September 16, 1916 



HOKTICTJLTIJRE 



387 



BUY YOUR FALL SUPPLIES NOW 



New Stock is in. Ready for You. A Rare Shipment of Im- 

 ported Goods Just Received. Don't Miss This Chance 



Stock up now and have the goods to show customers. Send for prices and 

 you will be astonished to see how much you can do with a little money when 

 you go straight to headquarters— THE FLORISTS' SUPPLY HOUSE OF AMERICA. 



H. BAYERSDORFER & CO. 



1129 Arch Street, PHILADELPHIA, PA. 



The Influence of Department Store Flower 



Selling 



(A Paper Read Before the Chicago Florists' Club by Allie Zech.) 



Mr. President and Fellow Members: 



At the last meeting I promised to 

 read a paper on whether it is harmful 

 or beneficial to the flower business for 

 the department stores to sell flowers 

 at ridiculously low prices. There has 

 much been said for it and against it. 

 Some will say it makes new flower 

 buyers because people buying from 

 department stores would not go to a 

 flower store to buy, but when they get 

 in the habit of having flowers at home 

 they will buy from the legitimate flor- 

 ist. Then others say it hurts the flor- 

 ists in a way, because the public gets 

 to believe that flowers have no value 

 and that the florists are "hold-up" peo- 

 ple. 



The department stores advertise cut 

 flowers at a price that is less than the 

 cost of producing the stock, such as 

 carnations at 8 cents per bunch of 25, 

 roses at 6 cents per dozen. The gen- 

 eral public does not know a good 

 flower from a poor one. A flower Is 

 a flower to them regardless of quality, 

 therefore I say that the public should 

 be educated in regard to the quality 

 of the flowers. Just imagine a depart- 

 ment store advertising roses at 12 

 cents per dozen the day before Moth- 

 ers' Day, when the price in the mar- 

 ket is $2 and $3 per 100 for the very 

 shortest roses. Can the retailer sell 

 his stock at these flgures? One de- 

 partment store last year came out 

 with a big ad. in the paper wit'i lilies 



at 19 cents a pot, saying that they 

 were going to protect the public and 

 not overcharge on flowers. Don't you 

 think a thing like that hurts the 

 flower business? In the wholesale 

 houses it can be noticed at once; as 

 soon as the department stores have a 

 sale on flowers the retailers do not 

 buy anything. When you ask them 

 why they are not buying they answer, 

 "If we buy we cannot sell, as people 

 tell us they will go to the department 

 stores and then we have to throw our 

 stock away." The department stores 

 do not give a rip for the florists. They 

 do not make any money out of the 

 flowers they sell but have found out 

 it is a better way of getting customers 

 into the store than any other item 

 they can advertise. They are only 

 selling flowers for an advertisement 

 and not for a livelihood. 



Now I will say that all three 

 branches of the cut flower business 

 are to blame for these conditions. 

 Take the wholesaler; he is overloaded 

 with stock; the buyer for the depart- 

 ment store comes in, and the whole- 

 saler unloads on him for a song. Now 

 would It not be better If this stock 

 was thrown in the barrel and the bal- 

 ance sold for a better price? In the 

 end the wholesaler would sell say one- 

 third of his supply and get as much if 

 not more money than by unloading to 

 the department stores. In the second 

 place take the grower. When the 

 market is glutted he ought to sort his 



cut and send only the best to the mar- 

 ket in place of sending in every flower 

 whether good or bad. By sending 

 only the best stock to the market 

 during the glut he would cut down the 

 supply and in that way retain the mar- 

 ket. But most growers figure on how 

 much they can cut, then they will say 

 I cut so many flowers during the sea- 

 son, not saying how good they were. 

 So if the grower would help In this 

 way during a glut it would help to cut 

 out the department stores. 



Now in the third place take the re- 

 tailer. He could help to cut out the 

 department stores by buying more 

 stock during a glut. The retailer of 

 today does not carry a stock of flow- 

 ers in his store. He buys a few and 

 then waits for an order and goes to 

 the market and buys just enough to 

 fill his orders. When a glut comes in 

 the market why does not every re- 

 tailer buy a good supply and run a 

 sale of his own, not let the depart- 

 ment stores do it? He could sell many 

 more flowers in this way. When stoclc 

 is plentiful he could go to his whole- 

 sale house and order a large amount 

 of flowers for a certain day, then go 

 to the printer and get out some hand 

 bills to be delivered by mail or by 

 boys to every house in his neighbor- 

 hood, letting the people know that he 

 had made arrangements with the 

 growers to supply him with a large 

 stock for a certain day at a lower 

 price than usual and that he wanted 

 to give everybody in the neighborhood 

 the benefit of this low price, and then 

 sell this lot of flowers at a lower than 

 usual figure. Don't you think in this 

 way every retailer could dispose of 

 more flowers and create more floral 

 buyers? Another way for the retailer 

 would be to buy a lot of flowers and 

 put them in small boxes, say six to a 

 box, and enclose a card with his com- 

 pliments and have them delivered to 

 all his customers or to all the people 

 in his neighborhood. This would ad- 

 vertise the retailer, and also make 

 new flower buyers, and the best thing 

 It would do would be to eliminate the 

 department stores from the flower 

 business. 



