68 



The Florists^ Review 



Mat 13. 1920. 



RETAIL STORE MANAGEMENT 



WHAT THE LEADERS IN THE TRADE ARE DOING 



ONE BIT OF NATURE. 



Makes the Wliole World Kin. 



The progress of the national publicity 

 campaign has already proved that people 

 need only to be waked up to their real 

 desire for flowers in order to become 

 steady flower buyers. They need to 

 realize what a large share flowers or 

 flowering plants may have in their home 

 life. They need to appreciate anew the 

 refreshing restfulness of some bit of 

 living nature in a world so largely ar- 

 tificial. 



Consequently the successful florist's 

 store must be much more than a place 

 where flowers are kept and sold and 

 floral designs prepared and displayed. 

 It must show the natural aspects of 

 flowers definitely in relation with their 

 possible uses and leave not too much to 

 be supplied by the imagination of the 

 possible buyer. It is in this connection 

 that various side lines, such as goldfish 

 and canaries, have their best right to 

 appear in the florists' store; they all 

 work together to stimulate people's de- 



tain in the center, with its delicate spray 

 of water, its rough stonework, its 

 quietly moving goldfish, though the lat- 

 ter are invisible in the picture, and its 

 border of potted plants, strikes the key- 

 note of the store's equipment. The 

 flowering plants in pots of various sizes, 

 the window box behind the fountain, the 

 baskets of flowers, the bird cages, 

 whether inhabited or not, all help to 

 suggest to anyone entering the store 

 definite ways in which those particular 

 articles might be of immediate use. When 

 the customer's mind has been thus 

 brought to what may be called the 

 purchasing point, the sale follows at 

 once. 



In addition to operating the American 

 Floral Shop, which is at 216 West Fourth 

 street, Joplin, Mo., J. E. Meinhart does 

 business under his own name at 416 

 South Pennsylvania avenue, Webb City, 

 Mo., in the same county. 



SPECIAL SALES NOTICES. 



A novel system of special sales which 

 has brought much business to Jegen, 



Flower Store Interiors Should Attract the Attention of Those Who Enter. 



sire for something alive, something at- 

 tractive, even beautiful. 



Meinhart 's Method. 



That this has been done in tiie Amori 

 can Floral Shop, Joplin, Mo., the ac 

 companying illustration fully indicates. 

 J. E. Meinhart, the proprietor, has been 

 in the business for fifteen years, grow- 

 ing as well as selling flowers, and has 

 thus had plenty of time to leain the 

 value of that ai)pcal to the imagination 

 which has been suggested. Tlie foun- 



Florist, 1149 North State street, Chi- 

 cago, is cfl'ected by sending out cards to 

 addresses on a regular mailing list. This 

 firm has a card printed, about the size 

 of a post card, and among other things 

 on it is a space for the name of the 

 flower to form the special sale. These 

 cards are all addressed weeks ahead of 

 time. When Saturday comes and the 

 sale on any special kind of flowers or 

 plants is decided upon, it is marked on 

 the card and sent out. This system, 

 which has been in use for some time. 



has brought pleasing results. During 

 the bargain sale of carnations recently 

 held by the members ,of the Allied Flo- 

 rists' Association, this firm sold nearly 

 3,000 carnations through this system of 

 cards. 



FREE TO FLORISTS' CLUBS. 



We are lending gratis our collection 

 of lantern slides taken from newspaper 

 advertisements, which are of special in- 

 terest to florists and give a general idea 

 of retail advertising. 



This makes an unusually interesting 

 lecture if the club will request any of 

 the advertising associations in its city 

 to send a member who will criticise the 

 copy as it appears. A great deal of con- 

 structive good is usually the outcome. 



The following clubs have already used 

 them: Buffalo Florists' Club, Phila- 

 delphia Florists ' Club and the Baltimore 

 Florists' Club. Better results may be 

 obtained from this slide exhibit by con- 

 sulting Robert Kift, secretary of the 

 Philadelphia Florists ' Club, 4044 Haver- 

 ford avenue, Philadelphia, Pa., who 

 found them instructive, and he will be 

 glad to assist any secretary who may 

 want to use them. As retail advertis- 

 ing is one of the chief topics in clubs, 

 this makes a timely subject and their 

 use may be had gratis. Henry Penn. 



DESIGNS AT LOW PRICES. 



Demand Ingenuity. 



In the last few issues of The Review 

 we have been speaking of funeral de- 

 signs and the qualifications of a de- 

 signer. In this article I want to em- 

 phasize a fact that is more important. 

 There was a time, not so long ago, when, 

 in any of our large cities, if a funeral 

 offering came from some particular es- 

 tablishment it was never questioned. 

 But that day is forever gone. Today 

 every offering has to stand on its own 

 merits; the reputation of a firm is n" 

 longer sufficient. Now, the point I wish 

 to impress on the floral artist is that 

 in every funeral offering he may be 

 called upon to design he is doing one 

 of two things, making a reputation or 

 sustaining one. 



There are new establishments start- 

 ing every day and, to quote a scriptural 

 phrase, "by their fruits ye shall know 

 them." In these days of modern meth- 

 ods the first thing a shrewd business 

 man is going to do is to procure the serv- 

 ices of someone who is a master of th^ 

 art. Don't try to live on past V^^' 

 formances; keep abreast of the timt'^; 

 Any one of us can remember, in an\ ''' 

 the retail lines, stores which at one tiii"" 

 had the cream of the trade of our <'i'5 

 but are never heard of today. Thes^ 

 are the people who thought it was vu' 

 gar to advertise or to mix with the'^ 

 neighbors and exchange ideas. In othC 

 words, while they consoled themselve' 

 with the idea that they were exclusiv'*'' 

 they were merely selfish. I have hefl''' 



