26 



The Florists^ Review 



Fbbbcabt 17. IMl 



pm 





BRtabllshod 1H97, 

 by O. li Grant. 



Published every Thursday by 

 TuE Florists' Pi'iilishinu Co., 



600 560 Caxton Bulldlnff, 



(508 South Doarboro St., Chicago. 



Tel, Wabash 8rJ5. 



Registered cable address, 



FlorTlew, Chicago. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dec. 3. 1897. at the poetomce at Chi- 

 cago, III., under tiie Act of March 

 3. 1879. 



Subscription price, 12.00 a year. 

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



Advertlslnfr rates quoted on 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 Tertlsln? accepted. 



Results bring advertising. 

 The Review brings results. 



Advkktising, it is said, is the flywheel 

 of business. The pace of the former sets 

 that of the latter. 



Young rose stock is said 1o be selling 

 unusually well. Growers, who have done 

 little replanting for several years, are 

 making up for lost time. 



Tnot'GH 'tis said one is born every min- 

 ute, there are not enough to make perma- 

 nent business for dealers in any com- 

 modity who do not deliver what they of- 

 fer. 



SixcK tlic "turn of the year" did not 

 resuscitate business greatly, industrial 

 diagnosticians now set their eyes on an 

 Easter revival. The florists are with 

 them. 



J. F. Ammanx has been chosen by the 

 board of directors of the National Flower 

 Growers' Association to continue as secre- 

 tary of that organization, and Wallace R. 

 Pierson has been reelected treasurer. 



Organizations, as truly as individuals, 

 are top-heavily leaning toward a fall when 

 they reach the point where they consider 

 themselves selfsufrieicnt and independent 

 of outside favor and support. 



It is predicted that ne.xt summer coal 

 will be higher rather than lower than it is 

 now. Resumption of industrial demand 

 when factories reopen and liigher wages 

 to miners are two reasons cited. 



The trade's national publicity cam- 

 paign has been suspended until the bills 

 arc paid and will not be resumed until 

 funds actuall}' are in hand. It develops 

 that the experiment witli signboards, 

 planned as publicity without cost to the 

 general fund, created one of the most 

 embarrassing obligations. It has added 

 to the number of persons who do not be- 

 lieve in signs. 



BisiXE.ss for St. Valentine's day was 

 heavier, according to general reports, than 

 it has been before for that occasion. Per- 

 haps a considerable proportion of the in- 

 crease is due to the fact that retailers, 

 in view of the hesitant attitude of the 

 buying public, deemed it wise to expend 

 more money and effort in promoting the 

 holiday than they have done before. The 

 result was encouraging aside from the 

 day's sales, for it demonstrated that plen- 

 ty of people arc still potential flower 

 buyers. 



The supply of grafted rose plants is 

 limited by the quantity of stocks avail- 

 able. It is greater than last year, but not 

 near pre-war levels. 



So much attention was paid by grow- 

 ers to producing long-stemmed blooms of 

 high quality when the public was ready 

 to i)ay for them that there is now a scar- 

 city of the cheaper grades which the 

 changed conditions make in request. 



Your competitor has never put you out 

 of business and you have never put him 

 out of business. If both of you have 

 made a livelihood for years, it's a good 

 sign you will both continue to do so. Then 

 why not bury the hatchet and put away 

 the hammer? 



Every few days someone in the adver- 

 tising or publishing business asks The 

 Review who coined our trade slogan. 

 Among those best qualified to judge of 

 such things the opinion is general that as 

 a slogan "Say It with Flowers" is one 

 in ten thousand and imperishable. 



TIME FOR NEW TACTICS. 



In, the last two or three years ex- 

 cessive demand and limited supply bred 

 among business men of easy consciences 

 a disregard of certain standards that 

 normally applied in trade transactions. 

 Among the number so affected in their 

 dealings were some florists; not many, 

 we hope, but enough to cause complaint 

 in more than one quarter. There was 

 the florist who held orders for stock till 

 another batch of plants became of size 

 to fill them. There was the florist who 

 (lid not wait until the plants were grown 

 to the size ordered, but repotted them 

 in the larger size, thinking he deluded 

 some one with extra soil. There was 

 the florist who gave scant heed to qual- 

 ity and count. There were others, who 

 failed in various ways to live up to their 

 own offers and to trade standards. 



