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68 



The Florists^ Review 



June 24, 1920 



RETAIL STORE MANAGEMENT 



WHAT THE LEADERS IN THE TRADE ARE DOING 



STIMULATING STEAMER TRADE. 



Travel to Europe Renewed. 



During the war summers one great 

 reason for slack business was the prac- 

 tical cessation of ocean travel and, con- 

 sequently, of steamer orders; one cause 

 of trade impatience was the slowness 

 with which restrictions on travel to 

 Europe were removed. But now, though 

 every outward-bound passenger is re- 

 quired to show a passport viseed by the 

 consul of the country to which the trav- 

 eler is going, together with documen- 

 tary evidence of compliance with the 

 United States income tax law, the pass- 

 ports arc, in ordinary cases, easily se- 

 cured and the travel Europe-ward is 

 limited only by the capacity of the 

 ships. Many of the lines are booked 

 full through' to the middle or end of 

 August. The burden on the lines now 

 operating is increased by the fact that 

 the passenger travel to Germany direct, 

 formerly handled by the Hamburg- 

 American and North German Lloyd, 

 can now be taken care of only by the 

 Manchuria and the Mongolia, of the 

 American line. 



Good Business Both East and West. 



The high cost of traveling and the 

 scarcity and high cost of hotel accom- 

 modations in Europe have combined to 

 limit transatlantic travelers largely to 

 those who are distinctly well ofE; to 

 those, ki other words, who are most 

 likely to have friends sending them 

 large bon voyage floral gifts. Many of 

 those going across are going to visit 

 relatives whom they have not seen for 

 some time, or to hunt up relatives from 

 whom they have not heard, or to settle 

 the estates of relatives who have died. 

 Some go for other kinds of personal 

 business or as representatives of busi- 

 ness firms. And some go either to tour 

 in neutral countries or to visit the 

 scenes of the war. In prewar days 

 much of the passenger traffic around 

 July 1 consisted of teachers and stu- 

 dents going over for a few weeks in 

 the summer vacation, but now the great 

 demand for reservations and the in- 

 creased rates have forced some of these 

 to give up going and others to go much 

 later in the summer. 



While the transatlantic travel is at- 

 tracting most attention, transpacific 

 travel is not to be neglected. Many 

 persons who are unable to go to Europe 

 may find it possible to make the trip to- 

 ward the setting sun instead. The fact 

 that the world Sunday school conven- 

 tion is to be held in T«kyo October 5 to 

 14 will be the occasion for some addi- 

 tional travel in the early fall. 



Reminding the Friends. 



The better the nature of the passen- 

 ger traffic is known, the more effec- 

 tively the trade can focus its advertis- 

 ing to stimulate the steamer trade. In 

 encouraging this publicity the trade in 

 the inland cities and that in the seaport 



cities will work together through the 

 bond of the F. T. D. The channels of 

 publicity include window displays, 

 newspaper advertisements and card an- 

 nouncements either placed in the store 

 or sent out to established customers. 



The window display may portray the 

 ship at the dock, with friends saying 

 farewell and one or two truckloads of 

 flowers being unloaded. It may show 

 the ship in midocean, with the design- 

 er's utmost ingenuity put into both the 

 waves and the construction of the ship 

 itself. Or it may present some foreign 

 scene, which will remind the passer-by 



After Chica];o's Steamer Orders. 



of a friend soon to leave for that or a 

 similar region. The window space 

 might also be fitted up as a stateroom, 

 with the flowers ready and waiting for 

 the traveler to come and find them, or 

 with the voyager represented as already 

 there and showing appreciation of the 

 comforting gifts. 



Display Through Newspapers. 



The advertisements in newspapers 

 may make use, in both copy and illus- 

 tration, of the suggestions for window 

 displays. One simple, but effective, 

 type of advertisement for this purpose 

 is shown in the accompanying illustra- 

 tion; this appeared in a recent issue of 



a Cliicago paper. Naturally both the 

 display and the advertisement wiU dif- 

 fer somewhat, according to whether the 

 establishment is an inland one, a sea- 

 port one or, as in the case illustrated, a 

 firm having stores in both kinds of city. 

 The inland florist will tend to emphasize 

 the fact of ocean travel and the desir- 

 ability of bon voyage gifts of flowers, 

 while the seaport member of the trade 

 will devote more care to showing what 

 attractive gifts he is able to furnish. 

 If the latter is to do justice to his or- 

 ders, however, the florist at the other 

 end of the F. T. D. wire must give him 

 plenty of time. 



In connection with the display of 

 cards in the store, the use of lists of 

 steamer sailings, such as appear weekly 

 in The Eeview, will be found help- 

 ful. These lists both help to remind the 

 patrons of the date of sailing and to 

 suggest to the retailer where he may 

 concentrate his efforts. He may also 

 send out personal letters or neatly 

 printed notices calling attention to the 

 opportunity to telegraph gifts of flow- 

 ers to friends bound over the ocean. 



DOUBLE-BARRELED BUSINESS. 



How many stores in your vicinity use 

 flowers iuj^their window displays? Not 

 florists' stores, but phonograph shops, 

 lamp shops, dry goods stores, automo- 

 bile salesrooms and specialty shops of 

 numerous kinds. In many towns and 

 cities such shops have found that flow- 

 ers in their window or in their sales- 

 room add that something called 

 "tone," a thing these shops in certain 

 neighborhoods are anxious to manifest. 



At this time of year, when flowers 

 arc plentiful and business in most lines 

 has not yet slumped into the warm 

 weather doldrums, florists can offer 

 blooms to the merchants in their neigh- 

 borhood at attractive prices for use in 

 window decorations. Suggestions to 

 your neighboring shopkeeper may or 

 may not meet prompt adoption, but 

 seed sown will yield its return sooner or 

 later. Use of a few flowers may de- 

 velop into a habit, so that they become 

 a necessity and the merchant next door 

 a regular customer. 



One should not, in his view of the 

 immediate business, forget that such 

 use of flowers, where the many persons 

 passing see them, is exceedingly good 

 advertising for the florist. So a florist 

 who wins a merchant to use flowers in 

 his window display is killing two birds 

 with one stone. 



THE REWARD OF PATIENCE. 



That patience is rewarded is an old 

 saying. Sometimes the busy proprietor 

 or salesman in a flower store cannot see 

 the reward to be had from complying 

 with the petty and vexatious requests 

 sometimes made in the course of a trans- 

 action. But such reward there is, and 

 an ample and tangible one. 



In a Seattle store last week a rather 

 elderly lady entered and purchased 20 



