A century of success Broadway Florists, Cholakis family celebrating 100 years of passion for flowers By: Gabrielle Piché Posted: 6:48 PM CDT Monday, Jul. 31, 2023

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This article was published 31/07/2023 (767 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Once upon a time, a dozen roses sold for $1.

They’d come in wooden boxes filled with ice from Brampton, Ont. via train. Customers pulled out cash or cheque at Broadway Florists’ Portage Avenue hub, streetcars rumbling past, to buy roses, and maybe a chrysanthemum for 35 cents.

It’s been 100 years.

Broadway Florists is preparing for its centennial anniversary, a milestone the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce’s president estimates happens to just one in every 1,000 Winnipeg businesses.

“We’re just proud of our grandfather,” said Costa Cholakis, the flower shop’s current co-owner. “(He) took a chance in life and set up a business that’s gone 100 years. It’s a big thing.”

Costa, 56, sat with his brother Ernest Cholakis in the Academy Road shop. Behind them, atop coolers of flowers, lay a wooden box — a relic of decades past.

Deep red roses from Ecuador took space in one cooler, near pink daisies, likely from the same country.

Plants from Colombia, Australia, Holland and Thailand regularly find their way to Broadway Florists, overnight on planes.

Apple Pay — paying by tapping a watch or phone on a payment machine — is now a constant in the retailer.

“Who would’ve thought people would be coming here, paying me with their watches?” Costa laughed.

Likely not his grandfather.

The elder Ernest Cholakis emigrated from Greece to New York City around 1916. There, he worked at a family-run flower shop, according to the junior Ernest Cholakis, who now co-owns the Winnipeg venture with Costa.

When Ernest Sr.’s brothers switched to Coney Island’s restaurant industry, he made plans to move to Seattle.

“I think he found New York a little too big and kind of overwhelming,” Ernie, 60, said.

As the family tale goes, the elder Ernest didn’t make it to Seattle. He took a train west that stopped in Winnipeg, and he decided to stay.

“It was probably hopping (in Winnipeg),” Costa said, adding Ernest Sr. saw a business opportunity.

He worked at a Portage Avenue shop called Kensington Florist in 1922. A year later, he opened Broadway Florists at 241 Portage Ave., a short distance away.

One dollar could net a dozen roses during Ernest Sr.’s opening day special on Sept. 1, 1923. A dozen asters cost 50 cents, and sweet peas in a bunch, 10 cents.

Business bloomed. Ernest Sr. moved to a bigger space, buying Kensington Florists’ property, Costa said. Neon red signs flashed “Broadway Florists” against a green canopy facing Portage Avenue.

“Everyone went downtown,” Ernie highlighted.

His grandfather sold poinsettias in the winter, lilies in the spring. He grew them in several St. James-based greenhouses, according to Ernie — international transportation was limited in the 1960s.

Meantime, Ernest Sr.’s family had grown, and four sons were ready to tackle the business. A fifth became a lawyer.

The sons planted bulbs in St. James and delivered bouquets around the city. When the mall in Polo Park first opened in 1959 — as an open air, no-roof shopping centre — Broadway Florists became one of the first tenants.

The opening special was $2.95 per dozen roses; a regular dozen at the time was $6, Costa said.

The sons divided and conquered, opening a shop in The Bay downtown and another in Kildonan Place by the 1980s. Ernest Sr. died of a heart attack in 1971, but his children had no intention of ending the business.

Costa and Ernie have been in the company’s picture “since birth,” Costa joked.

“My grandfather was passionate about what he did, as were my dad and my uncles,” Ernie said. “They all loved what they did, as do we.”

He’d wrap flowers and make boxes during school breaks, transitioning to a delivery driver once he had a licence handy.

An 18-year-old Costa delivered a single red rose to a casket at a funeral home, instructed by his father to put the flower in the corpse’s hand.

“I was scared,” Costa remembered.

“My grandfather was passionate about what he did, as were my dad and my uncles… They all loved what they did, as do we.”–Ernie

Flower deliverers no longer have that task, he added.

It’s among many changes: Broadway Florists has scaled back from four shops to one.

“Everybody was using phones. No one was walking downtown anymore, so why should we be paying rent for all these locations?” Costa said.

He and his brother took over from the second generation in the late ‘80s or early ‘90s.

They moved from Portage Avenue in the 80s, following a fire in 1971; Kildonan Place’s location closed in the 90s, and the spot at The Bay shuttered later.

Competition from national and international chains contributed to the downsizing, Costa said.

Broadway Florists kept its CF Polo Park location. Ernie remembers working during the 9/11 attack — there weren’t many customers.

“It was kind of eerie,” Ernie said. “I think everyone kind of stayed home and didn’t know what the heck was going on.”

It was similar to the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic — unusually quiet, the brothers noted.

By then, Broadway Florists had moved from the mall to 419 Academy Rd. The Polo Park lease wasn’t renewed 12 years ago.

Now, a dozen long-stem roses go for $60. Roughly one-third of sales are walk-up traffic, and just one customer is allowed to pay by cheque.

The staff of around five order some flowers from Carman and Selkirk.

At least one customer has been buying from Broadway Florists for 70 years, the Cholakises said.

“It’s trust,” stated Michele Kane, an employee for a year and a half. “(There’s so) many times people call and say, ‘Oh, Costa knows,’ or ‘Ernie knows.’”

Robert Krul, co-owner of Cornelia Bean, has watched repeat customers walk into the neighbouring florist shop.

“One hundred years doesn’t surprise me,” Krul said. “I think they’re good, as a family, for probably another 100 years.”

Loren Remillard, president of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, said he’s aware of roughly 20 Winnipeg businesses to reach the same milestone, in a pool of more than 20,000.

“One hundred years doesn’t surprise me… I think they’re good, as a family, for probably another 100 years.”–Robert Krul

Many long-standing businesses have undergone rebranding and serve a global market, Remillard said.

“For Broadway Florists to reach 100 as a local company primarily servicing their local market is… a real testament to the successive groups that have owned that business,” he added. “It really speaks to the power of brand management and succession planning.”

Each new owner has a responsibility to meet customers’ expectations, Remillard noted. They also must adapt to a world changing at an “astronomical” pace.

Despite the differences between 1923 and today, one thing remains: ordering flowers is emotional, and each customer needs to be valued, the Cholakises said.

They credit customer service and reputation as reasons the company has lasted. The family will celebrate Broadway Florists’ anniversary in the first week of September; they’re currently ironing out details.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com