Soderberg's Floral and Gifts reopens after sudden closure last month
MINNEAPOLIS — Business is blooming once again at a near-century-old flower shop that suddenly closed last month.
The door at Soderberg's Floral and Gifts now opens to smiling customers.
For about a month it stonewalled them after the shop closed right before the new year. There was little explanation to its loyal following.
"It was very disheartening that we couldn't get answers, that no one would talk," said customer Catherine Benson. She said she's been going to the shop for at least 40 years. "We didn't know what was going to happen, especially to the employees. We can shop elsewhere for flowers, but the employees lost their jobs," she said.
Benson's only hope in the past weeks was the sign on the door that read, "closed until further notice." Ironically, there was almost no notice that it reopened last week.
"I don't even think we made an announcement. We just opened the door and there were people there," said Heather Serr. She's the new operations manager at Soderberg's.
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She describes buying the 99-year-old flower shop with her business partner as a bit of a whirlwind.
"We purchased it from a receivership, so we didn't actually have any interaction with the owner of the business. We still don't," said Serr. "We've had to just jump in totally head first and figure things out."
Serr owns another flower shop in Saint Paul, A. Johnson and Sons Florists, so the industry isn't foreign to her. She said about five former employees have been rehired at Soderberg's, but others had to find new jobs.
Bringing back more familiar faces and preparing for Valentine's Day are priorities. So too is keeping this company's roots and traditions - in the same spot.
"Some people will come in and make all these changes and change the name, change the employees and change everything that's happening and that's not our goal," she said. "Our goal was to get it back open to what people know and people love."
With Valentine's day a little more than two weeks away, they're encouraging customers to get their orders as soon as possible. If you'd like to learn more about Soderberg's, click here.
WCCO reached out to the previous general manager, Kym Erickson, to learn more about the closure earlier in January but never heard back.
Harold Soderberg opened the flower shop in 1925 at 2707 ½ East Lake Street. Seven years later it moved to its current location at 3305 East Lake Street. It was sold to employees Lyle and Carol Blair in 1976. They sold it nearly 30 years later to Howard O'Neill, the most recent owner until it sold again this month.