32 



The Florists^ Review 



Mabch 17, 1921. 



1 



Established 1897. 

 by G. L Grant 



Published every Thursday by 

 The FLORisra' Publishinq Co., 



SOO 560 Caxton Bulldlntr, 



608 South Dearbora St., Chlcagro. 



Tel, Wabash 8195. 



Roiflstered cable address, 



Florvlew, Chicago. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Doc. 3, 1897, at the poet-ottice at Chi- 

 cago, 111., under the Act of March 

 3.1879. 



Subscription price, $2.00 a year. 

 To Canada, $3.00; to Europe, $4.00. 



Advcrtlslni; rates quoted on 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 vertlslng accepted. 



Eesults bring advertising. 

 The Review brings results. 



The time to apply for hail insurance is 

 before, not after, the storm. 



Warm weather has aided the progress 

 of lilies for Easter, many of which looked 

 tardy a few weeks ago. 



Clocks will be pushed ahead one hour 

 in Chicago Easter Sunday, March 27, 

 when daylight saving goes into effect. 



This week the Classified section of The 

 Review fills more than twenty-four pages, 

 thereby setting a now high record above 

 previous years. 



While the national publicity campaign 

 is catching its second wind individual 

 members of the trade should feature the 

 slogan in every piece of printing they 

 put before the public. 



There is real need of a red rose that 

 anybody can "do." And scarcely less 

 need for a good white. Also, where is the 

 worth while yellow? What we don't need 

 just now is another pink. 



Responsibility for blind bulbs is diffi- 

 cult to settle. The exporter blames the 

 forcer's treatment, while the forcer al- 

 leges improper curing. The only certain- 

 ty is that the loss from blindness has been 

 unusually heavy this season. 



One reason why business is lighter 

 than it was a year ago is given in the 

 report of the Chicago health department. 

 It states the death rate for February, 

 1921, was nearly fifty per cent lower than 

 in February, 1920, or 2,768 against 4,691. 



Instruction of young men and women 

 in selling over the counter will be begun 

 in a school for retailing to be opened by 

 New York University next September. 

 Retail florists know there is much to be 

 taught; the question is whether it ia a 

 branch of academic learning. 



The trade will not much longer stand 

 for the man who does not acknowledge 

 orders he cannot ship at once, for the 

 man who stalls and stalls instead of re- 

 turning money when he hasn't got the 

 goods, or for the one who does not answer 

 business letters, especially when he holds 

 the inquirer's remittance. The old ex- 

 cuse of labor shortage has gone in the 

 discard; there is no labor shortage now. 

 To be permanently succesrful, a florist 

 must do more than grow good stock and 

 pack it well; he must operate his oflBce 

 in accordance with modern ideas. 



Spring is housecleaning time. There 

 may be some cobwebs in your business 

 that should be swept out. 



If the Florists' Hail Association of 

 America were brought to the attention 

 of florists generally, a far greater number 

 would be glad''to avail themselves of mem- 

 bership. 



Seeking additional pennies from the 

 parsimonious public, drug stores are 

 stocking garden seeds this spring. This 

 is a legitimate side line florists should not 

 let get away from them. 



A most expressive colloquialism is that 

 phrase, "passing the buck," but the ac- 

 tion it describes is one of the least toler- 

 able in business. It never satisfied a 

 complainant or won a customer. 



Taken as a whole, the flower business 

 might be better, but it might be a great 

 deal worse. Buyers may have reduced 

 their individual purchases, but there are 

 more flower buyers than ever before. 



Many hints for him who will heed are 

 contained in a booklet of brief statements 

 and telling illustrations, "Getting the 

 Most Out of Retailing," just prepared 

 by the National Cash Register Co., Day- 

 ton, O., out of its thirty-six years' study 

 of retail store problems. 



' * One rarely sees a display in the win- 

 dow of a successful 5 and 10-cent store 

 that is not crowded. This is so because 

 the display men who make these displays 

 realize that quantity suggests low 

 prices." Then if you want to get more 

 money for your flowers, better take some 

 of them out of that window. 



ARE WE? 



"Before me lies a weekly newspa- 

 per from a small city in North Caro- 

 lina. On opening it to see what it con- 

 tains of interest to me," writes the ed- 

 itor of the Confectioners' Journal, "my 

 eye is confronted with huge black let- 

 ters, 'Say It with Flowers.' These let- 

 ters ran across three columns and to 

 make them more conspicuous they were 

 in the center of a white space 6x7 

 inches. Below was the reading matter 

 of the florists' company, advertising 

 roses, carnations, orchids and such. 

