Why We Celebrate Customer Appreciation Day With Pumpkins, Popcorn and a Movie

Every fall, we host our annual Customer Appreciation Day at The BloomBox. There are pumpkins, pumpkin guts everywhere, plenty of laughter and, later in the evening, a movie on the big screen in the greenhouse. It's all free to attend, and that's very deliberate.

When we first started thinking about what a Customer Appreciation Day should look like, a sale never really felt right for us. There's absolutely nothing wrong with businesses offering great deals as a way of thanking their customers, and who doesn't enjoy getting a good deal? It's simply never really been our style.

We don't typically run many sales at The BloomBox, and there are a couple of reasons for that. The biggest one probably comes from being consumers ourselves. We've all had that experience of buying something only to see it advertised for considerably less a few days later, and it never feels particularly good. We've always tried to price our products fairly from the beginning, with relatively little extra margin built in for regular discounts or sales.

The fact that most of what we sell is perishable doesn't make frequent sales particularly practical for us either. Flowers are a luxury product with a limited lifespan, and we've always felt our regular price should represent a fair price for what we're creating.

So when it came to Customer Appreciation Day, offering a discount didn't really feel like us. Again, there's nothing wrong with saying, "Thanks for supporting us—here's a great deal." Lots of businesses do it, and their customers love it. We just wanted our own celebration to take a different form. We wanted to actually give something back without asking you to buy anything in return.

The timing helped us figure out what that could look like. We officially took over the flower shop on November 1, 2008, so late October is already a meaningful time of year for us. It's also fall in Manitoba, Halloween is approaching and pumpkins are everywhere. Pumpkin carving seemed like a natural fit.

Pumpkin carving is one of those wonderfully simple activities that kids and families have been doing forever. You pick a pumpkin, decide whether you're creating a masterpiece or something that vaguely resembles a face, scoop it out and start carving. Kids enjoy it, adults usually get drawn into it whether they intended to or not, and everyone gets to take something home afterward.

There's just one problem with pumpkin carving: it makes SUCH a mess.

Pumpkin guts, seeds and little orange pieces somehow manage to get absolutely everywhere. If you're doing it around the kitchen table at home, the actual carving is fun, but eventually somebody has to deal with the aftermath.

That's where we come in. We're already set up to deal with messes. We work with flowers, greenery, soil, water, stems, leaves and all kinds of other things every day. Cleaning floors and work surfaces is simply part of what we do. So why not let families come here, carve their pumpkins, enjoy themselves and leave the mess behind for us? You get the fun part. We'll deal with the pumpkin guts.

Then there's the movie.

That part is definitely mine.

I love movies. I love the stories, the special effects and watching a talented actor take words written on a page and turn them into a character you actually care about. I love occasionally finding myself watching a scene and wondering how the director managed to get that particular shot. Movies are a combination of storytelling, acting, music, photography, visual art and technical wizardry all working together, and when it's done particularly well, I genuinely think they're works of art.

But there's something else about movies that I think we've lost a little bit as watching them at home has become easier and easier. Movies are different when you watch them with other people.

Yes, our "big screen" might only be slightly bigger than the television some people have at home these days, but that's not really the point. There's something about sitting in a group of people who are all experiencing the same story at the same time that you can't quite duplicate from your couch. Laughter is funnier when a whole room starts laughing together. Anticipation builds differently when everyone is waiting to see what happens next. You can almost feel the collective relief when the hero gets out of trouble or the excitement when something everyone has been waiting for finally happens. Those reactions are contagious, and they're a big part of what makes watching a movie with a crowd so much fun.

That's one reason we tend to choose classic family movies for Customer Appreciation Day. Although I should probably say you choose them now, because we've started putting the movie selection to a vote and letting everyone decide what we'll watch.

There's a little nostalgia involved in the choices too. There are plenty of great movies being made today, but the classics we put up for the vote helped pave the way for what came afterward. They're movies that have survived because people still want to watch them years or even decades later, and many of them really are works of art in their own right.

