McCrory Business Is Blooming

Entrepreneurs who start or expand their businesses in their hometowns are the lifeblood of rural communities, creating jobs and cash flow.

Most small cities, such as McCrory, rely on sales tax revenue to support the city and the services, such as water and sanitation, on which residents depend.

In order to have a healthy and vibrant business community, the support of the residents means a great deal, says Alan McVey, executive director of the Delta Center for Economic Development at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro.

“I commend McCrory and other communities across Arkansas,” he says.

He also adds that it comes full circle. When a community supports a local business, it’s usually that business that steps up and helps support the community and its schools.

Just as flowers grow in a garden, local businesses have a multiplying effect.

“Our goal for McCrory is to be the shining star of the Delta,” says Doyle Fowler, the town’s mayor. “A flower shop is like having a school in your community: It’s vital.”

In the backroom of the McCrory Flower Shop and Marketplace, Peggy Clark meticulously arranges several red tulips into an abstract design.

Each red tulip – which represents perfect love, according to Telaflora.com – makes a statement as it is extended from a modern green vase.

As Clark turns, “keep it local” was printed on the back of her T-shirt. To the McCrory Flower Shop and Marketplace owners, keeping it local is what it’s all about.

“Every community needs balance…. You’ve got to have a flower shop in your town,” says Eva Kyle-Jones, co-owner of the flower shop.

Kyle-Jones, of McCrory, and Jamie Darling, of Tuckerman, met at a party about three years ago and became fast friends. The two women are close enough that when Kyle-Jones learned that the McCrory Flower Shop, located at 107 North Edmonds in McCrory, may be closing, she called Darling and said, “Let’s buy it.” And the two women soon became business partners and took over the store in March.

The ladies not only rescued this business that began in 1972, but they are also restoring the vintage downtown building to its former glory, all the way up to the tin ceiling tiles. Even though the building may look as it did years ago, the inventory of gifts and the floral design are fresh and current.

Darling isn’t a stranger to retail. She is the owner of Darling’s Fine Things and co-owner of Darling’s Pharmacy, both in Newport. Darling was recently appointed by Gov. Mike Beebe to the Arkansas Humanities Council and she says she is determined to help build up the communities in Arkansas’ Delta.

CRADLE TO GRAVE
Flowers play a giant part in many aspects of most people’s lives.

“We are in from the beginning to the end,” says Chris Norwood, vice president for Tipton & Hurst in Little Rock. “When a child is born, your first dance, holidays, weddings, and sympathy – almost all important events of your life have flowers involved.”

Norwood rooted his career at the McCrory Flower Shop in the late 1970s. He was 14 when he began working there after school and on weekends, and he continued working there on weekends through his college years. He says that he knew early that he wanted to stay in the floral industry, and he did.

“I learned the mechanics of arrangements from the women who worked there,” he says. “Small town work is a little different than what you do in the city.”

He also agrees with Kyle-Jones that each town needs a flower shop to provide personal service.

“It’s important to have a local florist who is able to provide a service no one else can,” says Norwood, who is featured in a weekly television segment on Good Morning Arkansas.

The flower shop in McCrory has the only floral wire service in Woodruff County.

“We also service Searcy, Newport, Wynne – why, we can service the world with Teleflora,” Kyle-Jones says.

With saving the floral shop, Kyle-Jones says it brings foot traffic to the downtown area of McCrory, provides jobs and is the only place in Woodruff County where brides can register for fine china.

“McCrory has lost so many stores,” Kyle-Jones says. “I look at this as an investment in the community.”

She says that with the restoration of the flower shop, she hopes to bring more foot traffic downtown, which will bring other businesses in. That’s one of the things that attracted Darling to the business opportunity.

“We can save an old building, keep a business downtown and keep people working,” Darling says about how Kyle-Jones convinced her to buy in on the project.

According to the 2010 Census, the population of McCrory was 1,729, and Kyle-Jones and Darling agree that the people of McCrory are all about supporting local businesses.

“It’s like a village here; everybody knows everybody,” Kyle-Jones says. “There’s a lot of opportunities in small towns if you are willing to work it.”

That’s one reason the flower shop’s Facebook page is more of a community page instead of a business page. It has historical tidbits about the area, community news and ideas on the latest floral and gift trends, as well as information on work from local artists.

Kyle-Jones’ vision for the downtown area of the small Delta town is to fill the empty buildings with thriving businesses, offices and living quarters.

“We don’t have that many buildings downtown that are completely empty, but we would like more retail businesses downtown,” Fowler says.

Fowler says one goal of the city is to seek funding for new sidewalks downtown and a facelift for some of the buildings.

Editor’s note: For more information on the McCrory Flower Shop and Marketplace, visit the website www.mccroryflowers.com.