 The whole advertisement occupied a 

 quarter-page and was striking in ex- 

 treme. But the most striking thing on 

 the whole page of that newspaper was 

 the slogan of the florists. 



" 'H'm,' said I, 'good business men, 

 these florists. Know a good thing when 

 they see it and have the business inia- 

 tive to work it up into something that 

 pays real money.' " 



PEOFITABLE PRICES. 



While all in the florists' trade want 

 profitable prices for their products, not 

 all are desirous of high prices. There 

 is a difference. The most profitable 

 price is that which is high enough to 

 pay everybody adequately and yet low 

 enough to attract purchasers. A price 

 that is so high it drives away trade is 

 as unprofitable as one so low that it 

 causes a loss in the transaction. The 

 agencies in the trade which would work 

 toward ascertaining this profitable level 

 of prices are commendable. If, on the 

 other hand, they aim at high prices, 

 their eflforts will bo vain. 



Prices must conform to the law of 

 supply and demand in order to main- 



tain industrial equilibrium. The trouble 

 in the present commercial situation lies, 

 not in falling prices, but in uneven 

 prices. They are up in one industry 

 and down in another. For any com- 

 modity there is at any given time a 

 certain price which will secure a larger 

 net result to the producers than any 

 other price. That is to say, if the price 

 be lowered the additional distribution 

 will not compensate for the sacrifice, 

 and on the other hand, if it be raised, 

 the loss of distribution will exceed the 

 gain in price. Everything that is of- 

 fered for sale is in competition, not 

 only with similar commodities, but also 

 with all the multitude of attractions 

 that are appealing to every consumer. 

 Under these conditions it is folly on the 

 part of a group of individuals to think 

 that they have it in their power to 

 fix prices arbitrarily for themselves. 

 They may have the power to fix, and 

 even maintain prices, but they cannot 

 escape the effect their action will have 

 upon sales. 



APPEABANCES. 



When you size up an applicant for a 

 job, when you receive a new traveling 

 salesman, when you take an order from 

 an unknown customer, your first esti- 

 mate of the individual is based on ap- 

 pearances. You may revise it later, 

 but "first impressions are strongest." 

 If the applicant is unkempt and awk- 

 ward, do you give him much attention t 

 If the salesman is untidy and displays 

 dirty samples, do you buyf If the cus- 

 tomer is unshaved and ragged, do you 

 spend much time on him I 



A letter comes into a business ofSce. 

 An odd-sized scrap of paper, maybe a 

 sheet from a cheap tablet, carries the 

 communication, which is written in pen- 

 cil. Such a letter is, indeed, among 

 the typewritten messages on printed 

 stationery, an uncouth and unprepos- 

 sessing stranger. What estimate of the 

 writer is formed by the recipiient of 

 such a letter! Will the sender receive 

 the utmost courtesy, care and consider- 

 ation? 



What sort of letters do you send out? 



IT WORKS BOTH WAYS. 



The harder the editor works, the less 



effort the advertising manager need 



make. A trade paper which holds the 



interest of its subscribers is so good an 



advertising medium that the advertisers 



seek it out. It works like this: 



In renewing my niibsoription I should like 

 to say I hare enjoyed The Review and think it 

 Is the best and cheapest paper ever published 

 for the trade. I hope you will keep up your 

 good work, because it cannot be otherwise than 

 a source of help and pleasure to its large nam- 

 ber of subscribers. — Arthur L. Jones, Issaauah 

 Wash., March 8, 1921. 



And then there is the other side, from 

 an advertiser whose order came unso- 

 licited: 



We are pleased with the results thus far 

 obtained from our four weeks' trial adTertlse- 

 ment. — Oarlough's Insecticide, Bpringfleld, 0., 

 March 7, 1921. 



If you hear a man complain of the cost 

 of advertising you can be pretty certain 

 he spends a good bit of money elsewhere 

 than in The Review. 



BRIEF ANSWERS. 



E. B., Ind. — Sow primula seed from 

 March to June and cineraria seed in 

 August and September. 



S. J. J. & S., Ont. — See page advertise- 

 ment in this issue. 



