MEMBER PROFILE 



Jacques 



^^ A T hen you first enter, you're in 

 ^^^^ an atrium that rises two stor- 

 W W ies to a skylight in the roof. 

 In spite of the space, the shop- 

 seems full--cluttered in the way a 

 place can get when a lot of things 

 are happening all at once. 



The atrium is filled with hanging 

 plants and clusters of baskets ( "we 

 use the baskets for all kinds of 

 things— gift baskets, arrangements: 

 the designers like a lot on hand"); 

 buckets of freesia and iris are on the 

 floor in front of the cooler (designers 

 work in the room behind it). Beyond 

 the cashier's counter to the right is a 

 small greenhouse-house-plants and- 

 under a section covered with fabric 

 —gourmet foods and wine ( "business 

 clients like these"). A passageway 

 seems to lead to another green- 

 house; on the left, stairs lead to a 

 second floor— silk flowers, a consulta- 

 tion area, an office... 



It's full of history as well. )acques 

 began in 1Q13 when a shoe shop 

 worker, O. Raoul Jacques, began grow- 

 ing bedding plants in back of the 

 three-story tenement on Lowell 

 Street where he lived. 



He had four children. Three moved 

 on to other things, but his youngest 

 daughter, Coulombe, after graduating 

 from high school in 1924, asked if 

 she could sell cut flowers as part of 

 the business. Her father agreed. 

 Coulombe ("a woman far ahead of 

 her time") commuted to Boston for 

 five months to learn floral design 

 and lacques became a flower shop. 



In 1950, Coulombe married Larry 

 Lagasse, a shoe shop worker with a 

 greenhouse in the back of the three- 

 story tenement on Front Street 

 where he lived 



In 1951, they built the building on 

 Front Street along with the smaller 

 (12x26) greenhouse. This wood and 

 glass structure is the same one in 

 use today, "with enough glass in 

 storage for repairs for the next hun- 

 dred years" 



20 



"JUST DO IT." 



In 1961, lacques expanded again- 

 a 30x50 greenhouse was built. And 

 in 1974, the second floor was added 



By then, Paul Godbout was in- 

 volved His family had always 

 bought flowers at |acques--his par- 

 ents had bought their wedding flow- 

 ers at the Lowell Street shop in 

 1946— and Paul carried on the tradi- 

 tion. In 1974, Paul was a traveling 

 salesman for Kalwall with an MBA 

 and a growing family who wanted a 

 business of his own. A stop to buy 

 flowers for Nancy at the birth of 

 their second child started a chain of 

 events and coincidences that led to 

 his owning the shop. 



At the time, Paul "had no cash, no 

 capital, no reserves" and neither he 

 nor Nancy knew anything about the 

 florist trade-but a deal was worked 

 out; suppliers extended credit; Cou- 

 lombe stayed 30 days to help 

 out--'"on the first day, she showed 

 me how to make a bow..." 



Nancy went to Simmonds Floral 

 School in Wellesley; Paul has never 

 had any formal training. Looking 

 back, Paul says it was a tremendous 

 advantage-""we had no preconceived 

 notions— and that let us be open to 

 a lot of new ideas-ideas that a 

 professionally-trained owner might 

 not have considered. I remember 

 one St. Patrick's day, we had a keg 

 of green beer in the shop. It was 

 crazy— probably now it's illegal— and 

 maybe only a handful of customers 

 actually had a glass. But people 

 remembered-'hey, there's that shop 

 that served green beer"--and came 

 back." 



""But your success," Paul warns, 

 "contains the seeds of your destruc- 

 tion--you tend to repeat the ideas 

 that are successful and stop looking 

 for new ways to do things." 



""Basically, when we took over, 

 lacques needed new energy-- 

 Coulombe and her two assistants 

 were all over 65— they just couldn"t 

 handle the everyday hassles: the 



moment you take the phone off the 

 hook because you don't want to deal 

 with phone calls is the time to find 

 someone younger and more ener- 

 getic to help out." 



BY 1988, PAUL OWNED four shops in 

 Manchester— lacques, Fleur-de-Lis on 

 Elm, Stache's on Second, Chagnon's 

 on Amory. "All were run by older 

 people who simply wanted out— a lot 

 of things had been let go— but cus- 

 tomers were still loyal— people like 

 to deal with people they know. 

 When an owner leaves-even though 

 the new owner might offer better 

 service— people are still loyal to the 

 first: a new owner always has to 

 build his own core loyalty." 



People like accessible locations 

 The Elm Street shop was sold to its 

 manager. "She offered a great prod- 

 uct, but she made some serious 

 mistakes--she wanted her Saturday 

 afternoons off so she closed the 

 shop then; she wanted everything 

 new (a $22,000 delivery van was one 

 of her purchases) and out spent her 

 capital; she moved the location to 

 the Willow Street Mall, a small plaza 

 with only one access; and she didn't 

 advertise— people couldn't find her. 

 She went out of business." 



One of the more problematic as- 

 pects of lacques is its lack of acces- 

 sibility. Located in a small mixed 

 commercial/residential area at the 

 foot of the Amoskeage Bridge on the 

 side of the river opposite downtown 

 Manchester, it can be reached only 

 by taking a left-hand turn that no 

 one would expect to go in that di- 

 rection. So Paul advertises— heavily- 

 in newspapers, on radio and TV. 

 "You have to have good quality and 

 good service--a lot of people do-- 

 but it doesn't make any difference if 

 no one knows about it." 



Advertising has increased business 

 --lacques is currently the top FTD 

 sender in New Hampshire (6904 or- 

 ders in 1994) and the 132nd highest 



The Plantsman 



