The Closing of Oakton Florist: A Small Business Lost

Did anyone notice that the Oakton Florist is gone? I had two teen friends visit me the other day and report that they were off to Giant to order flowers for their dates to the upcoming Oakton High School prom. After a brief bit poking fun at them — pure fun on my part having teen boys that come by to chat, I immediately asked them WHY they weren’t buying from Oakton Florist! Knowing me, they know how I am about small businesses, especially small businesses right here in Oakton. And I who thinks she’s very observant totally missed that the store is closed up and the sign is gone.

So the next question is WHY did it close? Honestly, I don’t know anything factual about its closing, but it makes me wonder: Is it because ‘we’ didn’t support it as a local business in Oakton? Oakton is ‘small’ geographically but we all know (traffic on Route 123 proves this) that we are in the heart of Northern Virginia. One of the reasons Oakton is a desired place to live and work is that it really has a sense of community — nice library, great schools, and nice neighborhoods. And it has some really great independent small businesses and even better yet there’s not a lot of overlap in the merchandise that is sold.

People say that they ‘hate’ going to the malls and want to buy in small independent stores – but are we? There is a great movement project going on called the ‘3/50 project’ (www.the350project.net). The basic facts are for every $100 that you spend in locally independent businesses, $68 of that returns to the community through taxes, payroll, and other expenditures.  If you spend that in a national chain only $43 stays here and if you spend it online NOTHING comes home.

SAVE AN OAKTON BUSINESS! We have some really nice independent restaurants and shops! Shop and eat local! Make sure that you stop by and check these places out!

To find some local independent businesses that have signed up in Oakton with the 3/50 project: http://www.the350project.net/states/states_v.html