By any measure, the local business climate has been kind to Bank of Memories and Flowers ever since owner Melissa Maas first opened her doors about nine years ago. The floral shop, located in historic downtown at the four corners of Appleton Avenue at Main Street (N88 W16723 Appleton Avenue) has enjoyed consistently excellent reviews as one of the finest florists in the Milwaukee area.
However, with the Holiday Season at our doorstep, manager Krista Roskopf says she is expecting an extra bump in business as people incorporate plants and flowers in their Thanksgiving and Christmas decorating plans. Customers have always appreciated the shop’s wide selection of floral arrangements and unique gift items.
“We do a lot of different, unique designs,” said Roskopf. “We can do custom work because we carry a wide assortment of flowers. If people don’t see exactly what they want we are able to get it for them, usually that same day. Plus, we do a lot of event work such as weddings as well. Another thing that we’re really proud of is that we have all of our floral designs and plant designs at Community Memorial Hospital. Not only are people able to buy our arrangements here, we always have a wide assortment of flowers arranged in Community Memorial’s cooler, too.”
The regulars also come to visit their favorite character, the shop’s cat, Chloe.
“Some people come in just to see her,” said Roskopf. “She’s kind of been our family around here, too. People love to see her because we have these two big windows and we put different displays up for every season. She’s known for sitting in the displays so when the lights shine up on her people see her from the four corners and it just brightens people’s day.”
Customers also come looking for that special, unique center piece for the Holiday table.
“We do a lot of fall center pieces including candles and we carry a lot of floral novelty containers that even have arrangements, ceramic pumpkins and different types of vases,” said Roskopf. “We do a lot of the fall chrysanthemums as well because that is something that will thrive for a long time.”
Roskopf and her staff handle plenty of special floral decorative requests, especially for Christmas, at their Falls shop as well as their second location in Pewaukee. More often than not, they ply their craft right in the customer’s home.
“We actually go into the peoples’ homes where we decorate their trees,” said Roskopf. “We use a lot of our specialty ribbons and ornaments where we’ll go into the home and decorate. We can even use their decorations from year to year including putting up their villages above their kitchen cabinets and handling their complete Christmas decorations.”
It’s that direct customer contact that Roskopf has always found interesting and exciting.
“I like doing those special occasions,” said Roskopf. “I recently did an arrangement for a new baby. That’s always exciting talking with the people, especially when there’s a fun occasion such as new births, a new promotion or anything like that.
“I think the Menomonee Falls business climate is really good. The people around here are really nice, too. The only negative in being at a location like this is parking. A lot of people don’t realize that they can park right on Main Street. Parking is the only complaint that we ever get. But the Falls is a great place for our business.”
