•86 



HORTICULTUEB 



January 18, 1913 



COOPERATION; FROM A RETAIL- 

 ER'S VIEW POINT. 



(Extracts from a Taper read before the 



Florists' Club of Philadelphia, by 



Charles Henry Fox.) 



We are a fraternity — and a frater- 

 nity is strong only as they pull to- 

 gether. This is something the florists 

 have never done. We want co-opera- 

 tion — sympathy with one another. 

 We want to plan our business inter- 

 ests together. We want to study the 

 needs of the grower, the needs of the 

 commission man, the needs of the re- 

 tailer; and altogether we want to 

 study what interests the public. The 

 pathway to success lies in serving 

 the public — not in affronting it, and 

 this can only he done when the grower, 

 the commission man and the retailer 

 work hand in hand. 



Now, would it not be beneficial for 

 the grower to visit the retailer, to 

 come in direct contact with him, get 

 better acquainted? Not look upon 

 him as an outsider Just because he 

 does not deal directly with him. We 

 could tell him and demonstrate m>/ij/ 

 carnations were "tabooed." At the 

 same time, could show him how car- 

 nations would be in demand if they 

 were grown and packed as they should 

 be. We could also give him a line on 

 many little things that we could use 

 at a profit to him. If he would grow 

 them for us in the style that the 

 public demands. 



If we could adopt a plan whereby 

 we could give an order for a certain 

 number of stock; have it packed by 

 the grower and shipped direct (with- 

 out any delay or handling) to the re- 

 tailer it would eliminate an immense 

 amount of loss and waste. 



Through this close association be- 

 tween the grower and retailer a more 

 perfect understanding would naturally 

 be the outcome and a great many ir- 

 regularities might be corrected, for 

 he would then realize how much bet- 

 ter and how much more advantage- 

 ous it would be for him to make his 

 regular shipments daily right up to 

 Christmas, selling them at a good 

 price instead of holding them up and, 

 in the end, not getting as much as 

 lie would before. 



Every year I hear the commission 

 men say "I told them," "I told them." 

 "I told them to ship the goods at such 

 and such a date, but will they do it? 

 No. As a consequence the commis- 

 sion man is up in the air. He doesn't 

 know what to promise the retailer. 

 He hasn't the vaguest idea as to how 

 much he will have or what prices to 

 quote. The retailer is likewise "up 

 in the air." He doesn't know what he 

 will have to pay for the stuff nor 

 how much he can expect to get. 



Now, gentlemen, who suffers by 

 this? To safeguard himself at Christ- 

 mas the store man sidetracks cut 

 flowers — stocks up his place with de- 

 sirable and salable blooming plants, 

 something he knows the exact price 

 of. This is something he Is really 

 forced to do — very much against his 

 will — for cut flowers are very much 

 easier to handle than plants. 



In my remarks I have spoken of 

 direct shipment from the grower to 

 the retailer. Do not misunderstand 

 me. I do not recommend for one 

 minute the elimination of the com- 

 mission man, nor do I want to belittle 

 his very necessary service. I simply 

 want to make a plea for a change In 



HART MAKES HANDLES FOR POTS 



With Paper or Porto Rican Mats TFiey Make Baskets. TKese 

 are the Well-Known HART'S HANDT HANDLES. 



Shipments are being made daily eastward to Boston, 

 westward to San Francisco — and everywhere else. 

 Once used always used, because they are SO HANDY. 



Prices per dozen— No. 1, &2.50; No. 2, &S.50 ; No. 3, S4.00 ; 

 No. 4, &S.00; No. 5, »6.0O. 



GEORGE B. HART, 24 Stone St., Rochester, N.Y. 



the shipment; that the order shall go 

 through the hands of the commission 

 man as of old but the shipment be 

 direct, thus eliminating the second 

 handling. 



Now, while we are getting this ex- 

 cellent service it is necessary for us 

 to keep up the proper balance. By 

 this I mean to support and encourage 

 the growers who sell their goods 

 direct. This always has a wholesome 

 effect on the commission man and 

 makes him behave. We do not want 

 any flower trust. We do want co-op- 

 eration. 



