Jahuaby 20, 1921 



The Florists' Review 



21 



RETAIL STORE MANAGEMENT 



W HA T THE LEADERS IN THE TRADE ARE DOING 



THE ANNIVERSARY BUREAU. 



Birthday Flower Buying. 



Do customers "Say It with Flowers" 

 on birthday and wedding anniversaries? 

 That is an important question for the 

 retailer in analyzing his clientele. If 

 they do not buy flowers for birthdays, 

 the florist should find out why, for this 

 is an easy and steady addition to the 

 stand-bys, weddings and funerals. 



Of course, if the reader has a clientele 

 of wealthy customers who buy flowers 

 frequently, this article will not be of as 

 much interest to him as to those who 

 serve, not the 400, but the 400,000. The 

 latter will be glad to find any way to 

 make better buyers out of their regular 

 customers. One such way has been tried 

 out and found effective, and that is the 

 "anniversary bureau." 



Everybody forgets things. Some for- 

 get their debts; some forget their wed- 

 ding anniversaries. The retailer who 

 thinks, realizes that he loses business 

 every time his customer loses his 

 memory. If each customer had a $10 

 order placed with his florist for flowers 

 on his wife's birthday each year, the 

 florist would never hesitate to send him 

 a "John Doe, in account with." And 

 if the florist sent the customer a little 

 notice of an approaching anniversary, 

 it is "dollars to doughnuts" the cus- 

 tomer would give him that $10 order. 

 That is what the "anniversary bureau" 

 is. By writing all his regular customers 

 and explaining what his idea is, the re- 

 tailer obtains the <lates of such anniver- 

 saries as the customer wishes to remem- 

 ber. The following specimen letter may 

 be of interest: 



De«r Sir: 



Tliis will infonii ymi of tlii' iii;ui>,'iiriitiiiii of 

 oiir A 11 II i versa ry ISiin-aii. If yoii will till out 

 tlic ciirliiscd card and drop it in flic mail liox, 

 you will have an exiiniplc of our service. One 

 week before your wife's liirtliday, your weddin>r 

 anniversary, your own birthday, or any special 

 event you are in the habit of celebratinc you 

 will receive a neat and dainty notice from the 

 Flower Shop remindinK you of the date, Tliis 

 service we are pleased to give free to our ens 

 stomers. 



Yours for Service. 



The Flower Shop. 



The Return Card. 



The card referred to sliotild contain a 

 place for the custoiner's name at the 

 top, and should be plain, ruled paper. 

 At the bottom brief instructions are 

 printed, such as: "Write dates of an- 

 niversaries ami names of jtcrsons wlioni 

 you wish to remember." A small 

 printed heading and addresses just 

 above these instructions indicate the 

 place for the date of his wedding anni- 

 versary. But the reader who is inter- 

 ested enougli to take up the suggestion 

 in this article can easily arrange such 

 details to his own satisfaction. 



The foregoing letter is of a formal 

 nature and some retailers, who do not 

 assume the formal attitude with their 

 customers, might not consider it ef- 

 fective for their business. The follow- 

 ing letter will contain some suggestions 



for the retailer who desires to write in 

 more intimate style: 



Do you remember that year you forgot your 

 wife's birthday? Or was it .votir sister's, or your 

 friend!*? Everybody forgets somebody's birtli- 

 day— sometimes! Even when you do succeed In 

 remembering an anniversary, do ,voii rememb<'r 

 the mental effort and worrying it required to 

 keep It in mind? Then perhaps you forgot about 

 it until almost too lute and hud to hustle to 

 send a present In time. 



Just fill out the enclosed card. Then mail it 

 to us and notice the difference! You will never 

 have to worry again! A week or more before 

 any Anniversary you have Jotted down on the 

 card, you will receive from us u little eUiow- 

 jogger reminding you of the dnte. We ure glad 

 to do this for .vou free of charge or obllgution. 

 Yours very sincerely. 



The Flower Shop. 



P, S.— If you wish to "Suy It witii Flowers" 

 on an.v such Anniversary, you only need to take 

 up the plione and let us know it. Forget to 

 worry! We do it for you. 



Filing Systems. 



Having secured a number of cards, 

 the retailer might take an ordinary fil- 

 ing drawer of the smallest size and pro- 

 ceed to prepare his information for 

 ready reference. Each card received 

 would have several dates on it. If he 

 should copy each date and anniversary 

 on a separate filing-card, and filq them 

 in sequen,ee, according to the dates, then 

 when he wishes to notify his customers 

 of approaching events, he only needs to 

 refej to his files to find those due on any 

 given day. 



It might be simpler to have one large 

 card for each day in the year and to 

 copy all anniversaries onto that. This 

 would be easily and quickly referred 

 to. 



["he notice to the cus-tomer should be 

 Irort and might be written or typed on 

 a small printed card. Intimation that 

 if the customer wishes to "Say It with 

 vFlowers" he can do so easily by using 

 /the phone should be given on each no- 

 tice, as otherwise the punch of the ad 

 vertising idea is not delivered. 



FLORAL STATUARY. 



Among the floral offerings for the 

 opening of the new banking quarters 

 of the Liberty Central Trust Co. in St. 

 Louis last week was one that attracted 

 the notice of all visitors and won com- 

 mendation for the skill of the florist in 

 executing a not easy feat. Deeming the 

 most appropriate emblem for the new 

 institution the famous Statue of Lib- 

 erty that greets voyagers at the en- 

 trance of New York harbor, Julius 

 Schaeffer, of Vandervoort's flower de- 

 partment, undertook to reproduce it 

 with as mXich fidelity as possible in 

 flowers. In this difficult undertaking 

 he was quite successful, winning much 

 favorable comment when the piece was 

 on view at the company's quarters, as 

 shown in the accomjianying illustration. 



Statue of Liberty in Flowers. 



BRIGGS' FOLDING EASEL. 



Florists who have discovered imper- 

 fections in the prosentdny easel will, 

 no doubt, be interested in the latest 

 thing in this line, the folding easel in- 

 vented by .1. W. Briggs, of the Briggs 

 Floral Co., ]\Ioorheiid, ]Minn. The en- 

 tire stand is of light wire, and the pe- 

 culiar advantages of the invention in- 

 clude an ability to fold it up when it is 

 being carried from place to place and 

 also the fact that it makes a high or a 

 low easel, as the size and shape of the 

 piece to be displayed may require. 



The main tripod is composed of two 

 pieces. One has two legs joined at the 

 top and the other is one leg which 

 hooks over the toj) of the double piece. 

 These legs each have an extension 

 formed of a se])arate length of wire 

 bent into a loop near the middle. A 

 hook on the end of each leg forms a 

 jnvot on which this loop is fastened 

 and either end of the extension may be 

 placed on the ground by swinging the 

 extension end for end on this pivot. 

 The ends differ materially in length 

 and thus two heights are obtainable by 

 l)lacing the shorter or longer end of the 

 extension on the ground, as may be de- 

 sired. 



Three straight wires hooked at each 

 end form the cross braces necessary to 

 keep the structure intact. On removing 

 these the whole collapses and forms a 

 convenient bundle of wires, which may 

 lie easily carried wherever desired. 



