322 



HOETICULTUBE 



April 5, 1919 



WHY MANY RETAILERS DO NOT 

 PUSH CARNATIONS. 



Paper read by Cbns. J. Tbeiss before 

 Florists' Club of Philadelphia at iti 

 March meeting. 



Your Committee has asked me to 

 tell why many retail florists do not 

 push carnations tor general use. It is 

 in the spirit of co-operation that I have 

 accepted the invitation, and will be as 

 brief as possible. 



In the first place, they have found 

 carnations unprofitable, and any busi- 

 ness man who expects to make a suc- 

 cess of business, discards unprofitable 

 items. 



We have here to-night an exhibition 

 of carnations that any retail store 

 man might be proud to have as a stock 

 for his store — flowers that have stem, 

 size, fragrance, color and extreme 

 beauty — all that go to make a desir- 

 able flower: but do we, as retailers, get 

 them as we see them here to-night? 

 NO. Instead it is too often the case, 

 as one of our fellow storemen re- 

 marked the other day. "I am lucky to 

 get seven dozen salable flowers out of 

 a hundred." 



Now if we figure on one hundred 

 per cent, gross profit on a purchase of 

 one hundred flowers, and only seven 

 dozen are fit to sell^with possible loss 

 of unsold flowers, it can easily be seen 

 that the retailer will come out at the 

 short end of the horn. 



In a purchase recently, from a 

 bunch of carnations, I found that it 

 contained 13 first class flowers, 5 sec- 

 onds, 3 splits, 3 weak stems, 1 flower- 

 less stem — cost a bunch $1.50. 



Now, for the sake of argument, sup- 

 pose these flowers were offered on the 

 basis of 100 per cent, gross profit. 



12 out of 13 first class at $1.50, 

 12 remaining, not first class at $1.00, 

 or a total of $2.50. 



Looks pretty good, don't it — $1.00 

 profit on an investment of $1.50. But 

 that is not all. These flowers are to 

 be delivered. What does that mean? 

 Added cost to the carnation, as all 

 florists know. Carnations are never 

 sent in with foliage, that means some 

 green must be given, added cost to the 

 carnations, no florist will deliver flow- 

 ers unless they are put into a neat box 

 — again added cost to the carnations, 

 not mentioning overhead charges, viz. 

 rent, light, labor, etc., which are all a 

 part of an expense that should be 

 borne proportionately. Now let us see 

 where we come out on our 25 no 24 

 carnations. 



Cost carnations $1.50 



" 2 boxes, paper, etc 10 



" sreen 10 



" Delivery 20 



Total cost $1.90 



Carnations sold for $2.50 



Cost 1.90 



Net profit $ .60 



or in other words approximately 30 

 per cent, on your investment. Should 

 there be a waste of one-half the infe- 

 rior grades, which is often the case, 

 you can readily see where the retailer 

 would "get off." Thirty per cent, may 

 mean a lot to those doing a large 

 volume of business — where the risk is 

 not great; but no retailer dealing in 

 perishable goods and covering a large 

 stock can do business on that basis 

 and survive. You will note that I do 

 not class splits as seconds, they are in 

 a class by themselves, seconds are 

 fairly good flowers but smaller. 



The growers should be more careful 

 in the grading of his flowers, one or 

 more inferior flowers in a bunch de- 

 preciates in the eyes of the buyer the 

 entire bunch. Growers and whole- 

 salers may think we are too critical, 

 too particular, but they must remem- 

 ber that we are looking through the 

 eyes of our customers, the flower buy- 

 ing public. It is because we are par- 

 ticular that the past three years has 

 seen our own business increase more 

 than 300 per cent, in volume; a good 

 flower will always command a good 

 price; but a poor one we don't want 

 at any price. 



Carnations have proven unprofitable 

 for us to handle because of their poor 

 lasting qualities. Here let me say, 

 something is very wrong. More com- 

 plaints have been made on the poor 

 lasting qualities of the carnation than 

 any other flower that I know of. Dur- 

 ing the holiday season we would not 

 care to take a chance on them and did 

 not buy any. How can you growers 

 and wholesalers expect we retailers to 

 push carnations when a feeling like 

 that exists? It is true that carnations 

 have been in greater demand and have 

 brought better prices this season, but 

 that is only due to unusual conditions. 

 But we must go back a year or more, 

 and what do we have, it is the effects 

 of the past that caused many of the 

 retailers to side track the carnation. 

 Carnations grown for quantity not 

 quality, held back for days by the 

 growers when a holiday season comes 

 along, then dumped on the market in 

 an unsalable condition with fancy 

 prices asked by the wholesaler. The 

 retailer only buying what he abso- 

 lutely had to have, the balance going 

 to the street men to be sold, as I have 

 seen it. at a price that would not pay 

 for the cutting, let alone the growing 

 of the flowers, in other words the car- 

 nation has been cheapened, made a 

 plebean flower, and only offered by 

 first class florists when customers want 

 something cheap. Some growers hold 

 back carnations and ship them but 

 twice a week, reaching the retailers 



when two or three days old, thinking 

 thereby to save express charges; but 

 that is poor economy for you lose out 

 in the long run. Better ship every 

 day and have your carnations in a 

 salable condition. 



When I was asked to read a paper 

 on the retailer's viewpoint, without 

 much thought I said yes; since, how- 

 ever, the thought occurred to me I'll 

 try and see what can be done toward 

 selling carnations. To one of our cus- 

 tomers, a lady, I suggested carnations. 

 How often, Mr. Retailer, have you 

 heard the same remark: Oh! I hate 

 carnations. I asked Why? Well, she 

 said, when I was in the hospital a 

 friend sent me some carnations, and 

 do you know I was delighted; but 

 toward evening they seemed to close 

 up; the next morning when I saw the 

 flowers they were dead and had to be 

 thrown out. Imagine me lying there 

 sick, watching those flowers simply 

 curl up and die. It gave me the creeps 

 and I have hated carnations ever since. 

 Get the point, Mr. Grower. These con- 

 ditions must be remedied before the 

 retailer can become enthused over car- 

 nations. 



Here Mr. Theiss read a number of 

 purchase slips of cut flowers for sev- 

 eral days' business, showing the very 

 small proportion of carnations as com- 

 pared with other flowers. 



You might ask what has all this to 

 do with carnations: it is merely to 

 show that carnations are in competi- 

 tion with other flowers, you can read- 

 ily see that a matter of price is no 

 bar to the sale of flowers providing 

 the flowers are select and of a quality. 

 Justifying the price the grower must 

 remember that the retailer is his cus- 

 tomer, if not dealing directly it is 

 through the wholesaler and it is just 

 as important that he satisfy the re- 

 tailer as it is for the store man to 

 satisfy his customers. Can we retail- 

 ers expect our customers to continue 

 the purchase of carnations under these 

 conditions or can the grower expect 

 the retailer to push carnations, when 

 it is more profitable and more satis- 

 factory to handle other flowers. 



The National Publicity Committee 

 of the S. A. F. is asking that you sub- 

 scribe to a fund to use for advertising 

 purposes. Many of you have already 

 subscribed, last year over $45,000 was 

 given them for that purpose to bring 

 before the public the slogan, "Say it 

 with Flowers," this year more is 

 asked, but let me tell you that your 

 money is wasted, thrown away, and 

 advertising is not worth a, pardon me, 

 ladies, if you say it with flowers like 

 these . 



