208 



THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



arrive. Your lady customers notice 

 loungers and it makes an unfavorable 

 impression, deeper and more lasting 

 than their pleasant features indicate. 



Every wide-awake man will know 

 what locality is best suited to his busi- 

 ness in his own city. Where business 

 men pass to and fro is the best of all 

 location^,, for with due resp-ect to the 

 gentler sex the men are our best cus- 

 tomers. The ladies may be the inspira- 

 tion by which they buy, but through 

 the men come our best sales. They buy 

 quicker, larger and want the best re- 

 gardless of cost. The fashionable 

 shopping district of our cities is the 

 place for a florist's store, and I think 

 I have seen some cities where with ad- 

 vantage a good store could be opened 

 a long way from the business center of 

 the city but in the residential part of 

 the, town. 



Your store should be always clean, 

 neat and attractive. Your window is 

 the chief advertisement of your busi- 

 ness and that should never be two 

 days alike. Some men may have a 

 large stock of flowers and place a large 

 quantity in their window; yet they 

 were put in, or rather jammed in, re- 

 gardless of color or taste and were no 

 attraction to the cultivated taste of 

 the passer-by. You may not be able 

 to have 360 varieties in one year, but 

 you can always change it sufficiently 

 so as to appear to the public fresh and 

 new each day, and let there be some 

 distinctive feature each day. 'A very 

 first class florist in one of our large 

 western cities who keeps six or seven 

 young men in the store allots to each 

 one in turn the duty of arranging the 

 window display. 



Some may say many flowers can be 

 used up and wasted in these window 



Corner in a Florist's Store in November. 



decorations. There need be little waste 

 if properly managed, for it is not the 

 quantity but the taste displayed that 

 makes an attractive window, and if it 

 does cost something in sacrifice of 

 flowers it is far cheaper than any othor 

 kind of advertising. On a recent win- 

 ter visit to Philadelphia, in a fine win- 

 dow of the leading florist of Chestnut 

 street the window decoration was a 

 heavy branch of an elm tree, extend- 



A Florist's Store at Easter. 



ing the whole width of the window 

 and on it at intervals were tied sprays 

 of Cattleya Trianae. Thousands we; e 

 stopping to admire it. This is the 

 idea, and whether it be orchids or 

 only a vase of coreopsis it should be 

 clean, neat, fresh, distinct and a gem 

 if possible. 



As in poetry so in flowers; it is not 

 volubility that is highly appreciated, it 

 is the clear cut gems that immortalize 

 their authors. Longfellow's "Village 

 Blacksmith" is worth a whole library 

 of gush and slush which often passes 

 for poetry. 



The interior of your store should be 

 also attractive. Where a rushing 

 business is done there must be some 

 little confusion, but the making up or 

 boxing of flowers can be done in the 

 rear and not at the counter where sales 

 are made. The ice-box is a great fea- 

 ture of the present flower store. Next 

 to the window it is the principal at- 

 traction and should not be in a remote 

 corner but should be conspicuous to 

 every one who enters the store. If a 

 man enters the store to purchase a 

 5-cent carnation for his buttonhole he 

 may be attracted by the beautiful 

 flowers in the glass case, and if they 

 have not tempted him sufficiently to 

 affect his pocket they have made a 

 favorable impression, and it is by a 

 succession of favorable impressions 

 followed by good and prompt service 

 that fortunes are made, not by sudden 

 leaps into popularity. 



The salesmen, and sometimes they 

 are women, should be as neat, clean 

 and, if possible, as attractive as their 

 surroundings. The young men should 

 neither chew tobacco nor the girls 

 gum, eat onions, drink beer or any- 

 thing stronger during business hours. 



