For Terry Lingenfelter and Clay Glenny, opening up their own floral shop was a dream, but recently that dream has become a reality with their new business in Bellwood conveniently named ‘A Little Shop of Flowers & Gifts.’
Located on 413 Main Street, right in the heart of Bellwood’s business district, the two partners opened up their own floral shop, in the building previously held by ‘My Garden Shop,’ last Monday, October 14.
Lingenfelter, an Altoona native, previously was employed for nearly three years at ‘Barbara Jean’s Florist’ in Altoona, where Glenny, originally from Huntingdon, likewise provided his services during the busy holiday seasons.
“Barbara Jean taught me a lot and it was eventually my goal to open up my own shop,” said Lingenfelter. “We weren’t planning on opening up our shop until next year, but this opportunity came up and we decided to go with it.”
‘A Little Shop of Flowers & Gifts’ main item consists of flower arrangements for weddings, funerals, birthdays, holidays and other occasions. They also have a gift shop within that provides candles, collectible items, and soon to add balloons and boxed candy from Tyrone’s own Gardners Candies. Gift baskets and fruit baskets are also available anytime, especially being popular during the holiday seasons.
As far as gift and collectible items, the candles that they carry are Thompson’s Candles, which only one other place in this area carries the Huntingdon based line of candles. They will begin carrying Boyds Bears of The Boyds Collection, Ltd. at the end of the month, because of the many collectors in the area. There will be many other gift lines that the new shop will begin carrying soon once becoming more established.
Lingenfelter is a certified floral designer and he makes the floral arrangements. Glenny works with the gift shop and he’s the deliverer. ‘A Little Shop of Flowers & Gifts’ is a two man business, which displays the community oriented service the two men plan to provide.
One such service includes a 24 hour availability. If a person calls the shop after hours, the phone call is forwarded directly to Lingenfelter’s residence so that an order can be served no matter what time or urgency. They aim to provide the best service possible, which suits their logo, ‘Our Business Stems From Your Heart.’
After only one week of being open, the business is doing better than what Lingenfelter and Glenny expected at such an early stage. Their good beginning has a lot to do with the way the shop is designed and their wide flower delivery area of Hollidaysburg, Duncansville, Altoona, Tyrone and Bellwood – basically doorstep delivery for all of Blair County.
“That’s what we do, we have very low prices and extended delivery,” said Glenny. “We hope to be able to provide a top quality product at the lowest price, and hopefully be the first choice of people who need flowers, candles and all that we supply.”
He added, “Terry’s an experienced and certified floral designer and does an excellent job with his work.”
Lingenfelter and Glenny haven’t even began to seriously advertise their business as of yet, but they’re going to begin going business to business locally and pass out postcards and fliers. They are also currently working on creating a Web site.
But even without strong advertising at their early stages of business, this week they are providing their services for Senior Night for the girls volleyball team at Bellwood-Antis High School. They also work through Teleflora, which is a nationwide flower service where a person can send and/or receive flowers from anywhere over the computer.
“A Little Shop of Flowers & Gifts’ will be having an official grand opening November 15-17, by which all items, such as fresh flowers and silks, will be 10 percent off all day and business hours will be extended. Every person who stops in during those days of the grand opening will be given a free carnation.
There will also be door prizes from different area business like restaurants such as T.G.I.F. gift certificates, coupons, etc. They will have a drawing for a door prize every hour during the grand opening.
Lingenfelter and Glenny have many interesting plans for their shop, such as during the Christmas holiday if people get their Christmas flower order in early, they receive a discount.
Every holiday their arrangements coordinate with the holiday like all floral shops provide. The Teleflora Christmas flower container this year is a Thomas Kinkade decoration.
They are also going to have a program for the community called ‘Tell-A-Friend,’ where somebody comes in, buys something, and then receives a card that they can give to friends or family. When their friends or family come in to purchase something, whoever gave them the card originally will get one dollar towards another purchase, and can continue doing so.
There will also be a ‘Boyds Club,’ which will consist of a punch card where for every $10 in bears that a person buys they get their card punched. When they fill their card, they get $10 off of their next purchase with the card.
Lingenfelter and Glenny both said that they like this area and hope to be a permanent fixture, and become as community oriented as they possible can be in Bellwood and the surrounding communities. They even have hopes to expand in the future into Altoona and have a separate shop there as well.
“It takes a lot of luck for one thing, but also a lot of determination,” said Glenny about beginning their own business. “You have to set a goal and then do whatever it takes to reach that goal. When the opportunity came along, we put it together in no time, and it’s something that we’re proud of.”
‘A Little Shop of Flowers & Gifts’ is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The phone number is 814-742-8933 or toll free at 1-877-742-8933, and can be reached via e-mail at YourFlowerShop@aol.com.
