Business at Hoffman's still blooming after 80 years

By Dan Benson
Press correspondent

One day after the stock market crashed on Oct. 29, 1929, and plunged the country into what became known as the Great Depression, Russian immigrants Harry and Sarah Hoffman opened a fruit stand at the corner of 12th Street and Michigan Avenue in Sheboygan.

On the same corner today, 80 years later, their business is still thriving as Hoffman's Flowerland, run by their grandson, Kevin.

Not to say the couple's son, Harold, who turns 83 in January, can't still be found helping out about four hours a day in the flowershop's back room or in the garden center. He stopped working full-time about 10 years ago.

"I'm the odd job man," he said. "I do whatever needs to be done."

"It's his hobby now, I say," his wife, Alice, said. The couple will be married 50 years next year.

Kevin, Harold and Alice were standing in the store, which was expanded from its fruit stand and grocery store roots in 1958 to become strictly a floral and garden center.

"In those days (when the fruit stand started), the guys who grew the fruits and vegetables also grew the garden plants," Harold said, describing how his father would go to Milwaukee's produce market early every morning to buy produce from wholesalers there. "So my father always sold flowers too."

Then, as supermarkets started to squeeze out smaller grocery stores, the Hoffmans made the transition to flowers and garden plants, Harold said.

In fact, it was Harold's idea to make the switch after he returned from serving in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War.

What did his father and his mother think about making the switch?

"I never asked him. They were up in years by then and they didn't know much about it," Harold said.

Some of Hoffman's business relationships are in their third generation as well.

"We're still dealing with some of the same growers" as in the '40s and '50s, Harold said.

One of those is Karthauser and Sons Inc. in Germantown, which started in 1957.

"Hoffman's is one of those family-owned flower shops that sadly has become a dinosaur. It's unique to have that multi-generation relationship," said Brian Karthauser, a third-generation member of Karthauser and Sons.

"It's good to see. In 1957, it was mostly smaller florists we dealt with. Not anymore," Karthauser said.

Harold said the shop's solid business relationships can be traced back to the Great Depression, when many businesses went bankrupt.

"We always paid our bills. We had A-No. 1 credit then and we have A-No. 1 credit now," he said.

Kevin said the poor economy has affected Hoffman's like any other business, but he said they've been able to weather the storm better than some of the big box retailers like The Home Depot or Lowe's that have forced many smaller shops to close.

"The bigger you are, the harder you fall," he said. "I think they've been in worse shape than us. We were able to move faster and make adjustments quicker than them."

He said the long-term business relationships and the help of the shop's 15 or so employees, many who have been there for more than 30 years, also has helped.

"You can't run a business like this without hardworking, loyal employees," he said.

One of those, Bonnie Benzschawel, who's worked at Hoffman's for 31 years, pointed out that many of the employees have "seniority" over Kevin, who came on to help run the business, along with his aunt, Mary, in 1991 after pursuing an accounting career.

Mary died in 1998.

"He hasn't been here that long," she said, wryly.

Actually, Kevin, along with brothers Mark and Perry, grew up working in the store, just like his father.

"I always wanted to keep the business in the family," Kevin said. "I like it. It's a business that appears to make people happy."

And a third generation seems to be in the offing.

Kevin's 3-year-old son, Adam, "likes to pretend he's sweeping up," and daughter Valerie, 7, is already learning to make flower arrangements, Kevin said.

"Why not? What child doesn't love flowers?" Alice asked.