30 



The Florists' Review 



Januauv 20, li)21 



m 



Kstabllshod 1H07, 

 by U. L Uraut. 



I'ubUslied every Tliursday by 

 Titu Fi.oitisis' Piiii.isiiiN(i Co., 



500 r)()()Ciixt(;ii Hiillillii;;, 



508 South Deal born SI., Clilcaiio. 



Ti!l.,Wal)a9h 81:15. 



Ketrlsterod cabin ndilrt'ss, 



Florviuw, Clilcuifo. 



Fntcri'd as socond class matter 

 Dec. 3, IS'.n.attlio post-olliceat Clil- 

 catfo. 111., under tlie Act of March 

 3. 1H71). 



Subscription iirice, $2.00 a year. 

 To Canada, $:i.0O; to Europe, $4.00. 



Ativcrtislnff rates quoted on 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 vertUlDK accepted. 



TTT'^Tn T^ »TTTT»TjjHia , 



Results bring advertising. 

 The Review brings results. 



V. ]\. I'lKK.sox will bo fiC) yciiis of age 

 .liimiin y -2. 



Lknt hooiiis five d;iy.s licfor(> St. V.'ilou- 

 tino's day this year. It oxtciids from 

 Fi'l.niiiiy^t to Marcli :27. 



Mo.vKV is tiolit. Tlu' florist who can- 

 iidt collect it from his ciistoiticrs has imioh 

 ti'ouhh' iiorrowiiij; it from his baul<. 



■ TiiKKK is a y;rcat sliortaj^c of flowers 

 iiOAV, l)iif wait throe or four wei'lvs and 

 tliere will be another and alto^jether differ- 

 ent story of the marliots. 



I.NSTEAD of worryinff whether they will 

 he able to get enouj;li coal to see them 

 through the winter, florists now arc con- 

 cerned iis to the ice su])j)ly for next suni- 

 iner. 



TiiKWK will be .-111 interesting trade 

 <;:ithering at Washington next weelc. Half 

 a do/.en trade organizations and commit- 

 tees will liold meetings almost simultane- 

 ously. 



Xou will there be an oversupply of 

 Easter jtlants this year. The date is 

 early and the variety will be li)nitel. 

 With comparatively few lilies, bulbous 

 stock in pots should i>ay well then. 



Thkre are those who think the prii'c of 

 chiffon is more likidy to a^t up than to 

 fall farther. First hands, in certain 

 cases, have been selling ;it less than the 

 jireseiit cost of rejilaciug the yoods from 

 i'ranco. 



Some retailers make the error of figur- 

 ing jirofit on cost inste.'id of on selling 

 price. The margin of profit on flowers 

 that cost $1 and sell at $1.50 would bo 

 thirty-three and one third ])er cent, and 

 not fifty per cent, as some sui)pose. 



The Classified ads are a record for this 

 time of year; never before were there 

 so many of them in .Tainiaiy. There arc 

 do/iMis of new users of them, particularly 

 eastern florists who heretofore have not 

 had a surplus for wholesaling throughout 

 the country. 



Amo.nt, tlie excellent illustrations which 

 make the ]i»-l Sweet Pea Annual, publish- 

 ed by the National Sweet Pea Society, of 

 Great Britain, decorative as well as inter- 

 Bsting is one from The Review, of bouquets 

 for a sweet i)e;i wedding by the Duluth 

 Floral Co. .some months ago. The notes on 

 sweet jieas are (piite readable. 



,\s a l)usiness asset, few things exceed 

 courtesy in value. Jt is worth many 

 times tlie effort it sometimes costs. 



SixcK the automobile manufacturers 

 ■•mticijiate a good year in 1921, florists 

 may, by the same arguments, do like- 

 wise. 



Pa( TOifiE.s are reopening here and there, 

 but in only a few lines of business does 

 it ai>pear that there has been anything 

 ai)]iroaching a real readjustment of pro- 

 duction costs iind selling prices. Florists 

 are not the only ones who cannot yet see 

 how it is to be done. 



TiiKiiE is no man more independent 

 than the florist wiio grows a good part 

 of the stock he sidls in some small city 

 or town. If he has kept his house in 

 order h(> has no pressing obligations and 

 his overhead expense is not a matter for 

 concein. With him business rarely booms, 

 but it iK'ver dwindles to an unprofitable 

 level. 



Lai;(;e rose growers figure that the 

 exj)ense of operating their places tliis 

 season, .lune J. 1920, to June 1, 1921, 

 will be from ,$1 to $1.2,') per rose ^lant 

 on the benches. This should cover every- 

 thing except interest on thd investment 

 and the receipts seem likely to afford 

 something satisfactory to apply on the 

 latter item. 



This is an age of service. The suc- 

 cessful man does not loll at ease while 

 others labor for him. If he loafs on the 

 job a competitor takes the field and the 

 awakening comes when the rewarils have 

 been annexed by the more worthy servant. 

