66 



The Florists' Review 



Decbmbeb 30, 1920 



The Oortsts wbos* caxOm apve«r on the paces oarrylnK till* taea4* are v««par«d to fill orden 

 ■•>— — trom otber tlorlete for local MUvcrr on tlio nanal baale. 



SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. 



ART FLORAL CO., Inc., 255 Powell St. 



Delivers Telegraphic Orders 



Steamers and Trains 



FROM 



SAN FRANCISCO 



AND 



OAKLAND PIERS. 



within the hour 

 they are received — 



BY SPECIAL MESSENGER. 



Fruit and Flower Baskets 



SPECIALIZE IN 



Fruit Baskets for Bon Voyage Gifts. 



$5.00 to $25.00. 



TATE'S TIPS 



^^ir7sviri*rirr«vir«virirs\iirstir)«virrsvirrsvitrsvir^ii§ 



REDUCING HOLIDAY TEOUBIiES. 



Annual Tales of Woe. 



This was the greatest Christmas sea- 

 son in the history of our business. There 

 were all sorts of "tales of woe" to lis- 

 ten to, and the first of these was the 

 high prices that had to be paid for 

 stock. In many instances I was told 

 that it would be impossible for the re- 

 tailer to realize 100 per cent gross profit 

 on his stock. Now, in a retail store it 

 takes only a simple process of arith- 

 metic for any man to learn that unless 

 he realizes this gross profit the sooner 

 he gets into some other business the bet- 

 ter it will be for him. For the grower 

 to ascertain the actual cost of produc- 

 tion of his stock may be more diffi- 

 cult, yet it is just as necessary as for 

 the retailer to know his actual over- 

 head expenses. The latter are, in a man- 

 ner, fixed charges which have to be paid 

 for the service you render to the pub- 

 lic, and unless you are a philanthropist 

 and fall back on your bank roll, there is 

 just one place from which the money to 

 pay these charges and a margin of profit 

 may come, and that is the retailer's 100 

 per cent gross profit. Of course, there is 

 the alternative to reduce the overhead 

 by cutting the service. We are all fa- 

 miliar with this in one-armed lunch- 

 rooms, but I am afraid that service of 

 this kind would not do in any up-to-date 

 florist's store. 



Up-to-the-Minute Delivering. 



One of the principal items of service 

 for the florist's establishment is an up- 

 to-the-minute delivery system. No store 

 should be without a well organized ship- 

 ping department, and my experience has 

 been that it is good business to have 

 one of the most efficient men in charge 

 of this department. Just after Christ- 

 mas the troubles you have had in get- 

 ting the stock delivered after it was 

 sold will be fresh in your memory. 



The writer has seen many a cold 

 Christmas and windy Easter, and is fa- 

 miliar with frozen and broken plants 

 and continual complaints, and making 

 good damaged orders after a big rush is 



CHLIKC"*' 



' 7S5 FIFTH AVENUE ' 



'wS* Uct ,i.a«U, an<< 4l4(.rtitcr> in fild'X^ -tdam, 

 iiiniwi of <iua(i'iyan^scrt/('c< i« a(wav$ maintained, 



jiSTAHcie JHo^i^5..p^j/\ 7241,7242 



over. I can well remember the time 

 when florists had to depend upon ordi- 

 nary wagons for deliveries and for sev- 

 eral weeks after either of the big flower 

 days we lived in constant dread. For 

 every item of stock that was ruined in 

 delivery, we lost not only our gross 

 profit, but the original cost as well. 

 This, of course, instead of yielding a 

 net profit, became an item that had to 

 be charged to overhead, and it is easy 

 to see that such losses as these simply 

 ate up that much of the profit on the 

 successfully delivered stock. 



Good Shipping Department. 



Let us note how a well organized ship- 

 ping department can reduce these losses 

 to a minimum. First, when a plant is 

 sold and tagged it is sent to the ship- 

 ping room. There it is carefully wrapped 

 to protect it from cold or bruising. The 

 careful shipping clerk will see that the 

 card is properly secured, and the proper 

 address plainly written and securely at- 

 tached. Next comes a most important 

 part, and that is the proper routing. 

 This should be done so that the order 

 will reach its destination in the shortest 

 period of time, for the plant 's or flow- 

 ers' sake. A properly routed order in 

 these days of automobile delivery will 

 save money on the cost of delivery, also. 



One of the best systems of delivery 

 I have ever seen is that conducted by 



Liverpool, England 



DINGLEYS, Ltd., Florists 

 SHEFFIELD, ENGLAND 



WM. ARTINDALE & SON 



riiORISTS SEEDSMEN NURSERYMEN 



Manchester, England 



DINGLEYS, Ltd., Florists 



SCOTLAND ORDERS NOW TO 



LEIGHTON, Florist, GLASGOW 



Scotland's Only Member F. T. D. 



one up-to-the-minute florist. He uses 

 his entire cellar for this purpose. This 

 opens on an alley in the rear of his 

 establishment at grade. The cellar is 

 divided off into stalls, each stall repre- 

 senting a section of the city. An ele- 

 vated stand is built in the center for 

 the shipping clerk. He has a list for 

 each stall, which is conspicuously num- 

 bered. When an order is ready for de- 



