BUSINESS FEATURE
BY CECILIA LENZEN
Lake Highlands Flowers makes an average of 30 50 oral arrangements per day.
Almost all arrangements sold at Lake Highlands Flowers are custom designed.
Lake Highlands Flowers owner Renarldo Parker started working at the ower shop in 1985. (Photos by Cecilia Lenzen/Community Impact)
PARKER’S DAILY ROUTINE Owner Renarldo Parker has a set schedule.
Lake Highlands Flowers Local orist o ers unique arrangements, top service W hen Renarldo Parker took a job in a ower shop in the ‘80s, he a challenge every day, and it makes people happy every day,” Parker said. The life of a oral shop owner is not as rosy as it may seem, Parker
4:30 a.m.: wake up 7 a.m.: nish checking orders and planning out the day 9 a.m.: open up shop 3 p.m.: nish oral arrangements and send out deliveries
a dozen roses; 99.9% of everything else is custom,” Parker said. “We don’t do recipes.” Unlike many other small local businesses, Lake Highlands Flowers is still riding a boom in business caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. “I hate to be so blunt, but ... there was a ton of funeral work,” Parker said. “COVID increased our business about 42% in the rst year.” While the Lake Highlands area has several ower shops, Parker’s business stands out because of his commitment to his customers, the orist said. “Customer rst, no matter what. ... We make them feel like we cared about whatever happened,” Parker said.
thought he was just doing it to help out a friend. Now he owns the shop. Parker started working at Lake Highlands Flowers in 1985 and became good friends with the owner. When she decided to sell the business, he did not want another boss—so he bought Lake Highlands Flowers himself. “The owner and I became really, really good friends,” Parker said of the store’s previous owner. Now decades into the industry, Parker said he loves the fresh, new challenges that owning a oral business brings every day. “I love that it’s new every day. It’s
said. On any given workday, he rises at 4:30 a.m. before working on creating oral arrangements for delivery and answering hundreds of calls each day. Learning how to design the best oral arrangements was a process of trial and error for Parker. He said he did not have any previous design experience when he took the job. At the time, social media was not available, so he had to teach himself what looks appealing. Almost every arrangement that the shop sells now is custom designed. “The only thing we do by recipe is
Lake Highlands Flowers 9661 Audelia Road, Ste. 118, Dallas 214-340-9950 https://shoplhf.com Hours: Mon.-Fri. 9 a.m.-6 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m.-3 p.m., closed Sun.
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