ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 11, 1996 TAG: 9604110090
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHARLES STEBBINS STAFF WRITER
The Belle Aire Garden Shoppe on Brandon Avenue, a longtime business in the Roanoke Valley, is in a transition, one of several in its 36 years of service.
The company is phasing out its landscaping department, and will shift to more emphasis on cut flowers and holiday and seasonal decorations for corporations.
Meg Cook, owner of the shop, said that type of business is growing, while landscaping is flat.
"Many businesses have cut personnel and now don't have the people to decorate for holidays, seasonal displays and parties," she said.
This is where Cook said her company is filling in the gap.
"We can go in and decorate their offices for whatever event," she said, "and take all the decorations down afterwards."
Cook, a native of Salem, said there is a need for this type of service and her shop is getting more calls to provide it.
Cut flowers play a big role in corporate decorating, she said, and that is one reason this phase of the business is growing also.
Cook said she is indebted to Christopher Widdoes, one of the shop's employees, who was instrumental in getting the business more involved in cut flowers about three years ago.
"He's the reason we turned to cut flowers," she said.
In a bit of flower trivia, Cook said that when men buy flowers, it is nearly always red roses. But women will buy an arrangement of several types of flowers. Also, women prefer flowers with more pastel colors.
As for landscaping, Cook said that phase of the business is in slow growth, primarily because of increasing competition, mainly from garden shops of big discount stores that offer landscape plants for lower prices.
Cook obviously is excited about the direction in which she has decided to take the shop.
"A small business must be service-conscious," she said. "We can't compete with the big discounters on price, but our service is better than theirs."
Belle Aire, Cook said, will go to the customer and give advice on color schemes and decorating. Also, the shop will carry items not found at the big discounters, such as a wider range of colors, shapes and sizes in containers, silk flowers and other decorating material.
The shop also is undergoing a stress, which is temporary and which Cook believes will be a benefit in the long run.
Brandon Avenue is being widened and will cause the shop to lose part of its property along the front.
That will not hurt the business, Cook said, but the confusion of construction is reducing the amount of traffic the store is getting.
"Sometimes people don't see where to turn into the parking lot, and so they just keep going," she said.
In the long run, however, she believes the street widening will increase traffic to the shop. Not only will a wider street help, she said, but the extension of Peters Creek Road will join Brandon less than a mile away. The shop's location on Brandon is less than a block from the point where Brandon becomes Salem's Apperson Drive.
The street improvements, Cook said, will increase traffic in the neighborhood of the shop, and more traffic means more potential business. Additionally, the improved streets will give a more direct link between Brandon Avenue and northwest Roanoke, she said.
The shop was begun in 1959 by Meg Cook's parents, Gene and Martha Ann Cook. In its early years it mainly sold garden supplies and power equipment.
The power equipment line was dropped after the death of Gene Cook because, Meg Cook said, she and her mother knew little about that part of the business. The shop continued with garden supplies, landscaping, silk flowers and gift items.
Cook, 38, is a graduate of Andrew Lewis High School and Longwood College. She is a granddaughter of Roland E. Cook, the first superintendent of public schools in Roanoke County.
Belle Aire Garden Shoppe
4119 Brandon Ave. S.W.
774-7444
LENGTH: Medium: 78 linesby CNB