Seguin) – After 56 years of delivering smiles and helping to lift up spirits, a local business has chosen to close its doors for good.
Kolbe Flower Shop, a staple on North Austin Street, will be closing down the family operated business this weekend.
For years, Kolbe Flower Shop has been a part of the thousands of celebrations in and around Seguin and even across the country bringing their custom floral designs, balloons and other special gifts to the respective occasion.
It was in 1964, when Alfred and Mary Kolbe first began the operation. Son, Tim Kolbe says his parents not only established but maintained a tradition of personalized customer service over the course of those years.
“Kolbe Flowers has been in business since 1964 when mom and dad bought it from another company who had a previous shop there. It was called Turner Flowers, I believe. Of course, I was only about three or four years old at the time,” said Kolbe.
As far as the decision to close up shop, Kolbe says the decision was not an easy one. He says like other businesses, the current economic climate played a huge factor in their decision.
“For a business that has been around for that period of time, there’s always the desire to try to keep it open and hand it off to the next generation of folks and so, we tried to do that first with dad passing away in 2013 and then mom passing away in 2019 and the business climate as it is right now, just kind of led us to make that decision that there is a lot of competition especially with the big box stores and with COVID really affecting the number of people who are buying flowers and especially the funeral business without a lot of funerals being postponed. There just isn’t the business there to sustain it,” said Kolbe.
Ever since the doors opened, Kolbe says four generations of his family have had a hand in the floral industry or have, at least, inherited plenty of good memories.
“My grandfather was around, and he was a funeral director at Goetz Funeral Home when dad bought the shop and then, you know, he wasn’t directly involved in it but then my father was involved and then us three brothers and then, we got children of our own who knew that shop very well — spent a lot of time there. But now, our children have children. So, there’s grandkids also involved so there’s four generations of Kolbe’s that have spanned the period of the ownership of this shop,” said Kolbe.
Kolbe says he and his wife Cheryl are especially proud to have been a part of the business and family tradition. He says while they could have shut down years ago, its doors in large part were kept open for his late mother Mary.
“We ran it. My wife went to work for mom and dad for somewhere around 2010 and she kind of became pop’s right-hand gal if you will and then when he passed away, mom wanted to keep it open. She always did and so we just kept it open for her. Of course, she had Alzheimer’s, but she still really loved to be at the shop to visit and after a while, it wouldn’t work any longer with her being there but even in the nursing home, she would always ask about the shop so we were hoping to try to keep it open and hopefully, the business would come back. We were starting to see a gain in business in 2018 and beginning of 2019 but unfortunately, with COVID striking, it made it very difficult to do business,” said Kolbe.
Although the flower shop will be closed, Kolbe says he along with his brothers Jeffrey and Scott will forever be grateful for the opportunity to be a part of such a wonderful piece of history.
“It was a big part of our growing up not only me but my brothers. We spent many, many hours there. It was a bicycle ride from home. We’ve grown up there. We played there. We met many people, and we value and cherish those relationships we’ve had. We’ve shared a lot with folks who come in even today and share a lot of stories about mom and dad and even Grandpa Kolbe so it’s very enriching and heartwarming to hear a lot of the stories. It’s really been kind of a fixture in town for all those times and I always remember playing over at Weinert Elementary — just so many memories,” said Kolbe.
Before doors are set to close at the end of the month, Kolbe wants to again thank the customers. He says they’ve always been the heart of the family business and for that, he and his family will forever remain grateful.
“We really appreciate all of those faithful customers who have not only been friends of our family — them plus their children and in some cases, maybe even their grandchildren have continued the tradition of purchasing and doing business with us. You just can’t put a price on that. It’s just a gem. It’s something that we will carry in our hearts the rest of our lives and I know that those stories will still be coming after we close the doors. So, many people have wished us well and have expressed their love for what we have been able to do for the community for all of those years and we deeply appreciate them,” said Kolbe.
Kolbe Flower Shop is located at 753 N. Austin St.