Hollister
– To anyone who frequents restaurants and bars downtown, the
smiling face of Mohammad Huweih is a familiar one – especially when
paired with his multi-hued bucket of roses.
Hollister – To anyone who frequents restaurants and bars downtown, the smiling face of Mohammad Huweih is a familiar one – especially when paired with his multi-hued bucket of roses.
Huweih, 22, has worked as a rose vendor in Hollister for a decade. While a lot of people have purchased bouquets from “The Rose Guy” or seen him around town, few know much more about Huweih.
“A lot of people know me, but a lot more know me if I have my bucket,” Huweih said. “If you ask people who Mohammad is, they might not know. But if you ask them who the rose guy is, they know.”
Huweih started selling Mother’s Day bouquets outside of supermarkets at age 12 and has since become a staple at downtown businesses.
“My dad just asked me one day if I wanted to sell flowers,” Huweih said. “I guess it came natural.”
Now he wanders from restaurant to bar in downtown Hollister carrying his five-gallon bucket of rose bouquets.
Nearly a decade ago, Huweih approached The Vault owner Ignacio Velazquez – before the restaurant and bar had opened – asking if he could sell his flowers.
“I’ve always liked the fact that a young person wants to work,” Velazquez said. “It’s been amazing watching him grow up and go through all of the stages. He’s a good example of a hard-working young person.”
Huweih uses his profits from flower sales to purchase gas for the drive to San Jose State University, where he studies political science. He also plans to attend law school after graduating.
Just as locals have watched him grow up, Huweih has watched the town grow and change over the past decade.
Initially sales were moderate, but with the population surge in the late 90s, Huweih said, he noticed an increase. At one point he grossed around $250 in sales on an average night.
But in more recent years, he has seen the number of people dining and frequenting downtown dwindle.
“Downtown was much more lively, and that’s when I noticed business was good. Right now there’s not many people in downtown, especially on the weekdays,” he said.
Huweih said he noticed a small increase in sales with the addition of two new bars downtown: The Broken Wing and Cheap Seats Pub and Grub. He hopes the number of people coming downtown will again surge, at least long enough for him to earn gas money for drives to law school, wherever that may be.
He plans to continue selling flowers as long as he attends school. While he’s grateful for the experience of selling flowers in Hollister, he’s looking forward to getting recognized, at some point, for doing more.
“There’s a lot of people that I know because of my job and interesting conversations that I’ve had,” Huweih said. “But at the same time, I would like to walk down the street and not have people ask me where my roses are. It’s a good thing and a bad thing.”
