Meet Andrea Slutske of FlowerTruckLA

Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrea Slutske.

Andrea, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My husband, Adam Slutske is the owner of a shower door company in Torrance called Century Shower Door. His business is located just next door to Diego Ramirez’s wholesale flower business. At the very beginning of March, when the realities of the pandemic were beginning to set in, Adam found one of Diego’s employees throwing away hundreds of dozens of flowers in a dumpster behind Adam’s business. Diego’s employee explained many of Diego’s purchase orders had been cancelled because events/large gatherings had suddenly been canceled and Diego needed to make room in his refrigerated space for new flowers that had arrived. He explained that he had no choice but to throw out tons of perfect product. He also explained that he had to let go of many of his employees overnight and the grim reality for a flower business like his–no group gatherings/events (weddings, bar mitzvahs, parties, etc.) meant that there was a limited need for flowers. Adam wanted to help Diego recoup some of this initial loss and help Diego support the employees that he suddenly had to let go. So, he asked if he could post something on his Instagram and send a few texts to friends to see if anyone wanted to buy fresh flowers. Adam and I sent our texts and posted on our personal Instagram pages and the response was overwhelming. That same night (March 19, 2020) Adam and I and our ten-year-old daughter (Annie) delivered flowers for 3.5 hours all throughout the city (from San Ysidro to Temescal….back through Cheviot Hills and everywhere in between). So many of our friends and their friends wanted flowers and so many people wanted to help. Texts and calls continued to come in from people wanting to support.

So the next day we invited Diego to park his truck outside of my home in West LA and people came to buy flowers. He did this for 3 or 4 days thereafter and then began coming consistently on Friday mornings. Adam and I would post that the Flower Truck was coming on Friday and so many people came. People bought for their homes, for their friends, for their families and began to repost our posts and resend our texts to their friends. Others posted on their neighborhood networks and to their social circles. Soon we were being invited to peoples’ homes and businesses and asked to bring our pop-up flower shop to new neighborhoods–hence FlowerTruckLA was born. We are now doing between 4-7 stops a week in many neighborhoods including Calabasas, Sherman Oaks, Pacific Palisades, West LA, Brentwood, Torrance, West Hollywood and Hancock Park. We have widely expanded our floral offerings and sell some great floral tools, vases, adorable FlowerTruckLA shirts, sweatshirts and hats! We use our primary communication tool (Instagram) to publish our weekly schedule, share new and exciting floral offerings and provide useful tips and tricks on really caring for flowers at home.

Our Instagram provides a fun platform for people to share their DYI floral creations as well. It seems that the combination of beautiful, farm fresh flowers, wonderful and supportive customers (who were largely quarantined at home), a safe socially distant outdoor venue to purchase affordable flowers and a wonderfully interactive social media platform was a recipe for something great. We are now beginning to work with non-profit organizations that are doing meaningful work to help fundraise for their causes. This coming week we are collaborating with United in Harmony to help raise funds to help underserved children throughout Los Angeles. Next week we plan to work with the Westside Guild of Children’s’ Hospital Los Angeles. We are super cognizant of the fact that Flower Truck LA, at its inception, is a story of helping others. As we blossom, we hope to continue to give and to help!

Has it been a smooth road?
It has been a surprisingly smooth road. Our partnership with Diego and his staff has been incredible. So far it just feels like a super fortuitous meeting of friends. Adam and I and our small staff consisting mostly of our three children, a few high school students, and a couple of young college graduates love Diego and his team. We all know what we must do each day to make it a success! This whole endeavor is for sure a major silver lining for us all right now.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with FlowerTruckLA – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
Diego is an expert on the flowers–his family grows many of the flowers we sell on their farms in Ecuador. He has superb knowledge regarding the floral varieties and how to care for them. His amazing and efficient team arrives to each pop-up sale with a refrigerated truck filled with amazing and fresh product.

Adam and I are do all of FlowerTruckLA’s social media, email communication, scouting of new locations, weekly scheduling, management of all specialty flower pre-sales and all related development. We have worked hard to use our Instagram platform to educate our customers about our floral varieties and how to care for them. We also try to be innovative and we are always thinking of the next fun thing. For example, just in time for the first Lakers & Clippers game of this crazy delayed season, we developed NBA inspired team roses that are newly available for pre-order. We have also attended each pop-up location for the last five months and have hired a great social distancing team that makes sure we are being super safe and well-controlled. We feel that we know our customers well and pride ourselves on being present and on our amazing customer service and communication.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
Adam and I were both born and raised in Los Angeles and all of our extended family lives here in LA. Except for our time spent in college in the Mid-West and on the East Coast, we have spent our entire lives in LA. Consequently, we have amazing friends and an unreal social network here. FlowerTruckLA has really shown us what a great community of caring people we have around us. We always remember that initially so many people came out just to help Diego and his staff.

Contact Info:

• Email: andrea@flowertruckla.com
• Instagram: FlowerTruckLA

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