Gillespie Florists is open 12 hours daily Monday-Friday from 7am -7pm (we’re open on Saturday and Sunday too, just shorter hours). There’s a lot that can happen in a day and here’s the synopsis of a typical day here at the shop. 6:45am - 7:00am: Duane and Nancy come in to open the store. Nancy will start filling orders for plants, planters and Terrariums. When needed, she also designs beautiful corsages and dish gardens. Duane begins his day filling fresh flower orders. Both Nancy and Duane will help customers as needed until the Customer Care staff arrives. Many customers stop in on their way to work, so the first hour of the day can be pretty exciting! Several days a week, Sarah is at the local wholesalers buying flowers during this hour.
8:00am - 9:00am: Two drivers, Debbie, Sarah and Sheila come in. The “Delivery Pool” driver loads up the morning deliveries for outlying areas and drives to a central location downtown, where he/she will meet with 30 other drivers in an industrial type building. The “Local” driver loads up the morning deliveries that have destinations that are nearby. Debbie, a member of the Customer Care team, will answer phones and assist walk-in customers. Between customers and phone calls, she wraps “sunshine” bouquets (our very popular $3.95 take-out bouquet). All staff members will assist customers and answer phones when needed. Sarah, the Operations Manager, is responsible for ordering flowers from around the world, processing orders in the Order Control Department, routing deliveries/drivers, coordinating weddings and special events! Generally in this hour, you will find her in Order Control, processing and distributing orders to the design team. Sheila will design extra flower arrangements or help Duane with orders.
10:00am - 11:00am: Jacklyn and Della arrive. Jacklyn assists in the Customer Care and design departments. Della is the “Web” Administrator and works on product development (to get new products to our website), write blogs, attend to our social media presence, work on PPC marketing and traditional marketing. Della is also the giftware buyer! Both delivery drivers are returning from their morning routes in the latter half of this hour. The drivers begin loading their afternoon deliveries and they will process new flower shipments, time permitting.
12:00pm: This is a crucial time of our day. Our “Pool” truck leaves at 12:30 and all orders for the greater metropolitan area must be ready to go with this driver. You will find everyone assisting customers, designing, processing flowers or loading a delivery vehicle during this hour. At 12:30-1:00, we begin rotating lunch breaks!
1:00pm - 2:00pm: Lunchtime! Everyone gets a chance to catch their breath and a bite before the afternoon rush. Duane, Elaine, Nancy and Sheila are working on orders for the next day and making extra bouquets. If Duane has weddings to work on for the weekend, this is the time of day he would get started on them. Debbie, Jacklyn, Sarah and Della are all hard at work with the daily tasks assigned to them. 3:00pm - 4:00pm: Sarah and Nancy leave between 3-4pm. Before leaving she makes sure we are all on task and all orders have been processed. Our delivery drivers are usually finishing up deliveries in the latter half of this hour. As the drivers return, they will check to see if there are any additional deliveries to be made, check to see if there flowers that need processed and assist the designers with clean-up before leaving for the day.
5:00pm - 600pm: Duane usually leaves around 5pm but is always happy to stay longer if needed! Sheila leaves between 6-7pm. Business also picks up for the 5 o’clock rush because customers stop by on their way home from work. This is my favorite time of day because most flower shops are closed and customers are pleasantly surprised to see us open!
7:00pm-7:30pm: We close at 7pm (sometimes later, if we have orders to finish or customers to assist). Jacklyn, Sheila and I get the drawers balanced, finish cleaning up and go home!
There you have it! 12 hours in the life of Gillespie Florists!
Check out our latest video of what we have in stock in our cooler below!
Gillespie Florists is open 12 hours daily Monday-Friday from 7am -7pm (we’re open on Saturday and Sunday too, just shorter hours). There’s a lot that can happen in a day and here’s the synopsis of a typical day here at the shop. 
customers and phone calls, she wraps “sunshine” bouquets (our very popular $3.95 take-out bouquet). All staff members will assist customers and answer phones when needed. Sarah, the Operations Manager, is responsible for ordering flowers from around the world, processing orders in the Order Control Department, routing deliveries/drivers, coordinating weddings and special events! Generally in this hour, you will find her in Order Control, processing and distributing orders to the design team. Sheila will design extra flower arrangements or help Duane with orders. 
12:00pm: This is a crucial time of our day. Our “Pool” truck leaves at 12:30 and all orders for the greater metropolitan area must be ready to go with this driver. You will find everyone assisting customers, designing, processing flowers or loading a delivery vehicle during this hour. At 12:30-1:00, we begin rotating lunch breaks!
and Della are all hard at work with the daily tasks assigned to them.
my favorite time of day because most flower shops are closed and customers are pleasantly surprised to see us open! 
