Local florists hope to see an uptick in sales on Valentine’s Day

EL CENTRO, Calif. (KYMA, KECY) - It’s been a rough year for florists across Imperial County, but with Valentine’s celebrations coming up this weekend, local flower shops are hoping to see a turnaround in sales.

“It’s been kind of up and down," said Cynthia Derma, owner of Cynthia's Flower Connection.

"There have been weeks where we’ve been very slow and we’ve had to cut down hours for our employees, other weeks, sadly we’ve had a lot of funerals. It’s been really hard for all the florists across the U.S. to try and stay open and keep going," said Derma.

This year marks the 28th Valentine's for Cynthia's flower shop.

To help bring in customers, the flower shop will be setting up a tent outside their shop on Friday and through the weekend.

The flower shop understands people are struggling to get by so they will have a variety of affordable arrangements available.

Thursday on 13 On Your Side, CBS 13's Alexandra Rangel speaks to Cynthia about the importance of shopping with local florists.