Ana Reis, the longtime owner of Flowers on Main and the new Reis Boutique on Main Street in downtown Osoyoos, has announced she has to shut down her business during the busy Christmas season due to water damage caused by a leaky roof and broken pipe. She hopes to reopen her flower shop and boutique early in the new year. (Contributed photo)
A longtime popular Main Street business in Osoyoos is going to be closed for the hectic Christmas season, but the good news for loyal customers is Flowers on Main should be back in business early in the new year.
Ana Reis, who has been the owner-operator of Flowers on Main for the past 11 years, had to close her flower shop – as well as the adjacent new ladies clothing boutique she opened this past March called Reis’ Boutique – early last week after water damage from a leaking roof and a burst water pipe caused major damage.
“I just wanted to let my customers know that I will not be in business for the Christmas season, but everything is getting repaired and I will be back in business hopefully early in the new year.”
Reis said she had no choice but to close down the flower shop and ladies boutique.
“The roof started leaking almost two weeks ago and it got worse and worse,” she said. “Workers were looking at the roof, when we had a pipe burst and that caused so many problems we just had to shut down.”
The owner agrees the entire roof of the building that houses her shop has to be replaced, said Reis.
Like many other businesses, the Christmas season is one of her busiest of the year, but there’s nothing she can do until repairs are completed, said Reis.
“The timing isn’t very good at all,” she said. “I have so many customers that order flowers for Christmas … and the ladies boutique was also doing very well.
“The good news is repairs have already started and we should be open within a month hopefully.”
Because she is going to miss the Christmas shopping season, Reis said she will be holding a special grand re-opening sale on most of the clothing in her store when it is back in business in a few weeks.
Reis said things would have been much worse if she didn’t have business insurance.
“Thank God that I have insurance,” she said. “The insurance company has been very supportive since this all happened.
“My landlord also has insurance … it really helps. I never ever thought anything like this could happen and you pay insurance every single year and never use it, but suddenly something like this does happen and you are so relieved that you did have insurance. It would have been a real disaster if I didn’t have insurance.”
Crews from Stutters, a disaster relief company, were on the scene last Friday and will be involved in repairs for the next several weeks, said Reis.
A lot of the walls were soaked and will have to be replaced and new flooring will have to be installed once all of the roof repairs are completed, she said.
Repair work has already started and is going well, she said.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
