No Office, No Stock, No Dividends, But The Partnership Is Unbeatable
September 6, 1956

Today, we would bend your ear with the happy success story of an American capitalistic enterprise: John Williams Cut Flowers.

There are no stockholders in this company because there is no stock. There is no office and no office equipment, not even so much as a typewriter or telephone.

Total assets remain exactly what they were when John Williams Cut Flowers opened for business 18 years ago—two acres of flowers in Paw Creek, a stand to sell them from in Myers Park and a few tin cans.

This is a chaste, simple business that is in no danger of declaring dividends or winning a government contract. There are two officers, just as there have been from the start. They are John Williams, president, and Herbert McDonald, general manager, and they have no bosses and nobody to boss.

The inventory, also, has remained the same for 18 years: sweetpeas and buttercups in the spring, then gladiolas, chrysanthemums, dahlias, bachelor's-buttons, "rooster comb."

The only thing that has changed is the location and that changed this week. John Williams and Herbert McDonald moved their flower stand from the intersection of Providence Road and Queens Road down Queens to Morehead Street, a distance of about three blocks.

John Williams, painting the neat, new stand this week, explained it: "It was the parking situation and the library. People couldn't stop. They'd slow down and see the flowers and the No Parking sign about the same time. I hated to move after 18 years, but people are finding out where we are now."

"I'm glad to be moved," General Manager McDonald said. "I work every day except Sunday and Monday from about 7 in the morning to 6:30 or 7 at night, and most of it lately has been just waiting for somebody to come by. Now, that's work, don't let nobody tell you otherwise. That waiting is worrisome."

John Williams and his general manger are looking forward to a busy autumn. There will be fall flowers to sell and bulbs to put in the two Paw Creek acres, and when spring comes again the business will be 19 years old and not a cent richer.

But when spring comes, you see, the buttercups will bloom. It’s an understanding the firm of John Williams Cut Flowers has with nature. It's a little outfit, but you can't beat the partnership.

Charles Kuralt's People (Kenilworth Media, copyright 2002)
ISBN 0-9679096-1-9 | Hard cover | 384 pages with photos | $25.95

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