BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — Mother's Day is one of the biggest days for flower sales, but this year many shoppers are spending more due to inflation and rising gas prices.
Linda Rodriguez has been selling flowers at the corner of California and Chester avenues every Mother's Day for the past 7 years. This year, she says she had no choice but to raise her prices.
The cost of longer-stemmed roses — including those measured at 60 centimeters — has jumped significantly.
"The 60cm we got it for 45 to 50 dollars and that's for 2 dozen of roses," Rodriguez said.
According to financial research firm Investors Observer, a flower bouquet that cost about $40 in 2020 now costs nearly $53 — a 32.5 percent increase.
Rodriguez says she travels to the Los Angeles Flower District three days early to find good deals, but even that has not been enough to avoid raising her prices.
"Last year we were selling them for $35 and now we really have to sell them between 40-45 dollars because of everything we've invested in," Rodriguez said.
"Gasoline, what we eat, and parking... All of that is expensive," Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez says her clients have been understanding about the increases.
"They're understandable, they have told us, 'ohhh its more expensive than last year' and they do say 'it's because everything has gone up,'" Rodriguez said.
Shopper Anita Certuche says rising flower prices sometimes make her not even want to buy them.
"Give us a reasonable price. We're all hard working citizens, and you know, some of us can't afford it," Certuche said.
Certuche says she is shopping around and comparing prices across multiple vendors because she needs to buy flowers for several people on a tight budget.
"Somewhere else, somewhere else. You have to go look and see which is the best prices to, you know, reasonable, you know, for me, I got to buy for, like, 4 or 5 and I have to do a budget," Certuche said.
Rodriguez says one thing that has helped her business this year is timing — May 10th is also Mother's Day in Mexico.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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