One of the first movies we showed was The Princess Bride, which is about as perfect an example as I can think of. It's one of those movies that seems to work no matter how old you are. Somewhere along the way, we also started encouraging everyone to dress as their favourite characters from whatever movie we're showing. It's completely optional, of course, but some people really get into it.

One family in particular took The Princess Bride assignment VERY seriously. They arrived as Fezzik, Westley, Princess Buttercup, a Rodent of Unusual Size and, of course, Inigo Montoya. And really, if someone goes to the trouble of dressing as Inigo Montoya, you know at some point during the evening you're going to hear, "You killed my father!"

That's exactly the kind of thing I love about these nights. Most of us have seen these movies before. We could watch them at home whenever we wanted. But sitting in a greenhouse with a family dressed as half the cast while a room full of people laughs together is a completely different experience. The movie becomes an excuse to spend an evening together and have some fun.

One of the other great things about revisiting a family movie as an adult is discovering that you're not actually watching quite the same movie you watched as a kid. The joke that made you laugh when you were ten might still make you laugh, but suddenly you notice another layer underneath it that sailed completely over your head the first time. Good family movies are often particularly clever about that. They give the kids one joke and the adults another one hiding underneath it, while everyone still gets to enjoy the same story together.

Of course, revisiting the classics can occasionally come with a surprise.

I learned that lesson one year when we were waiting for the last few people to wander in before starting the movie. I decided to put on some classic Looney Tunes cartoons—the same kind I grew up watching—and didn't give it another thought. I stepped away to grab a drink and, well... let's just say some of those cartoons haven't aged particularly well.

Things that apparently didn't raise an eyebrow when I was a kid can look VERY different when you're standing in a greenhouse full of families wondering why on earth you chose to put this on.

Lesson learned.

I still like adding a little old-fashioned theatre atmosphere while everyone gets settled, so these days I stick to the classic drive-in theatre snack-break cartoons and jingles. You know the ones: those wonderfully cheesy little intermission clips encouraging everyone to grab some popcorn and treats before the show. They add to the nostalgia and give people something fun to watch while we're waiting for everyone to arrive.

The classic cartoons, however, have officially been retired from Customer Appreciation Day.

And that's really what we want the entire day to be about: having some fun together.

We've been here since taking over the shop in 2008 because people in Brandon and the surrounding communities have continued to choose us. Some customers are brand new and have only recently discovered The BloomBox. Others have been with us for years. We've watched families celebrate weddings, babies, birthdays, graduations, anniversaries and countless other milestones, and they've allowed us to be a small part of those moments.

Customer Appreciation Day is our opportunity to turn that around for a day.

You don't have to buy flowers. You don't need a coupon to participate. We're not asking you to spend a certain amount to qualify for something free. Come carve a pumpkin. Come watch the movie. Have some popcorn. Bring the kids, bring Grandma and Grandpa, dress up as your favourite character if the mood strikes you, or just come because you haven't watched a movie with a room full of people in a while.

We'll even clean up the pumpkin guts.

This year's Customer Appreciation Day is October 24, with free pumpkin carving during the day and our greenhouse movie that evening. And because apparently we can't resist packing even more into one day, we'll also be releasing this year's Grinch Tree class dates.

The movie? That's up to you. We'll put it to a vote, because if we're inviting you to our Customer Appreciation Day, it seems only fair that you get to pick what we're watching.

Ultimately, that's why we chose pumpkins, popcorn and a movie instead of a sale. Not because there's anything wrong with celebrating customers with a great deal, but because this feels more like us. We wanted Customer Appreciation Day to be something we could give back to the people who have supported us and allowed us to continue doing what we do since November 1, 2008, without needing anyone to buy something to participate.

So come make a mess, eat some popcorn, laugh at a great movie with a bunch of other people and let us say thank you.

Just don't ask me to put on any old Looney Tunes while we're waiting.

I've learned my lesson.

Fresh. Unique. Flowers. It's What We Do!