses for $14. “It’s worth the wait and the crowd,” he said.
