Help Abigail Fox Designs Keep our Flowers Up

Friends and Neighbors,

We installed gorgeous flowers outside of our store above our windows on the first day of Spring.

The flowers do not obstruct the sidewalk in any way. The flowers do not cover our store name or number. The flowers do not protrude out from the building like an awning. They are hung no differently than the holiday garlands we have been hanging for almost 15 years above our windows.

Based on an anonymous complaint of a neighbor, The Town of Greenwich (planning and zoning) has informed us that our flowers must be removed. Further, they have indicated if we want them back up they need to be approved through the Architectural Review Committee, but told they will most likely not be approved.

I contacted the Town of Greenwich Planning and Zoning and explained I would fill out any forms and that I was not aware of needing an approval. I have never needed an approval in the 15 years of decorating my store. Nonetheless I am willing to comply with any regulations, that have otherwise not been made known over the previous 15 years, in order the keep our flowers up.

In a recent town meeting, the “beautification of Old Greenwich” budget was denied. This means no florals, no landscaping, no seating. Nothing will be done to the town to make it more appealing to draw shoppers.

Our retail business, like many other small retail businesses has been suffering on the heels of covid.
Not only has our store traffic tremendously decreased, the supply chains of all our vendors have been affected. We now pay up to 20% increased surcharges to receive products.

Abigail Fox Designs is a locally owned business. We employ local residents full and part time, and we have for almost 15 years. We have donated over thousands of dollars in merchandise to local non profits.

Installing the flowers was an expensive investment. But, in order to continue being successful, we need to think differently and do more to get people shopping in our store. We were inspired by restaurants and buildings all over New York City and London England who have installed similar gorgeous flower installations. The Town Of Greenwich has helped restaurants make changes and helped to facilitate outside dining to help them stay in business. The town has not helped us to increase business or attract shoppers.

Financially, we cannot take down the flowers and put them back up.

On a human level, independent of the economics, it will be difficult to continue to do business without the support of our local community and the town.

Flowers make people happy. They make people smile and they are a sign of hope. This was our main goal, to make people smile. Especially with everything going on in the world.

In the coming weeks construction in town will cause the traffic to be diverted around my section of the block in Old Greenwich. This will cause more disruption to our store traffic and further impact our sales and profits.

We put the flowers up to draw traffic to Old Greenwich and our store. Since being up, they have been viewed on social media over 8,000 times. We have hundreds of comments on social media thanking us for the beautiful flowers since being up, All day long people come into the store and tell us how beautiful they are, how they make them smile when they drive through town and see them.

Thank you for your support.
Abigail Fox