 Xo man now can take for long without 

 giving. In the florists' business as in 

 others, he prospers most who serves best. 



"MY PERSONAL ATTENTION." 



In few kinds of shops is the personal 

 contact of the }iroprietor so influential 

 a factor with his customers as in the flo- 

 rist's. The realization of this accounts 

 for the marked success of some florists 

 and the lack of it by others. One flo- 

 rist who has a business so big that it 

 cannot all possibly come under his su- 

 liervision maintains, nevertheless, per- 

 sonal relations with his customers when- 

 ever the occasion rerpiires or seems de- 

 sirable, with the result that a large 

 clientele is persuaded he gives each 

 one just the service each wishes. lie is 

 "on the spot" when a customer wishes 

 "Mr. Smith, hims(df, please," and is 

 politic to assure the individual on de- 

 jiarting of the order's having "my per- 

 sonal attention. ' ' 



Service will always be one of the 

 most valuable things n florist sells, and 

 ])atrons will pay in pro]iortinii to the 

 sort of service they receive. There- 

 fore, no matter how much confidence 

 and res))onsibility the pro])rietor places 

 in trtisted and tried emjiloyees, he will 

 not be safe in putting off a customer 

 on to one of them because he himself 

 is busy. The florist who will vouch for 

 his service with a tactful and yileasant 

 assurance, over the 'phone or in person. 

 of an order's receiving "my personal 

 service" will raise his standing in 

 patrons' estimation. 



BETTER LETTERS. 



Firms in many lines of business are 

 engaged in wliat is known as a "better 

 letters" movement. It interests most, 

 of course, those houses who do an ex- 

 tensive business by mail and is con- 



cerned largely with better methods of 

 selling by letter. But every _ florist 

 gains or loses business by the impres- 

 sion his letters make, and if he sends 

 out few, ho should be as alive to the 

 importance of their contents and ap- 

 ])earance as if he sent out many. An 

 inquiry sent to a su))ply house on a 

 scrap of paper and written in ]>encil is 

 not likely to enhance a florist's credit 

 in that quarter. Nor is a communica- 

 tion to a customer written on a crip- 

 ]ded typewriter without regard for neat- 

 ness apt to inspire the recipient with 

 confidence in the quality of the writer's 

 service. 



Though the average florist may not 

 have time to give the degree of consid- 

 eration to his letters that the mail-or- 

 der houses do, yet everyone can and 

 should have regard for certain elemental 

 points. Why is graphically told in the 

 following paragraph from a recent ar- 

 ticle on "better letters": 



' ' There are three things in connec- 

 tion with all correspondence that are 

 vital when viewed as a part of the ap- 

 proach of seller to buyer — dress, style 

 and form. If yon sent out a salesman 

 who wore greasy^ overalls, who spat to- 

 bacco juice on the office iloor where he 

 called and who couldn't speak Eng- 

 lish, you would be making exactly the 

 same sort of approach to your custom- 

 ers as is made by a letter written on 

 cheap, flimsy stationery, in a careless 

 •iikI slovenly form and in sentences that 

 would shame a 12-year-old schoolboy." 



PROGRESS CLEARLY NOTED. 



The activity in the florists' trade this 

 month reflects the optimistic trend of 

 general business conditions. In general, 

 ])rogress toward recovery is more clear- 

 ly discernible, though reviving demand 

 in some quarters of late has only devel- 

 oped after further price yielding, and 

 waiting is still the rule in lines where 

 an extension of the price deflation is 

 seemingly foreshadowed. Indications 

 multiply, however, that certain trades 

 are beginning to emerge from their 

 long-continued lethargy, the improve- 

 ment in dry goods conditions being es- 

 pecially cons](icuous, and the increased 

 attendance of buyers in some of the 

 leading markets is evidence alike of 

 their renewed interest and a growing 

 need for merchandise. While purchas- 

 ing is still somewhat cautious and re- 

 stricted, it is larger in some instances 

 than had been expected, and is the more 

 wholesome and reassuring because it is 

 based on actual requirements and not 

 on speculative anticipations. 



PARCEL POST TO FRANCE. 



Postmaster General Burleson has 

 signed a postal agreement with France, 

 effective Felirunry 1, increasing the re- 

 ciprocal maximum weight limit on par- 

 cel post packages from eleven to twen- 

 ty-two pounds. This includes not only 

 continental United States and conti- 

 nental France, but the island posses- 

 sions of the United States and the 

 colonies of France — Corsica, Algeria, 

 Tunis, French Morocco and the princi- 

 pality of Monaco. 



The agreement also includes provision 

 for the introduction of insurance fea- 

 tures in connection with the parcel post 

 between the United States and France 

 at such time as the necessary authority 

 is obtained by the Postoffice Depart- 

 ment through legislation. 



