KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Two different businesses, two different locations facing the same red and gold rain on their metaphorical parade.
Plenty of folks working downtown are expecting business booms from the parade, but not everything's rosy for flower shops.
After all, their biggest day is Valentine's.
EverWild Florals is right off the parade route at East 9th and Walnut streets.
The big concern is whether enough customer parking will be available.
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"We end up doing about six weeks worth of business within about 24-48 hours,” said Sarah Jaeger, owner of the floral shop.
Foot traffic is a big priority so when the Chiefs won, Jaeger and her team started planning for the parade.
She reserved spaces in front of her shop to make sure customers have a place to park.
Hopefully, 200 customers choose EverWild Florals, which would be about 35% of EverWild’s Valentine's Day business. The other side is deliveries, which Jaeger says will have to start much earlier in the day to avoid parade traffic.
The Hy-Vee store in Shawnee is feeling the effects of the parade. They say deliveries in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, will be a challenge.
"We're not going to be able to go anywhere near downtown just because of the restrictions on roads and everything,” said Karla Quandt, district store director of the Shawnee Hy-Vee.
Deliveries aren’t the only things being canceled.
"Schools are being canceled on Wednesday, so you think about that, you'll have Valentine's parties at school shifting to Thursday and Friday," Quandt said. "And so really the way we look at it is Valentine's is almost going to be celebrated all week long, and that's how we're gearing it up at our stores."
This doesn't have to be a sad story, though.
In fact, both businesses say they are prepared, ready and eager for customers.
It's just going to look a little different this year.
"Run the business different than what we have before,” Jaeger said.
A lot of changes stemming from the parade with fingers crossed it's not too thorny.
