11/15/2024
"What little girl doesn’t love a flower shop?"
“This was a flower shop when my grandma owned the building, and it was a flower shop before her. I loved being down here as a kid. What little girl doesn’t love a flower shop? So I would walk down after school, go across the street to get a candy bar, and then come here to hang out or watch The Price is Right. I’d help out by sweeping the floors or ‘checking on the plants’. It was a great place to grow up, in a way.
Then I went away for school. I had always wanted to own my business. I saw my whole family being entrepreneurs, and I wanted to go down that path, too. I didn’t know what I wanted my business to be, but I kept coming back to the flower shop. My grandma closed the store during COVID, and because she was close to retiring anyway and didn’t reopen.
So one day, I asked my grandma, ‘What would you think about me reopening the shop?’ And now we're here. In a way, it was a scary decision. I’m 26, which I feel is pretty young to be running a business. This is something the town needs, and I had the support of my grandma, my mom, and the rest of my family. So why wait?
We opened last year in May. I wasn't going to remodel the shop right away, so I just opened and I wanted to slowly get my feet wet and see what I needed to progress. But I've received a lot of support from the community. People are really excited about having the flower shop open. I applied for a Match on Main Grant, which we received. We’ll use to change up the shop a little bit: new flooring, new furnace, and a display cooler, which people really want. Slowly growing with the community is what I want to do.
I moved away from Rogers City for about five years. I went to school, and then stayed away for a little bit after. I thought I would thrive in a city, but I’m more of a small town girl at heart. I like being outdoors. I love being by the water—it really doesn't get better than that.
There’s something special here that drew me back. This is where I’m going to raise a family, and where I want to be.”
—Heather Hentkowski
Rogers City Flower Shop