KEN IGE / KIGE@STARBULLETIN.COM Fujikami Florist started in 1919 with Walter Fujikami. It is now run by family members, left to right, Steve Fujikami, Eileen Miura, Amy Fujikami-Shikuzawa and George Shikuzawa.

Fujikami Florist
finding the room
to bloom

The family business, founded
in 1919, changes along with the
times to stay out of the weeds

---

By Dave Segal
dsegal@starbulletin.com

It's a slow summer day but there's a steady level of activity in the back rooms at Fujikami Florist in Honolulu.

Customers are phoning in orders. Management is requesting flower shipments. And designers are making floral arrangements.

For owner Steve Fujikami and two of his family members, the flower business has become their life. It's a six-day-a-week operation whose lifeblood, he said, is based upon providing unique designs, quality and good service.

"The toughest business, I think, is restaurants. And next is us, flower shops," said Fujikami, who runs the business with his sister, Amy Fujikami-Shikuzawa, and Amy's husband, George Shikuzawa.

"We're very service oriented. For a $35 arrangement, people can call the same day and have it delivered and made up. It's like going into a restaurant and ordering something off the menu and having it served to you. There's very few businesses that do it."

That's the level of commitment the Fujikami family has prided itself on for 83 years, or ever since Steve's father, Walter, in 1919 opened what the family said is the state's oldest flower shop.

Steve took over the business in 1979 when he bought it from his father, who died April 29, 1987, at age 91. His mother, Grace, died last month at age 87.

"Dad enjoyed flowers," said Amy, who has worked in the store most of her life and now handles much of the paperwork. "It was like, 'Give me the materials and I'll make something out of it.' He was very creative. He also was the first (Hawaii) florist to ship flowers to the mainland through the airlines."

Since Steve took over the business, he's tried to keep the floral shop just as progressive. He said the shop was the first in Honolulu to offer Florist Transworld Delivery, better known as FTD, the service that enables flower shops to facilitate deliveries anywhere in the world through other FTD florists.

Steve also said that Fujikami Florist was the first flower shop in the state to get a liquor license, obtaining the permit in 1988.

"I've always tried to be very progressive in this business," Steve said. "For instance, you never heard of giving balloons to grown-ups. I spent a lot of money on TV trying to push it because on the mainland it started to be a very large thing. Of course, today they have it at weddings and they have it at parties whereas before it was just for kids.

"The other thing I tried to be innovative on is we have a liquor license. We were the first florist to carry a liquor license. We also pushed fruit and gourmet baskets before it was really a popular thing. I thought we just had to expand our product line and services. We were already into fruit baskets and gourmet baskets so wine really wasn't a major addition. We have people walking in here buying wines and champagnes from us, primarily during Christmas time."

KEN IGE / KIGE@STARBULLETIN.COM Fujikami Florist has expanded its offerings beyond flowers, to include balloons, gourmet products and wine. Operators, from left, Steve Fujikami, Eileen Miura, Amy Fujikami-Shikuzawa and George Shikuzawa.

George, who said he knew nothing about the flower business when he started working at Fujikami Florist nearly 10 years ago, met Amy through working at the shop. Six years ago, they flew to Las Vegas at the spur of the moment and got married.

"My background basically had been in the food-service business," George said. "I spent about 20 years in restaurants, primarily smaller types of restaurants where the atmosphere was intimate.

"The main thing I reap out of being involved in this business is, No. 1, the family part is very significant to me from the standpoint that this business has been here in Hawaii for an exceptionally long time. But also the fact that, in general, sending flowers and helping people is very rewarding because in most instances, people send flowers for very, very important reasons to them. It's something totally unlike anything I've really known in doing food service."

The flower shop, on the corner of Beretania and Pensacola streets, is now in its fourth location.

It originally opened in the Moana Hotel (now the Sheraton Moana Surfrider) before moving to new homes on Pauahi Street, Bishop Street and then to 1200 Pensacola St.

A fourth family member, Amy's daughter, Eileen Miura, works part time in the shop. Steve and Amy's brother, Kenneth, is a wholesale jeweler in Honolulu and is not connected with the business.

Fujikami Florist, which gets 30 percent to 40 percent of its flowers from Hawaii growers, is known for its oriental-style and high-style European types of arrangements.

"I've heard people say we do different kind of work," Steve said. "I think it's primarily high-style work. Flowers are getting very expensive and, in the high-style look, you don't need as many flowers whereas in a traditional type of arrangement, you have to use a lot of flowers. If you use the better flowers, it just doesn't look the value as opposed to a high-style look design, where the perceived value is there."

Steve said the flower shop, which has 12 employees and takes more than half its orders over the phone, is busiest during Christmas, Mother's Day and Valentine's Day.

The shop also gets a lot of business from convention parties and weddings.

Richard Olsen, general manager and executive vice president of International Convention and Event Services, said he uses Fujikami Florist quite a bit for convention events as well as weddings.

"We've done a lot of the large conventions in Honolulu and they've been part of them," Olsen said. "They do a really nice job for what's needed with the trade shows.

"We did a huge wedding, too, and they brought all the flowers we needed locally and from around the world to Honolulu to do this wedding at the Royal Hawaiian. They used over 1,000 Ecuadorian roses, for example. The set-up they did was quite spectacular."

Steve said the floral shop has been able to thrive despite stiff competition.

"Our business, thank goodness, has a niche that's pretty much delivery," Steve said. "We're an all-service type of florist -- higher end as far as gift-giving. We really haven't been hurt by the Costcos or the supermarkets or a lot of the smaller cash-and-carry flower shops."

Amy, who practically lived at the flower shop growing up, said she learned her strong work ethic from her dad.

"Dad was always strict," she recalled. "He'd say, 'What are you doing? Just standing there. Sweep. What are you doing talking? If you have time to talk, sweep'

"So I learned from my dad if you're in a business, you always have to be kept busy doing something. There's always things to do."