When Hakim Mumin opened up Forever Colors at 3906 Lancaster Ave., he wanted to make it more than a flower shop. After opening the vacant building he owned in the summer of 2005, he went back to his roots. “My father had owned a business called Marketplace West in the 1970s and we were into flowers, fruit and produce, landscaping and selling food inside the store. I just turned around and started doing that over again,” Mumin said.
Forever Colors can sell up to one thousand different flower plants and in the summer specializes in selling peaches, other fruits, tomatoes and vegetables. “I like to buy from the farmers and locally whenever I can.” Like his father, Mumin also landscapes for those who don’t like to get their hands dirty.
“This is something for everybody. We see just as many men come into our store as women,” Mumin said.
Mumin also sells knickknacks and puts baskets together for the different holidays. “I want to represent myself more than just a plant shop but it definitely still is a flower shop first,” he said. In addition to everything else, he sells some of native Philadelphian Andrew Turner’s paintings.
Mumin operates another location at 33rd and Fairmount Ave. and Mumin hopes to open up a couple other shops. He’d like to put people ‘back to work’ in the neighborhoods.
Great article. Nice flowers!