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FEATURE
Oscar Hansen
owner of
Glidden Campus
florist
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Glidden Campus Florist: Where In
It’s not always easy to bring fresh
ideas to a family business that’s been
around for 75 years. But when that
family business is flowers, fresh is
what it’s all about. Fortunately,
Oscar Hansen, owner of The Glidden
Campus Florist in DeKalb, thrives
on innovation, which keeps his
business blooming, and booming,
season after season.
The flower shop began in 1936 as
a simple cart from which Mabel
Glidden sold flowers grown
in her own garden.
Mabel’s children,
Jesse and Carter, expanded the
business into a floral shop on that
same garden plot, located on the
historic Glidden Homestead and Barn
property on West Lincoln Highway,
where Glidden Campus Florist stands
today.
The Hansen family’s involvement in
the flower shop dates back to 1962,
when Oscar’s mother, Wenke, went
to work for the brother and sister.
With her innovative design ideas
and keen business sense, Wenke
became a key a
figure in the
enterprise, and in 1978, she and
her husband, Sven, who was a
horticulturalist, bought the shop from
the Glidden siblings. Oscar had been
working part time in the shop since
1972, so he was already a veteran in
the business when his family took the
wheel. “I learned to do everything,”
says Oscar, “from delivery to design.”
After college, Oscar recalls that he
had a choice to make: “I was either
going to move to Boulder, Colorado,
or take over the family business.
I decided to come back to DeKalb for
a few years just to see ‘how it would
go.’ Well,” he laughs, “you can see
how it went.”
Oscar had studied literature in
college, which turned out to be a
pretty good fit for a career that is
very much about creativity. “I’m
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It’s not surprising, then, that Oscar
pursues business with the passion
and imagination of an artist. But
it could as easily be said that Oscar
pursues his creative endeavors with
the pragmatism and common sense of
a good businessman. “I spent years
working on the creative side of our
business,” he explains. “I designed
for many years. But I realized that
I also have a talent for the business
and marketing part. I enjoy pursuing
that side of things, as well.”
FEATURE
very grateful that I’m in the
business of selling something
beautiful,” he says. In fact, Oscar
is accomplished in a variety of arts
that in one way or another express
his creative bent. He is a ceramics
maker, writer, and musician,
playing eclectic percussion in his
own acoustic rock band, MahaRa.
This
combination
of interests has
helped Oscar seize
new opportunities for his business in
the age of the Internet. For instance,
he saw the advantages of joining
Team Floral, a co-op consulting firm
formed exclusively for the bricksand-mortar floral industry. About
150 florists share ideas and expertise
specifically for marketing and
growing full-service flower shops.
The network offers webinars and
seminars, conferences, profit analysis,
cluster groups, and even one-on-one
business coaching. “We’ve been with
Team Floral for eight months now
and it’s really changed our business.
I come away from events with three
different ways to handle any issue I
encounter,” Oscar says.
Innovative marketing is crucial in
these days of online competition.
e Innovation and Service Blossom
The
Glidden van
is always a welcome surprise.
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FEATURE
The
Glidden Team:
Seated in chair: Wenke Hansen - Standing
behind her - Sven Oscar Hansen
Back Row: Angella Parisot, Jacquie Young,
Katherine Powers, Dawn Smith
Seated: Cynthia Faivre, Sam Nickolaou
Not Pictured: Karen Vandergrift, Adrian
Mascote, Christine Wise
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Glidden’s Campus Florist
carries a wide variety
of silk flowers.
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Florists like Oscar must communicate
to customers what distinguishes
their business from the Internet
flower sellers. Oscar explains, “It’s
the service that customers miss in
the online business, including the
experience of a professional florist.
We offer knowledge of the products.
If we get a chance to communicate
over the phone with a potential
customer, it’s a pretty easy contrast
for people to appreciate.”
Oscar attributes much of The Glidden
Campus Florist difference
to his team of talented designers
(Dawn, Jacquie, and Karen) who
are up to almost any challenge,
from the most elaborate wedding
arrangements to the poor fellow who
came into the shop recently with a
bunch of roses he’d purchased from
an online retailer. Oscar recalls, “He
had these short roses in a glass vase,
all scrunched together, tied around
with a little twisty, and he had no
idea what to do with them, so we
redesigned them for him. We know
our clients, and we care about all
of them, so from that standpoint,
we’re a community florist.”
Dawn Smith, the
store manager,
has been a floral
designer for 33
years. She’s
the wedding
specialist in
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the shop, but she’s also able to satisfy
any unique request, like the casket
spray for an avid golfer, complete
with actual golf clubs, or sympathy
arrangements incorporating toy
tractors, native prairie plants,
or quilts. “We can make an
arrangement meaningful, and
people really appreciate it. They’ll
never forget it.”
It takes skill and an experienced
eye to turn cut flowers into something
special. In fact, Oscar describes the
floral workshop behind the showroom
as “a little factory” where they work
with color, texture, and sometimes
personally significant objects to
fashion unique floral expressions.
“We’re a small manufacturer.
We make every arrangement
from scratch.”
In general, Oscar finds people are
more knowledgeable about flowers
FEATURE
The
WEDDING
Consultation
AREA
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than they were even a few years ago,
and customers are calling for a wider
spectrum of colors and varieties:
roses in unusual colors, variegated
carnations, larkspur, stocks, stargazer
lilies, and Glidden’s signature bloom,
the Gerber daisy. “That was not the
case 12 years ago,” Oscar observes. A
more knowledgeable consumer might
seem like a business challenge, but
Oscar appreciates the opportunity to
rise above the competition.
To reach this educated consumer
is now the 21st-century florist’s job,
and Oscar’s 75-year-old business is
finding success with 21st-century tools,
which Angie Parisot manages from
the shop’s front office. Oscar is very
The
Beauty of
Resource Bank
proud of their website (www.gliddenflorist.com), e-mail list, and newly
launched Facebook page. “Of course,
our profile picture on Facebook is a
Gerber daisy, which is our company
symbol and our best seller. We offer
visitors who ‘like’ us weekly specials,
and while we’ve only had the page up
for a short while, we’ve already been
‘liked’ by 200 friends.”
glidden-florist.com
But what’s not to like about
Glidden’s? Who doesn’t hold her
breath, wondering if the arrangement
is for her, when she sees that bright
Glidden delivery van pull up to
the house? The flower business
is a happy business, and that’s a
beautiful thing.
“Resource is very innovative in the way it approaches banking, and that’s
inspired me to be innovative, too. I bank with Resource because my business
is about aesthetics, beauty, design and integrity, and in its own way, Resource
does that too in their sphere.” ~Oscar Hansen
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