Manuela Garza’s flowers and gifts shop had never had a real business sign before.

A new sign high up on her business’ orange red facade says, in big red letters, “Sackk’s,” with black letters right below stating, “Flowers & Gifts.” The new sign – put up in February – is courtesy of the Signage Improvement Program that is being provided by the Mercedes Economic Development Corporation.

Sackk’s Flowers & Gifts on 310 S. Texas Avenue is just the latest local business to benefit from the program. Eligible businesses can receive up to $4,500 for the funding of signage improvements which will enhance the exterior of a business and hopefully attract new customers while retaining the ones they currently have. For Garza, the sign is an important first.

“I only had a sign on my front door before,” she said. “Now, when customers are looking for me, they can see the big sign above and find me much more easily.”

Multi-Faceted Business

Garza’s flower and gift shop carries a distinction unlike others in Mercedes in that Sackk’s is the first signage approved by the city’s historical commission in that it’s located downtown on Texas Avenue.

Sackk’s has been in business in Mercedes for nearly 30 years. Building up her loyal clientele began with street sales of goody bags and partnering with local schools. Garza had a prior storefront on 2^nd Street before settling at her present Texas Avenue location. The new sign will ensure Sackk’s will be easier to find.

It’s a multi-faceted business. The front of Garza’s businesses features flowers and the arrangements and bouquets she offers to her customers. The rest of her shop has plenty of party supplies and decorations for all types of occasions. Next door is the First National Ballroom that Garza has been managing for the last year in booking events and providing the decorations and staging for celebrations at the historic bank-turned-ballroom.

Garza says she got her drive for business and entrepreneurship from her father while growing up in Mexico. She described him as always busy, a man of business and enterprises who would buy and sell things with an eye toward growth. The same description would apply to the way she does business at Sackk’s, which is named after the first letters of her children and a former business partner.

Worthy Investments

Garza is grateful to the EDC for its support and the Signage Improvement Program.

A previous EDC program helped her with roof repairs at her business. The help in improving Garza’s signage is a further boost her business needed, and she cites the impact it’s making across the community.

“Many of us, (local businesses), didn’t have signs before,” Garza said. “It was so expensive, $4,000-to-$5000, that’s very hard for a small business to let go of that kind of money. Now, with the (signage) program, we can make that kind of investment and know we will be reimbursed by the EDC.”

The big red letters of “SACKK’S are proof positive of an EDC program making a difference in its community.

• Ric Cavazos