FUBBUAUY 10, 1921 



iThe Florists^ Review 



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PROGRESS 



HOEVER thought a few 

 years ago that the florists 

 would organize for the bet- 

 terment of the business 

 was considered a dreamer. 

 In later years these dreams 

 have become a reality, and 

 every day brings us re- 

 tailers further on the way 

 to progress. Incidentally, 

 those who thought that by the organi- 

 zation of retailers the allied trades 

 would sufifer were wrong. The more the 

 retailer organizes, the better off is the 

 grower, the supply dealer, the middle- 

 man and everyone else. A sound organi- 

 zation should take care of both the sup- 

 ply and distribution of merchandise. On 

 our way to progress there is bound to 

 be more or less disagreement or dis-, 

 satisfaction with methods. An old, say- 



By MAX SCHLING. 



ing, 



'AH roads lead to 



and this price should always be based 

 on the actual cost of production. Un- 

 fortunately, there were lately some in- 

 stances in which this was not the case 

 with our supply. 



Conditions Similar Everywhere. 



What exists locally may exist every- 

 where. The location may be different, 

 but conditions are the same. In one 

 place it might be one item and in 

 another place another item. Speaking 

 of conditions in general, I am taking 

 examples from our local market. If it 

 is one flower here which is sold at times 

 at an imaginary value, it may be another 

 flower in another city, but, knowing the 

 market, knowing the cost of production 

 of flowers, I believe I can talk intelli- 



money 



Rome," will justify the dif- 

 ferent methods we shall have 

 to use if we try to be just 

 and accomplish what we set 

 out to do, and the results 

 will justify our action. 



The general aim is at all 

 times to increase the purchas- 

 ing want of the public. This 

 would be a gain to us 

 florists, as well as to the al- 

 lied trades. If wo seek to 

 gain, we must give something 

 in return. If we want the 

 public to purchase liberally, 

 in larger quantities and more 

 frequently, we have to give 

 them, besides good service, a 

 fair return for the 

 they pay us. 



Times Changing. 



During the last two yonrs 

 business was brisk, pyvprv- 

 body earned money easily 

 and spent it accordingly. 

 Openings for earners were 

 more than could be filled, and 

 even incompetent people 

 earned a good salary. There 

 was no one without work, 

 and in consequence every- 

 body was a spender. 



Times are changing. What 

 was the case a year ago is no 

 longer so. Our business has 

 to keep up. We cannot let it decrease. 

 There is no standinsj still in active life; 

 we have to push alwavs ahead. When 

 we stop we do not stand still, but gradu- 

 ally we fall back. No one of us can af- 

 ford that. We retailers must go ahead, 

 as well as the grower. He has to in- 

 crease the value of his output not only 

 in quantity but also in qualitv, either 

 by efficiency or by disposing of every- 

 thing he can grow, but neither the re- 

 tailer nor the grower can increase by 

 putting a higher price on the merchan- 

 rtise than it is worth. We retailers can 

 increase by creating a broader field, 

 which takes care of all the output of the 

 grower. 



In some cases in the last two years 

 our channels of supply were not what 

 they should have been. The goods we 

 sell have to be worth the price we ask. 



Commendation 



My Dear Mr. Schling: 



Let me congratulate you on writing an article con- 

 taining so conclusively the real facts of the present-day 

 business. We should all be willing to take notice, 



I wish that I were in a position to add a few words, 

 but I really feel that it would be a mistake to attempt 

 it, the ground is so well covered and the thoughts so 

 well expressed to be of interest to thinkers, because 

 we are now on the brink of a time when it is necessary 

 to take inventory of ourselves, and to look forward to 

 what is the best thing to do to keep the flower busi- 

 ness in the rank in which it has been placed in the last 

 few years. 



It seems that many of us have been inclined to think 

 that energy is no longer necessary and that the busi- 

 ness will roll on just the same, without any special ef- 

 fort. I say this because I admit it to be the case with 

 myself. 



It is impossible to make a satisfactory recommenda- 

 tion, but every comment that you make in your article 

 presents true facts in the case, and it is up to the flo- 

 rists and growers to be more considerate with each 

 other for their mutual benefit. 



You are opening the way for them and I hope that 

 you will continue in the same strain in which you have 

 started. Philip Breitmeyer. 



ened away by the price. If they did buy 

 them for sentiment's sake, they were 

 far from satisfied with the price. Will 

 they again willingly go into a flower 

 shop to purchase a novelty? How many 

 customers are frightened away from 

 purchasing flowers, or how many of 

 them are decreasing their purchases of 

 flowers just on account of such un- 

 reasonable and unfair prices on the part 

 of the producer or dealer? 



Wo do not want to sell at retail at 

 more than retail prices and to us flowers 

 should not bo sold at anything more 

 than wholesale prices. We want to con- 

 tinue advertising to the people, "Say 

 It with Flowers," but if flowers are 

 sold to us on a wholesale scale at re- 

 tail prices, we shall bo forced to adver- 

 tise not, "Say It with Flowers," but 

 "Say It with Dollars," and the result 

 would be a decrease in busi- 

 ness, disastrously affecting 

 our allied trades. 



The retail florists are organ- 

 izing all over the country. 

 The growers are teaching 

 and assisting them to organ- 

 ize, and they continue to do 

 so because only through the 

 combined efforts of growers 

 and retailers a clean and 

 healthy market can be cre- 

 ated which will be of help to 

 both. Fortunately, there are 

 only a few who apply the old 

 saying about making hay 

 while the sun shines so 

 greedily that they take 

 roots and all, thereby destroy- 

 ing the ground which pro- 

 duces the hay and killing the 

 hay-making for the future. 



Proof from Past. 



gently about the cost it should have at 

 its disposal to customers. We take, for 

 instance, jonquils, common ordinary 

 trumpet jonquils, of which 1,000 bulbs 

 of the best quality cost $32 to $36 and 

 produce approximately 1,500 flowers. 

 For Christmas there would have been a 

 good return to the growers if these had 

 sold for $1 or $1.2.5 per dozen, and there 

 would have been a fair return to a re- 

 tailer if he had sold such material for $2 

 to $3 per dozen, considering that he 

 gives a liberal amount of good green 

 with the flowers. In New York the price 

 was not based on the cost of produc- 

 tion when a wholesaler who handled this 

 particular stock assumed that he was 

 the only one who had jonquils for sale. 

 A few florists were foolish enough to 

 pay $2 and try to sell the jonquils for 

 $4 per dozen. Customers were fright- 



Tlieso actions are becoming 

 more and more past history, 

 because every merchant is 

 aware that they cannot be 

 applied in a successful and 

 growing business, that we 

 have to have one price for 

 all and give value for what 

 we receive, and if we do not 

 one or the other article in 

 our merchandise will suffer. 

 A proof of this is the violet 

 market in New York city. 

 The demand for violets decreased 

 to a marked extent in the last few 

 months because of the unreason- 

 able demand of a few men at the 

 time of the Yale-Princeton and Yale- 

 Harvard football games, when they 

 asked for violets at wholesale $3.50, $4 

 and $4.50. The retailer who had taken 

 orders in advance for corsages had to 

 pay what he was asked because he had 

 to fill his orders. He could not tell his 

 customers that the violets were driven 

 high in price by unscrupulous speculat- 

 ing. But from then on, instead of sup- 

 porting the man who had violets, he 

 was forced to sell corsages of flowers 

 which were profitable to him instead of 

 being a loss, and being in immediate 

 contact with the public, he could offer 

 customers something priceworthy to do 

 the same service as violets. How much 



