New shop offers high-end floral arrangements
Emily James has spent the past decade in the floral industry and now she will soon be opening her very first storefront location with the opening of Florecita Flowers.
Florecita Flowers is set to open in November at 4770 Montgomery NE near San Mateo.
Born out of its sister company, Floriography Flowers, Florecita first launched in 2018 as an event company aimed at providing high-end floral arrangements at more affordable prices than its sister company.
Though the company will soon be operating out of a storefront location, James said she had not envisioned a retail shop and originally intended to keep her business as a primarily eventsoriented company.
But pandemic-related disruptions of the event industry and lease issues at her former industrial location made her rethink her operations.
James said she started looking for a new location and saw that brick-and-mortar flower shops were seeing success during the pandemic.
“So many people were sending flowers to each other because they couldn’t meet or were celebrating special occasions from afar socially distanced, so they were calling their local flower shops nationwide,” she said.
James said the shop allowed the company to have an alternative revenue source since much of the company’s revenue used to come from events.
Like most retail florists, James said Florecita Flowers will allow customers to shop online and in-person, and will offer a variety of premade floral arrangements.
However, unlike other florists, Florecita only sells Americangrown flowers based on seasonality, meaning that you may not always be able to walk in and pick up a dozen red roses on a whim.
James said her staff will be readily available for consultations so guests will leave with a bouquet of their liking.
“We will make you the most beautiful thing out of what is in season and what is available to us from our suppliers at that time,” she said.
Many of the flowers are also grown in New Mexico.
James said that at any point the company is working with six to 10 New Mexico-based vendors.
“Our No. 1 priority is supporting and cultivating strong locally grown flower farms,” she said. She said it was important for the company to support local floral farmers since her original company, Floriography, launched as a floral farm based in Las Cruces.
“The exciting part for us was we started off as a farm so we understood how important it is to buy locally,” she said.
James said she is excited to transition into a retail shop since it will allow her company to connect more with the local community — right now much of her work on the event side of the business comes from out-ofstate clients.
She said local customers “can get flowers on a regular basis just to celebrate life, either mundane or really important moments.”
There are also plans for the company to eventually offer hands-on learning experiences like workshops and floral collaborations like cake decorating using flowers.
In addition to flowers, the shop will also sell gifts made by local artists, makers and apothecaries.
For more information, visit florecitaflowers.com.
Raising Cane’s to open in NE Heights
The popular chicken finger restaurant Raising Cane’s first Albuquerque location will be in the Northeast Heights, according to city records.
The new location, which the company previously announced is set to open next summer, will be built at 2004 Wyoming NE between Menaul and Indian School, according to a building permit filed on Oct. 14.
Founded in 1996 in Louisiana by Todd Graves, Raising Cane’s has grown to more than 500 locations worldwide.
Once opened, this will be the second location of Raising Cane’s in New Mexico with the first location opening in Las Cruces in 2018, according to the company website.
WisePies Pizza picked up by Walmart
Albuquerque-based WisePies Pizza items will now be sold at Walmart, according to the company.
In a statement, WiseChoice Foods company president Season Elliott said the distribution partnership with Walmart will add about 455 new locations to purchase frozen WisePies items.
WiseChoice Foods manufactures WisePies products.
Among the items set to land on Walmart’s shelves are frozen calzones and pizzas, including the company’s new Chop’D Pizza line which features “proteinforward ingredients,” Elliott said.
“With frozen snacks being one of the fastest growing categories, we’re introducing the new WisePies Pizza Calzone line as a direct competitor with other hand-held snack options in the freezer case,” Elliott said in a news release.
Elliott said that the company’s products are now sold in more than 1,500 grocery stores in 16 states.