A Chicago-based company has expanded into Milwaukee. Flowers for Dreams is an online-based, socially conscious flower service.

“It’s locally crafted flowers for fair and honest prices. All of our flowers are $35 with free delivery in the city. And every bouquet benefits an amazing local charity,” said co-founder Steven Dyme.  

Dyme says employees pick 12 charities a year. The company then donates a quarter of their profits to a different charity every month. So far, they’ve donated nearly $200,000.

The company started as a summer job. Dyme and his friend bought a flower cart and peddled flowers during summer break in college. The goal was to offer affordable flowers to people.  The idea grew from there.

“We were pretty naïve but ambitious,” said Dyme. “We didn’t’ know how big it would be, how much it would resonate. It was a newer concept. We wanted a local product for a really, easy, fair price.”

All flower orders are placed online but delivered by hand. In the spring and summer, couriers deliver on bikes. Dyme calls Flowers for Dreams a hybrid between an online and local florist.

“We have that unprecedented level of quality control. That’s rare in the industry that a florist would control all three phases of the process.”

Milwaukee is the company’s second market outside of Chicago. Dyme says logistically it makes sense, but there’s also a culture connection between the two cities.

“We value quality; we value craft equally,” said Dyme. “In expanding to Milwaukee, we can maintain all of that quality and all of that control to offer the same experience to our Wisconsin neighbors.”

To start, flowers will still be sourced and crafted in Chicago. Someone will drive the product to the Milwaukee dispatch center, where local couriers will then deliver by hand. Eventually, Dyme hopes to build out the Milwaukee operation, establishing a permanent warehouse and permanent jobs. They also hope to pick Wisconsin charities to benefit from sales in the future.

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