18 ^ 



The Florists^ Review 



OciOBEB 26, 1916. 



RETAIL STORE MANAGEMENT 



WHAT THE LEADERS IN THE TRADE ARE DOING 



STKATTON & WIFE. 



Some are born to the business; some 

 achieve the business; others have the 

 business thrust upon them — and in the 

 last division is C. D. Stratton, of Lan- 

 caster, Wis. But here is Mr. Stratton 's 

 history of how he, or rather they — 

 Stratton & Wife — became florists: 



"In the first place, it was through 

 my wife's love for tiaat glorious queen 

 of autumn^owers, tne chrysanthemum, 

 that I beean^ interestedi^n a green- 

 house, and I wish to say riglit here that 

 it has been through her interest, cooper- 

 ation, constant help and advice that 

 we have been able to bring about suc- 

 cess in our undertaking. 



"In the fall of 1906 we decided that 

 it would be impossible to handle the 

 number of mums we had growing in the 

 garden and in the dwelling, without de- 

 voting more room than we could conve- 

 niently spare, to say nothing about the 

 litter they caused or the ill-shaped 

 plants we obtained on account of lack 

 of light. Accordingly, we purchased 

 some hard pine sashbars, lumber, glass 

 and old sashes from local dealers, and 

 erected a small lean-to 9x23, on the 

 south side of our residence. In this we 

 were able to bring our plants to a fair 

 state of perfection, for amateurs, with- 

 out artificial heat. To say that we were 

 proud of and enjoyed our greenhouse is 

 putting it mildly. 



"I was at that time employed as a 

 manager for the Wisconsin Telephone 

 Co., BO all the greenhouse work that I 

 did had to be done outside of office 

 hours. 



"Then the unexpected happened. As 

 soon as the public found that we had 

 a greenhouse and saw our blooming 

 plants they wished to purchase. To 

 establish a business was not our inten- 

 tion, but we figured that we might sell 

 enough plants in time to help to pay 

 for our greenhouse, and this we did. 



But the demand did not stop with 

 mums; it increased until we were hav- 

 ing a demand for plants of all kinds, as 

 well as for cut flowers. Finally we 

 made arrangements with one of the 

 wholesale houses at Milwaukee to flup- 

 jJly us with cut flowers. 



"This continued until the next fall, 

 when we decided to increase our house 

 capacity a trifle. We did so by adding 

 to our >l£a^-to, which gave us two 

 beiiches 4x23 wch. We uso installed 

 a imalliJiot water boiler in the base- 

 ment or'our residence and connected 

 it with a system of pipes in the lean- 

 to, which enabled us to keep our stock 

 in fine shape through the winter. 



"When this addition was completed 

 my wife became the florist. She adver- 

 tised and conducted the business under 

 her own name, and she certainly 'made 

 good.' By July, 1908, the demand had 

 increased to such an -extent that I de- 

 cided to resign my position with the 

 telephone company and engage in the 

 florists' business for a livelihood. And 

 I can say that I have never had occa- 

 sion to regret the change. 



"At that time we purchased material 

 and erected two houses, about 3,000 

 feet of glass. We installed a flrst-class 

 boiler and heating system. Since then 

 we have added about 1,000 feet. Last 

 fall we built our store, as shown in the 

 illustration. 



"We have watched our enterprise 

 grow from a small beginning to a gross 

 business of about $7,000 last year. 

 This, I believe, will compare favorably 

 with the florists' business in most 

 towns of 2,500 people. 



"We have agents in several of the 

 nearby towns, to whom we allow the 

 usual commissions, and with th^ir as- 

 sistance we have increased our business 

 considerably. 



"We grow a general line of pot 

 plants in the medium sizes, as we have 



found that specimens will not bring 

 prices high enough to make them profit- 

 able. In the spring we grow from 50,- 

 000 to 75,000 vegetable plants, using 

 coldframes for all but the most tender. 

 This last item we consider the most 

 profitable one handledjkrom the stand- 

 point of time requireo^to produce and 

 quantity from a given area. We also 

 grow mums, sweet peas, carnations, 

 fnaps ai^ liliesTfor cutting. 

 •' "We entered another departmint of ^, 

 tlie business two years a^, tl^ of 

 ornamental treel^ and shrubs: For this 

 purpose we purchased one acre of land 

 a few blocks from our greenhouses. 

 This we planted partly to young 

 stock for growing on and also some 

 stock of sufficient size for retailing at 

 once. We use the remainder of the 

 land during the summer season for 

 asters, dahlias, cannas, etc. 



"We found the nursery line quite 

 profitable and one that florists, espe- 

 cially those in small towns, should give 

 more attention to. Without a great 

 deal of expense or labor they can add 

 considerably to their incomes and keep 

 some of the money at home which for- 

 merly was sent to out-of-town nursery- 

 men. 



"While we have not as yet under- 

 taken any of the actual planting of 

 this stock, we have given our custom- 

 ers all the assistance possible with re- 

 gard to laying out their grounds and 

 advising what stock is best suited to 

 the location and for the purpose 

 wanted. This does not take much of 

 our time and I believe it is appreciated 

 by the customer and is a good form of 

 advertising. 



"In conclusion I wish to say that 

 we always have made it a rule to settle 

 our accounts as we go along, saving the 

 trade discounts and knowing that all 

 we possess. is our own." 



The Establishment of Stratton & Wtfe, Lancaster, Wb, 



METCALF'S METHODS. 



During his four years as road sales- 

 man for a large supply house L. E. Met- 

 calf did more than merely sell his line 

 successfully — day by day he assimi- 

 lated, ,as it were, a raft of knowledge 

 and information on how to run a retail 

 store, and how to run it right. So when 

 Mr. Metcalf acquired the long-estab- 

 lished business of Mrs. A. Guillaume, at 

 La Crosse, Wis., he immediately pro- 

 ceeded to put his theories into practice. 

 The flrst thing was — but here is Mr. 

 Metcalf 's own story: 



"During my experience with the A. 

 L, Bandall Co. I called on a large num- 

 ber of florists throughout the country 

 and had many talks with them on the 

 advantage of good store fronts, win- 

 dow displays as advertising, fall open- 

 ings and the like. Their opinions dif- 

 fered greatly. 



"I have always been in favor of at- 

 tractive windows and when I took the 

 Guillaume store the first thing I did 

 was to put in the best window I could 

 get. It is shown in the accompanying 



