October 19, 1916. 



The Florists' Review 



■•j.-,^' 



15 



Eublicity of the association still should 

 e principally within the trade, for the 

 purpose of developing the association's 

 organization. Those who favored ad- 

 vertising in the general magazines 

 found themselves at a loss for a reply 

 when asked where the F. T. D., with 

 about 350 members, is to find the funds 

 for general advertising when space in 

 such publications as "the Saturday Eve- 

 ning Post costs $8 per agate line, which 

 is at the rate of $112 per inch. The 

 Keview, for comparison, is charging its 

 advertisers 70 cents per inch. 



The subject of publicity came up at 

 almost every session in one phase or 

 another. In the end action was taken 

 instructing the president to appoint a 

 committee of three, of whom the secre- 

 tary shall be one, to handle all pub- 

 licity matters for the association. The 

 committee was instructed to proceed 

 along the following lines: 



The first effort Is to be a series of letters of 

 Instruction to the members of the association, 

 the purpose being to Inform all members as to 

 the methods of handling telegraph orders em- 

 ployed by the most progressive members. 



The second effort Is to be a series of letters 

 to members telling bow they may obtain more 

 F. T. B. orders to send out. This may Include 

 supplying signs, printed matter and advertising 

 electrotypes for the members. It was the general 

 opinion that thus far almost every florist has 

 conremed himself more with obtaining his share 

 of the orders coming to his city than with ob- 

 taining from his customers an increasing number 

 of orders to send out. 



The third effort, if the committee gets that 

 far. Is to be a set of articles on the use of 

 flowers, and particularly on the delivery of flow- 

 ers by telegraph, to be supplied free to the dally 

 and weekly newspapers that will use them. 



The fourth effort, if there still Is energy and 

 funds. Is to be along the line of advertising 

 the out-of-town service through the general 

 magazines. 



It will be noticed the program does 

 not include any plan of publicity to 

 increase the membership. This is left 

 to the secretary, to the district repre- 

 sentatives and to the individual mem- 

 bers. 



Secretary Pochelon, who seems to 

 have anticipated everything, already 

 had "sent a circular letter to the mem- 

 bers asking contributions to the pub- 

 licity fund, the money for the commit- 

 tee's use being obtained outside the 

 regular sources of revenue for the so- 

 ciety. At the closing session he read 

 a list of those who had responded, with 

 sums ranging from $100, contributed by 

 Penn, of Boston, and Schling, of New 

 York, to $5 from members in inland 

 towns. The aggregate was nearly 

 $1,800. 



President Qude stated that he would 

 withhold the appointment of the two 

 committer members until he could use 

 some deliberation in their selection. 



The Golden Bule. 



E. "Wienhoeber, of Chicago, introduced 

 the subject of the special effort some- 

 times required to fill a telegraphed or- 

 der. He said that sometimes the or- 

 ders are small, sometimes they call for 

 stock not on hand, sometimes they call 

 for delivery at a great distance and fre- 

 quently they call for immediate action, 

 without time to investigate credits. He 

 said that his own rule is to do as he 

 would be done by and he asked for an 

 erpression of the opinion of the other 

 members present. It would have been 

 a revelation to some of those who re- 

 gard the flower business merely as a 

 means of earning a livelihood. Every 

 man present, and it was fairly repre- 

 sentative of the entire membership, as- 

 serted it to be his custom to spare no 

 effort to fill every order in such man- 

 ner as he would have his own orders 

 filled by others. 



"ACCOMMODATION" GUDE 



a?ifi«vii^t^r«virrs>(ir«vir?8tih«vir«vir?8vit^r«tii^ 



THE MAN WHO KNOWS NOT JEALOUSY— 



PnS big, whole-souled, hearty Washingtonian, who among a dozen ofSces holds 

 that of president of the F. T. D., has presented a new idea to retail florists 

 who can not reach a wholesaler in time to fill an order — it is that of the "accom- 

 modation" price. Any Washington retailer, competitors all, can have any flower 

 — every flower — in the Gude icebox by paying the accommodation price, a price 

 half way between the wholesale value and the retail price. No obligation to 

 anyone, except to do the same when the situations are reversed. The idea was 

 new, but it made a hit and ,it promises quickly to become one of the customs 

 of the retail flower business in every town where happy, prosperous, contented 

 florists dwell. 



Speaking of the matter of credits, 

 A. F. Borden, of the Redondo Floral 

 Co., Los Angeles, said that while they 

 hold tight rein on the credit of Stage 

 Door Johnny, every person who wants 

 funeral flowers gets them at his store 

 without a word being said regarding 

 payment. He asserted that the losses 

 had been negligible and that he be- 

 lieved any florist could treat with equal 

 liberality any order that came from an 

 out-of-town florist. J. A. Valentine 

 added that nine times out of ten a fail- 

 ure to get prompt payment for an out- 

 of-town order would be due to negli- 

 gence in the florist's own collection de- 

 partment. 



W. F. Gude, in discussing prices and 

 service, stated that in his own estab- 

 lishment they have three prices. One 

 is for the trade, by which is meant 

 customers who purchase regularly in 

 the wholesale department of the Qude 

 establishment. Another price is the 

 retail price, and the third price is the 

 "accommodation" price, which is half- 

 way between the other two. ' ' Any flo- 

 rist, ' ' said Mr. Qude, ' ' can get anything 

 in the retail box, even if it is the last 

 dozen valley, by paying the accommo- 

 dation price, which really is a division 

 of the profit of retail sales. ' ' This was 

 a new. idea to most of those present 

 and it made an instantaneous hit. It 



