



FLOWERS AS SIDE LINE 



QUICKLY DOMINATE 



Putting in flowers as a side line to some other retail business is dangerous 

 — to the original business. The man who has a genius for retailing quickly 

 finds a flower store beats most other businesses. Here is an example of this 

 truth; many other similar cases can be cited. 





^■i^B^s^HERE is an Arabian fable 



T about a camel and its mas- 

 ter at night in the desert. 

 The Arab had lain down in 

 a ^ his tent; the camel, being 

 IVfc.lP cold, asked permission to 

 L'^v put his head inside; the 



r ^ V^ permission was granted, 

 ^^^^— JJ but instead of his head, 

 the camel gradually got all 

 of himself inside and the Arab found 

 himself outside. Many business men 

 have discovered after taking on what 

 is commonly called a "side line" that 

 the addition has proved to be like the 

 camel — the "side line" has all but 

 pushed out the original occupant of the 

 store. 



Can't Oust Flowers. 



There are many instances of this in 

 American business life. The senior 

 member of the original firm of Sears, 

 Roebuck & Co. laid the foundation for 

 that immense business when he took on 

 watches as a side line to eke out his 

 wages as a station agent in a small 

 Minnesota town, long before the govern- 

 ment took over the railroads and raised 

 their employees from their former lowly 

 position to their present affluent one. 

 And consider what side lines have done 



THAlfK YOU! 



One of the most pleasant of the 

 many Interesting features of pub- 

 lishing The Beview has to do with 

 the invaluable assistance rendered 

 by its readers. For many years 

 the steady growth of the paper, 

 particularly in circulation, has 

 come principally through well- 

 pleased readers recommending it 

 to others to whom it should prove 

 equally helpful. This assistance 

 will be especially valuable now 

 that the trade is about to enter 

 another period of rapid expansion 

 and will be thoroughly appreci- 

 ated. 



to the old-fashioned drug store — there 

 isn't much drug store left. 



There are few instances, if any, in 

 which a side line taken into a flower 

 store has been able to push the flower 

 part of the business out of the back 

 door, and accessories or side lines play a 

 prominent part in the business of retail- 

 ing flowers, but there are records of 



many cases where flowers have been put 

 in as a side line and have appropriated 

 the predominant position of the original 

 merchandise. 



What the addition of selling flowers 

 to a business will accomplish can be de- 

 termined by the experiences of Chi^rles 

 Bartcher, undertaker, stationer, confec- 

 tioner and florist, Denison, la. Prob- 

 ably because undertaking was the orig- 

 inal business of Mr. Bartcher, he puts 

 that part of his activities first on his 

 stationery, but by adding flowers as a 

 side line to undertaking ten years ago 

 he has acquired in a city of only 2,500 

 people the large and excellently equipped 

 store, the interior of which is shown in 

 the accompanying illustration. 



What Flowers Did for Bartcher. 



Here is how Mr. Bartcher describes 

 his success with flowers: 



"The formal opening of our new store 

 took place November 8 and 9 and we 

 had more than 1,000 visitors, each one 

 of whom was presented with a souvenir 

 of violets. We moved into these quar- 

 ters last spring. The business was 

 started as a side line ten years ago, but 

 has grown to such an extent that we em- 

 ploy two persons besides Mrs. Bartcher 



What Putting in Flowers as a Side Line Did to an Undertaking Establishment in Iowa* 



