For Scott Hepper, his official title of floral department manager and buyer for the Central West End Straub’s does not fully reflect what he does. In addition to the nuts and bolts of his job, Hepper takes on the unofficial roles of concierge, welcome wagon and friend to the Central West End’s residents.
Guests at the Chase Park Plaza come to Hepper when they need flowers or gift baskets. Straub’s patrons often ask him for recommendations for restaurants. He learns the names of his regular customers and welcomes the strangers. “I comp the newbies in the area,” he said.
Additionally, he is the flower buyer for the entire chain of stores, meaning that he personally selects and orders every type of flower in each of the four Straub’s locations. Prior to joining the Straub’s team the week of Thanksgiving 2005, he worked at another florist in Chesterfield. “This business put me through school,” he said.
Straub’s attracts an eclectic group of people. The clientele includes “everybody from old money—established pillars of the community—to the newest, trendiest move-ins, and everything in between,” he said.
His favorite part of the job is interaction with the diverse people of the Central West End, he said. “I never know who lives on Portland Place or who is an apartment dweller just by talking to them, because everyone who comes in here is so down to earth and so genuine,” he said. His clientele exudes “pure St. Louis class,” he said, noting that he hasn’t had an unhappy customer at Straub’s to date.
Straub’s is an upscale grocer that was founded in 1901. Hepper, whose favorite flowers are orchids from Hawaii, claims responsibility for bringing the class of the floral department up to the same level as the rest of the store’s goods. He said, “Everything is premium. It is simple, clean and abundant.” And, the department continues to develop and grow. “Each week I take another square foot of the store with the floral department!” he said. He calls his part of the store “the Central West End’s secret garden.”
On top of his day job, Hepper is an accomplished painter. Prints of his work hang in the offices or homes of Mayor Francis Slay, Sen. Hillary Clinton and President George W. Bush. Recently, he completed a piece for the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis. Hepper himself lives in the Central West End and feels strong loyalties to it, saying, “I wouldn’t live anywhere else in St. Louis.”
He called his workplace “a Central West End icon,” and said that the towering Chase Park Plaza with the grocer right next door serves as important landmarks and as a gateway to those who approach the area from the west.
One of his favorite things about the area, he said, is the fact that most people walk where they need to go, giving the neighborhood the feel of somewhere in Chicago or San Francisco.
