December 9, 1920 



The Florists^ Review 



41 



FASHION»tE FLOWER SHOPS 



AVE florists been conscious 



Mof the rapid advance 

 made by their trade of 

 late years? I've often 

 wondered if they have," 

 remarked a customer to a 

 ~ ^ A florist the other day. Ex- 

 (TvJ't^ plaining that his particu- 

 — 1 1 far business had made him 

 observant of all kinds of 

 retail establishments for many years, 

 he added, "It's not the publicity 

 they've had from their slogan that I 

 mean. That is altogether recent. Tliere 

 has been in the last decade, however, a 

 conspicuous improvement in florists ' 

 stores and in their methods of business. 

 Today, I should say, no retail shops are 

 finer than some flower shops I've been 

 in. Not all of them, of course; there 

 are leaders and laggards in every pro- 

 fession as in every procession. The 

 leaders among florists' stores, liowever, 

 surpass the leaders in 

 other retail establish- 

 ments. Some of your 

 fashionable flower 

 shops are the last 

 word in store archi- 

 tecture." 



Leaders. 



Have florists noted 

 it? Or does the fact 

 only come to our minds 

 when an outsider calls 

 our attention to it 7 

 When he has done so, 

 a little reflection con- 

 vinces us that he is 

 right. One would not 

 here name those retail 

 flower stores which 

 stand out conspicuous- 

 ly in the various cities 

 of the country; such a 

 list would be invidious. 

 Florists who travel to 

 conventions, if not 

 elsewhere, however, re- 

 call those stores whose 

 appearance has given 

 them cause for ad- 

 miration. The number 

 is becoming larger, for 

 others of the trade are 

 seeing and pondering 

 the success of those 

 shops, and quite fre- 

 quently a trade visitor 

 goes home afterwards 



to spruce up his place a bit, even 

 though his town is not large enough to 

 warrant the outlay for such a store as 

 he has seen in the city. 



Progress. 



The result has been, as the florist's 

 patron remarked, a notable advance in 

 the trade. This, one believes, is only 

 one phase of our progress. It is one, 

 however, that carries much in the way 

 of prestige to the public, which is not 

 generally able to note other lines of 

 the trade's advance. 



There is in reality a decided benefit 

 to be obtained by a store that stands 

 out as the home of a business and is 

 not merely the room in which the pro- 

 prietor displays his stock for sale. If 

 it does nothing more, it adds to the 

 respect of the patron for the wares he 

 buys in such an establishment, and in 

 these days, when prices of flowers are 



Distinctiveness of Exterior Is Recognized as an Asset Today. 



high and must continue high, all of us, 

 will agree that this is something well 

 worth while. But it does do more. It 

 is, for another thing, a highly valuable 

 species of advertising. Many of the 

 trade may recall, in this connection, the 

 doughboy who was asked in Paris what 

 he thought of most often in connection 

 with his home city, New York, in his 

 reminiscences of home. Was it the 

 Woolworth tower, perhaps, or the Statue 

 of Liberty, the Hudson river or Brook- 

 lyn bridge? No, it was a green spot on 

 a Fifth avenue corner that had im- 

 pressed itself on his mind, and when 

 he returned he was going to take the 

 bus straight to that famous florist's 

 store. When a shop becomes a land- 

 mark, it has, indeed, tremendous pub- 

 licity value, and in many cities and 

 towns are florists' places which have 

 reached this class. Their appearance, 

 either because of their architecture or 

 exterior ornament or 

 decoration of some 

 sort, has impressed it- 

 self indelibly upon the 

 eyes of passers. 



Pashionable. 



When a flower store 

 has the air of up-to- 

 dateness it derives pat- 

 ronage also because it 

 comes into that cate- 

 gory of shops termed 

 by that word so inde- 

 finable yet meaningful, 

 "fashionable." Flo- 

 rists of wide experi- 

 ence are respectful of 

 that word and what 

 it denotes. They have 

 seen a difference of a 

 few blocks in location 

 work a marked effect 

 upon clientele. They 

 have seen change in 

 appearance — the alter- 

 ation of a store front, 

 jnore pretentious ex- 

 terior decorations, or 

 rearrangement of in- 

 terior, not to speak of 

 remodeling or the 

 building of a new 

 store — make notable 

 changes in a shop's 

 trade. Just as people 

 like to be seen with 

 stylishly dressed com- 



