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Florists 



REVIEWS 



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BRINGING BUYERS <^ 

 s^ INTO THE STORE 



Creating fioivcr buyers out of the prosperous ivage-caniers who have 

 never bought blooms before is a problem that is occupying much attention 

 in the trade. The solution has yet to be found, but here is a device that is 

 making customers for a live retailer in Buffalo. 



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T ONE time or another 

 people are led by their 

 own needs or desires into 

 the store of the grocer, the 

 butcher, the baker, into 

 the drug store, the hard- 

 ware shop, or the drygoods 

 emporium. Their daily 

 life impels them to pur- 

 chase at these places at 

 least occasionally and these occasions 

 engender familiarity that brings the 

 buyer back again. Only the florist is 

 lacking in a natural need that propels 

 possible patrons into his establishment. 

 The death of a friend or relative neces- 

 sitates funeral flowers, but such occa- 

 sions are, ordinarily, years apart. And 

 the florist today is seeking to cultivate 

 business aside from funeral work. He 

 cannot depend on this item alone to 

 bring in customers and he has not the 

 natural wants of ordinary life, such as 

 the other stores have, to 

 attract patronage. The 

 florist is compelled to de- 

 vise by his own ingenuity 

 means of inducing passers- 

 by to enter his shop. The 

 success with which he 

 draws buyers into his estab- 

 lishment is dependent upon 

 his own wit more than in 

 .uiy other trade. 



Especially at Present. 



Need for methods of ere- 

 .ating flower buyers is par- 

 ticularly felt at present. 

 High wages have brought 

 prosperity to a class of 

 people who have not been 

 in the habit of buying 

 flowers and whose environ- 

 ment and education have 

 not inculcated in them any 

 latent longing for flowers. 

 The salaried class, formerly 

 the genus of the general 

 flower buyers, has felt the 

 high cost of living most 

 keenly, for while wages 

 have jumped skyward, sal- 

 aries have only ascended 

 slightly and slowly. So 

 this one-time support of the 

 florist has weakened as the 

 increasing prices of neces- 

 sities have compelled sal- 

 aried folk to curtail other 

 items in order to meet the 

 rent and the butcher's and 

 grocer's bills. 



How to awaken in the 

 prosperous wage-earners the 

 desire for flowers is a 

 j>roblem florists have cudg- 



eled their brains over. The natural de- 

 sires of such people, once they have 

 money to spend, seem to be food and 

 adornment. Herein lies the reason, say 

 economic experts, that j)rices have 

 climbed most markedly in these two 

 classes of commodities. Expensive food 

 and expensive clothes sell more easily 

 and in greater quantity than ever be- 

 fore. But, retail florists say, these 

 ])eople do not buy flowers in propor- 

 tion. 



Is There a Way? 



So the minds of florists alive to this 

 situation have grappled with the prob- 

 lem of making flower buyers out of this 

 new class of money spenders. The op- 

 jiortunity open to the one who can de- 

 vise an effective means to this end has 

 appealed vividly to many of the trade. 

 Hilt \\\o way is not easy to find. Flower 

 buyers are usually the product of a 



Self-Serve Stand Makes New Flower Buyers. 



life's environment and education. 

 Whether, by printers' ink or some other 

 powerful agency, the process formerly 

 so long can be reduced to so short a 

 I)eriod as to be profitable to the trade, 

 is still a matter of conjecture. 



Though no general means for doing 

 this has been found, various retailers 

 have been conspicuously successful in 

 devising ways of attracting the public 

 into the flower store. Once that is 

 done, much is gained. A large number 

 of persons who buy flowers only at 

 Easter, Christmas and Mothers' day 

 are deterred by the prices they must 

 pay on such occasions from visiting the 

 florist at other times. Many others 

 passing a flower store and seeing ex- 

 j)ensive pieces of floral art in the win- 

 dow imagine everything inside is priced 

 above their means. 



To draw such ]ieo])le as these in- 

 side the store, even if it is only for a 

 small purchase at first, is an 

 object that has occupied 

 many ret.'iilers' minds. One 

 <if the devices that has been 

 the result of such mental 

 effort is that illustrated on 

 this page. The Delaware 

 avenue store of W. J. 

 i'almer & Son, in Buffalo, 

 is one of the most elaborate 

 in the country. Its large 

 plale-glass front, wide ex- 

 panse of rug-covered floor, 

 tables of artistic pottery, 

 vases of long - stemmed 

 flowers and fountain and 

 conservatory in the rear 

 are not calculated to pro- 

 duce an appearance of 

 clie.'ipness in tlie passer's 

 mind. Indeed, it is located 

 to cater to the automobile 

 traflic which f)asses on the 

 boulevard. Trade from 

 pedestrians is small. Yet 

 Mark Palmer conceived that 

 it' the persons going by on 

 foot couM be induced to 

 enter the store, there would 

 be just that much added to 

 the sales. 



Starting Small. 



So he devised the self- 

 serve flower stand. In de- 

 sign and construction it is 

 simjde, the illustrations of 

 it almost explaining it suffi- 

 ciently. A coin box such as 

 is used in a street-car is 

 the first thing to be ob- 

 tained. This is set on a 

 wooden box, into which the 

 money falls. Around the 



