Arroyo Grande Village Flower Shop closes, combines with another one

The Arroyo Grande Village Flower Shop has closed its doors, but its former patrons need not go far for their floral fix: The shop owner still owns the Grand Bouquet Florist several blocks away from the Village and has combined the two businesses there.

The owner, Tina McLane, said she had to close the 600-square-foot Village store because the building — at the corner of Wesley and Branch streets — is up for sale after her former landlady died, and she did not want to negotiate a new lease with new owners.

“They put it up for sale the minute it was available,” she said. “And I knew they would. (My landlady) was in her 90s, so I knew that that wasn’t going to be forever. That’s why we took this place three years ago, because I knew that was eventually going to go. But it was a great place.”

McLane has owned the Village flower shop since 2009, although the building had been a flower shop since the 1980s, she said. She said she does not know what will go into the space.

Starting on Monday, McLane combined the shop’s operations with the 1,300-square-foot Grand Bouquet Florist 10 blocks away at 1139 Grand Ave. McLane has owned that business for 30 years, although she moved it to its current location (formerly KK’s Bundt Cakes) in 2013.

The new store has a combined seven employees, including herself. McLane declined to disclose annual revenue for either of the floral businesses.

She said she chose to move the business before Valentine’s Day — one of the floral industry’s biggest times of the year — to take advantage of the increased number of customers coming in and to help introduce them to the new combined store.

Although she will miss having a store in the Village, McLane said she is happy with her decision to move for now.

“I think I’m ready to just have one shop again,” she said. “I don’t think there is another place in the Village that would work, and I looked. I was really struggling with leaving, but I think we’ll be OK here.”

This story was originally published February 9, 2016 at 4:00 PM with the headline "Arroyo Grande Village Flower Shop closes, combines with another one."