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By Marianne Cotter
In an up-and-down economy, Cugini Florists rides the waves.
T
he name may sound Italian (the previous owner was Italian), but when you walk into Cugini Florists & Fine Gifts, you know it is every bit a product of the Pacific Northwest. Located in Renton, Washington, between Seattle and Puget Sound, the shop’s interior is done in striking Western red cedar—a choice that would be prohibitively expensive today. When current owners Bill Gaw and Sharon Landes bought the shop from Dario and Josephine Cugini in 1984, they maintained the interior design, both for its beauty and for its Northwest connection. What they did change was the merchandise mix. “Sharon had been running the business for several years before we bought it,” Bill says. “She knew it had a smooth operation based on quality and service. It was well known, so we didn’t change the name. But we did eliminate the high-end Italian imports and one-off art pieces that Mr. Cugini bought on his trips to Italy. We didn’t see those selling very well, so we changed the gift mix to mid-level products—not super high-end, but of good quality and different from what you could find elsewhere locally." CHICAGO ROOTS Bill and Sharon both have their roots in Chicago, where they began their careers. Bill earned a biology degree in 1975 and fell into a job doing interior plant maintenance for Phillip’s Flowers, a well-known Since Sharon Landes and Bill Gaw bought the shop in 1984, Cugini Florists has weathered economic storms and continues to thrive by focusing on a simple principle: serving the needs of customers. An extensive, and exclusive (yet affordable) gift line also helps to lift the bottom line.
60 www.flowersandmagazine.com
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Photography by Lara Swimmer Photography