I'm giving Pearson's a one star review based on a particular incident. That's not to say that I wouldn't purchase from there in the future, under different circumstances or necessarily warn people away from the place, but I feel that I should share this experience.
Anyway, it was my first time buying flowers...for anyone. It was a Sunday, flower shops across the city were closed and I wanted them sh*ts bought and delivered as soon as I could. So, I started planning to find a shop that was open early enough before I had to go to work and buy from them I figured "Hey, Pearson's is a flower shop." I know this because I pass the place on the 003 bus all the damn time. Plus, they have parrots. They set them on the curb streetside sometimes and I even fed one a peanut before. Needless to say, Pearson was gonna be my guy. Looked on Yelp (ironically), found that they opened shop at 9:30 and made it a point to stop there and take care of business before the daily grind.
Veering off topic for a bit, I'm currently employed as a property manager (read: glorified pooper scooper) in the Ruxton area of Towson. There is a quaint little shopping area about 100-150 yards away. In my search to find a suitable florist, I couldn't help but to think that I might have noticed a flower shop in that center, at some point in time. But, I just wasn't sure and thought that I may have been mistaken. No matter, Pearson was gonna be my guy and he had parrots. Sold, to the jackass who's easily impressed.
I arrive at Pearson's shortly before 9:30, as I had planned, only to wait outside as 9:30 came and went. Around 9:45 or so, I see a dude walking up towards the shop. "Oh, good. He must be here to open up." Wrong. Dude had come to buy flowers. "Sh*t, when is this place gonna open? I gotta roll." We both continue to wait for close to 20 more minutes until homeboy taps out, calls it quits and drives off. Luckily, my job is a little bit flexible, so I call and tell the bossman to expect me a little later than usual. Alls cool on that end and it can't be TOO much longer until this place opens, at least I thought so. More waiting. It's well past 10am at this point and after waiting and calling the shop number multiple times, I'm getting ready to call it quits. But, a little voice in my head tells me to wait just a few more minutes. At that point, I see someone walk into the main room of the shop. He's looking toward the front door and then walks away. Thinking to myself that he probably doesn't know that I've been waiting to buy flowers for 45 minutes, I tap lightly on the glass and shrug my shoulders in a sort of inquisitive, "What's good, yo?" fashion. I get the same shrug back in response, as if he weren't aware that the store hours were listed in multiple sources as opening at 9:30am. He then walks about the main area in plain sight, even taking care to look back out at me while he feeds the parrots. "Motherfu-", I mutter to myself.
Finally, as I further contemplate waiting for the store to open or saying eff it, a van stops at a red light at the intersection of North and Charles...right in front of Pearson's. Ironically and conveniently enough for me, this van is marked as belonging to Rutland Beard Florist, listing locations in Catonsville, Mays Chapel and RUXTON, of all places. Thus, this confirmed my suspicion of there being a florist but mere yards away from my place of employment. Not hard to guess that it was a wrap for that Pearson dude. He'd lost not just one customer, but two. I headed to work, stopped into Rutland Beard, where I was quickly helped to select a very nice floral arrangement, as we all shared a laugh about the morning's events and how they serendipitously led me to my first flower buying experience at their establishment. The recipient of the flowers was more than pleased with them and I got a pen that guarantees me $5 off future deliveries from them. Forever. They then told me that I didn't really need the pen; that I could just say that I had one and still receive the discount. Awesome. Thanks Rutland Beard, you definitely saved my ass.
You can read my review of Rutland Beard Florist and part 2 of me story here: http://www.yelp.com/biz/rutland-beard-florist-baltimore#hrid:6YnDZWCUjqlOn6_l5EdebA read more