Another clause that might be in- 

 serted in this Grand Fraternity, and 

 one which our friends the commission 

 men might well consider, would be 

 the living up to their advertisement 

 to be wholesale men in every sense 

 of the word and not to sell flowers to 

 any person or corporation that is not 

 a florist. I, of course an not alluding 

 to the fakirs. They are one of the 

 necessary evils, but I do insist that 

 it is absolutely wrong to take orders 

 for funerals, etc. and to deliver flow- 

 ers to hotels, restaurants, clubs and 

 colleges, when these orders might be 

 turned into retail channels. Although 

 every establishment has the sign 

 conspicuously displayed "Wholesale 

 Only." I am told by a wholesaler 

 himself that every commission man 

 in the city does the same thing. 



There's no doubt in my mind that 

 once the "Get Together Plan" gets in 

 action — the true fraternal spirit — that 

 it will only be a short time when all 

 these abuses will be done away with. 

 All we want to do is to understand 

 each other better. We are all friends 

 and we are each one of us dependent 

 on the other. 



THAT RETAILERS' INNING. 



When the growers got through 

 with them there was not much left of 

 the bombs the retailers threw into the 

 arena at the Philadelphia Club on the 

 7th inst. The consensus of opinion 

 seemed to be that if anybody was lax 

 in taking advantage of his opportunity 

 it was the retailer. Thousands of ave- 

 nues for exploiting our products — and 

 but one in a thousand doing it. When 

 all things are considered, it seems a 

 sorry day when the retailer under 

 these circumstances has the courage 

 or nerve to throw bricks at the pro- 

 ducer. And that's all that the much- 

 heralded talk of Charles Henry Fox 

 has done. 



The producer is keeping his end up 

 all right— quantity, quality, and va- 



'rlety. As for our local market, if it 

 was not for the splendid country-wide 

 demand developed by the wholesalers' 

 advertising it would not have a' chance 

 to advance at all. The retailers in 

 this good old burg (with about a dozen 

 conspicuous exceptions) haven't the 

 faintest conception of what the grow- 

 ers have been doing for them; and 

 they are most conspicuously lacking 

 in appreciation of the splendid pro- 

 duction which they have done nothing 

 to encourage. If they would use the 

 brains; the enterprise; the aggressive- 

 ness of the Wanamakers, the Lits, the 

 Gimbels, the Snellenburgs, in pushing 

 things, the producers might be will- 

 ing to listen. But on the contrary, 

 they simply block the way. 



Now then, having realized where the 

 trouble is, let us apply the broom. Let 

 us supplant all these old fogy stores 

 with new and up-to-date propositions. 

 Leo Niessen had the right idea. .4. 

 flower store should not look like a 

 morgue. 



Few retailers, as a rule, are taking 

 advantage of their opportunities. They 

 are lacking in initiative, in aggressive- 

 ness, in organization. In advertising, 

 in everything; in other Words, very 

 few of them have any idea of business. 

 And the worst of it Is that when you 

 call their attention to it they always 

 want to blame the producer. The pro- 

 ducer is their angel. Without him they 

 could not exist one minute; and In 

 Philadelphia especially the producer 

 has given quantity and variety unex- 

 ampled by any other center in these 

 broad United States. Therefore it 

 seems clearly a case of the shoe on 

 the other foot instead of the way 

 Charles Henry Fox tries to make out 

 in his talk against the growers and 

 their agents, the commission men. 



G. C. WATSON. 



Florists' Refrigerators 



Write us for catalogue and Prices, stating size you 

 require, and for what kind of cut ffowers you wish 

 to use the refrigerator; also state whether you 

 want it for display or only for storage. 



McCray Refrigerator Co.f 



553 Lake Street, Kendallville, Ind. 



Mention Horiiculture ivhen you -^frt'tr. 



ROBERT J. DYSART 



PUBLIC ACCOUNTANT AND AUDITOR 



Simple methods of correct arcountim; 



especially adapt e<l for floriHts' use. 



BOOKS BALANCED AND ADJUSTED 



Merchants Bank Buildincr 



40 STATE ST. BOSTON 



Til«»hCM. Mala CI 



