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Skptbubiib 23, 1920 



The Florists^ Review 



27 



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EOWEES have plenty of 

 problems to think about 

 following the establish- 

 ment of a publicity 

 bureau, and among them 

 ^ is stabilizing the market- 



^^ \r-^ ing of cut flowers, wher- 

 U s^ ^ ever such a system will 

 'I adapt itself to a particu- 

 lar locality. I believe the 

 Chicago market is best situated to try 

 such an experiment. These are my in- 

 dividual views, which I hope will fur- 

 ther the discussion of this subject to- 

 ward a settlement before another sea- 

 son is upon us. This subject was but 

 slightly referred to in a previous ar- 

 ticle, and I venture now only to ex- 

 press what I think would be the 

 benefits derived in stabilizing the mar- 

 keting of cut flowers. 



The present system of 

 the wholesale maiketing 

 of cut flowers was inaugu- 

 rated by the commission 

 dealer. The continual 

 changing and shifting of 

 the growers, with the con- 

 tinual division among the 

 commission dealers, brought 

 on the competition we now 

 have in marketing our 

 products. 



Already Demonstrated. 



Cooperative marketing, 

 as has been demonstrated 

 in many other lines, is par- 

 ticularly practical and 

 profitable in the handling 

 and selling of perishable 

 products. As we have 

 them in the wholesale mar- 

 keting of cut flowers, the 

 soliciting consignors, the 

 methods of selling and the 

 methods of reporting sales 

 are all of doubtful char- 

 acter and much on lines of 

 secrecy. Other wliolesale 

 marketing ideas might be 

 applied, to insure a con- 

 tinuation of profitable re- 

 turns on our greenhouse 

 investments. The keen 

 competition is one whole- 

 saler against another, without the 

 wholesome building up of the structure 

 as a whole. 



Our competitive system of wholesal- 

 ing at times runs wild. When the sup- 

 ply is evidently greater than the de- 

 mand, the wholesaler is at the mercy of 

 the retailer, and the growers have to 

 take all the risk of the wholesaler's 

 judgment. When the demand is seem- 

 ingly greater than the supply, the 

 wholesaler plays his game to get even 

 with the retailer without giving grow- 

 ers an assurance of a higher average 

 price for our products. Remember, we 

 pay the growing bills all the year 

 around. 



Downward wholesale prices start 

 with cold feet among wholesalers be- 

 cause of an oversupply, and upward 

 prices do not begin until the whole- 

 saler is sure of his ground. Each whole- 



By JOSEPH KOHOUT. 



saler stands alone in determining prices 

 at which it is hoped the stock will be 

 sold, and it is not unusual for the 

 wholesaler not to know the market till 

 after the close of a day's business. 



Danger in Extremes. 



Our first step toward better prices 

 to benefit the entire florists' trade be- 

 gan with our present advertising cam- 

 paign. The next step to harmonize 

 with our publicity work is to stabilize 

 cut flower and plant prices to the con- 

 sumer through the retail dealers by 

 stabilizing the prices for which our 

 goods are sold by the wholesale dis- 

 tributor. The extremes of prices, up 

 one day and down another, during the 

 season from the first frost to the on- 



Formation of growers into a united 

 body for mutual advancement has 

 led to much discussion regarding the 

 objects to be sought and the methods 

 to be followed. Most important of 

 the subjects debated is the means of 

 making greenhouse products profit- 

 able the yecur around and from season 

 to season. The president of the most 

 successful growers* organization in 

 the country presents a plan to that end. 



coming of outdoor spring flowers is an 

 impossible situation for the public to 

 understand. This much we all know, 

 that the sudden unexpected extremes 

 in prices are injurious to the cut flower 

 industry and resented by grower, whole- 

 saler, retailer and the buying public. 



For the last two years inflated un- 

 natural conditions have favored us 

 with high prices, but now unforeseen 

 conditions may arise at any time. To 

 forestall any contingencies of unprofit- 

 able growing we must dispense with 

 the personal liberty, the freedom to do 

 as one pleases, with our marketing in- 

 terests in a helpless state. We grow- 

 ers through our organization should lay 

 down rules for the betterment of the 

 trade's conditions. We should not be 

 handicapped for the lack of control in 

 marketing, nor should we continue to 

 trust others, with hope and forbear- 



ance, to do it for us. Few wholesalers 

 have held a continuous growth in build- 

 ing up sales, but when we have the 

 whole market before our view under a 

 central agency plan, we will know the 

 weak spots of the market. We should 

 have some knowledge of all conditions 

 as they are, not what is possible. 



Under our competitive system we do 

 not build up the market as we should, 

 but permit surrounding cities to creep 

 in to build up their particular territory 

 with our products and then encourage 

 the building of greenhouses to hold 

 their markets. We should be in pos- 

 session of a plan that would operate to 

 build up this market so that we could 

 all see it grow, how it grows and the 

 possible reasons that make it grow. 



To expand this market will be a new 

 function of a central agency. Let us 

 stabilize prices by a maxi- 

 mum and a minimum price 

 plan under the control of 

 a central agency, with the 

 management in the hands 

 of a market manager under 

 the direct auspices of all 

 the growers shipping into 

 the Chicago market. 



Plan of Management. 



Then we can coordinate 

 the work of stabilizing 

 prices by a form of direct 

 suggestion to the wholesale 

 dealers and thus begin a 

 new system of operations 

 with all the divisions of 

 the trade to stabilize prices 

 as far as it is within onr 

 means to bring it about, to 

 stabilize prices for the pur- 

 poses of assuring a main- 

 tenance of a higher aver- 

 age price to avoid as far as 

 consistent the extreme high 

 prices that are obnoxious 

 to the consumer, and to 

 place a bottom price 

 against undesirable low 

 extremes that reflect on 

 the sales effectiveness of 

 the work of our advertis- 

 ing campaign. A central 

 agency will be the means 

 of making cut flower prices to the 

 public that will go far to stimulate 

 sales. Stabilizing prices will tend to 

 create a greater demand and will les- 

 sen the speculative tendency of the 

 grower. Such a central agency will 

 fix the line of equation between high 

 and low prices. 



The directing officers of such a cen- 

 tral agency would be the executive of- 

 ficers of the Commercial Flower Grow- 

 ers of Chicago and the president and 

 secretary of the Chicago Wholesale 

 Florists' Association as members ex- 

 officio. The manager of such central 

 agency must be a man of wide and 

 successful marketing experience, an 

 authority who will remain impartial, 

 promote friendly cooperation, add 

 strength to the market and demon- 

 strate ability to increase the business 

 of the entire market, a man who is 