There are, unfortunately, some still 

 pursuing these tactics. They "got by" 

 when stock was scarce and orders were 

 many, because the purchasers were glad 

 to get anytliing under the conditions 

 that then pre\ailed, and they think they 

 can continue to do so. But conditions 

 have changed. The demand is no longer 

 such that anything at all is acceptable. 

 The purchaser now has the opportunity 

 to )]ick and choose. Henceforth he will 

 send liis money only where he is sure 

 'if getting what lie asks for. If not for 

 the sake of honesty, then for the sake 

 of policy, it is time for these florists of 

 easy conscience to change their tactics. 

 For so surely as they continue will they 

 find thenis(>lves without onlers and 

 without ineoiMc, now that dealers of ex- 

 cellent reputation have larger stocks 

 and are better able to fill the orders 

 that are their reward for adhering to 

 rigid standards when some others 

 yielded to easy temptation. 



DEFINING "GROSS PROFIT." 



I noted an editorial paragrajili in The 

 Review of January 20, stating that some 

 retailers make the error of figuring 

 jirofit on cost instead of on selling jirice, 

 stating the margin of profit on flowers 

 that enst $1 and sell at $1.50 would be 

 thirty-three and one-third per cent and 

 not fifty ]ier cent as some suppose. 



I have followed trade jiajjers closely 

 and have noticed many items on the 

 question of the profit retailers should 

 charge. In the report of the F. T. D. 

 committee at the last convention it was 



found that many leading retailers had 

 to charge 200 per cent gross profit in 

 order to make ten per cent net gain. 

 If retailers were to figure on the basis 

 you suggest, figuring profit from selling 

 price instead of cost, it would be im- 

 possible to make 100 per cent profit, 

 no matter what the cost or selling price 

 might be. 



I have been working with the largest 

 flower concern in Utah for the last four 

 years and have been closely associated 

 with the leading retailers, and I know 

 of no one who has ever used the selling 

 price instead of the cost in figuring 

 the margin of profit. 



The method you use of figuring profit 

 on selling price and not on cost may be 

 the right one, but would it be practical 

 among retailers? I should be pleased to 

 hear why it is improper to figure profit 

 on cost instead of on selling price. 



G. J. B. 



This inquiry shows a common confu- 

 sion in regard to the word "profit" as 

 used in retail selling. It is used loosely 

 to designate either the difference be- 

 tween the purchase price of goods and 

 their sales price, or between the pur- 

 chase price plus the cost of selling, and 

 the sales price. The latter is the cus- 

 tomary and more correct use of the term 

 "gross profit," while the former is the 

 one used by the inquirer. 



If a florist pays $100 for flowers and 

 charges an additional 200 per cent on 

 them, or $300, the extra $200 is not 

 profit, for in it are included, in addi- 

 tion to profit, the cost of baskets, rib- 

 bons, delivery, advertising, light, rent, 

 office , supplies and salaries. If after 

 paying for all these, the florist has $50 

 left, that is profit. Some florists figure 

 that, since $250 was the cost of doing 

 business, $50 profit is twenty per cent. 

 On the contrary, as noted in the para- 

 graph referred to, it is sixteen and two- 

 thirds per cent. 



Tn the recommendation of its so- 

 called "three to one" proposition, the 

 F. T. D. committee last October did not 

 refer in its report to charging 200 per 

 cent gross profit, but recommended 

 that "the cost of cut flowers and plants 

 should not exceed, if possible, thirty- 

 three and one-third per cent of the total 

 sales." 



The inquirer's misunderstanding is 

 solely one of the use of the term 

 "profit." It would be better if this 

 word were more definitely used. That it 

 is not is one of the evidences of the lack 

 of familiarity with accounting practice 

 on the part of many in this trade. 



"SOME AD," OF COURSE. 



Said a close-thinking florist who last 

 season moved a quantity of surplus 

 stock by means of a single insertion of 

 a Classified ad in The Review, "There 

 certainly is no relation between the 

 small price you charge and the large re- 

 turns the advertiser gets." While it is 

 possible that, due to general business 

 conditions, the returns last season may 

 have been above the average, the trade 

 still looks on the Classified section as 

 the market place. Like this: 



Continue tlie little ad until I send instriiotions 

 to withdraw It. To d.nte it has sold over 2."),- 

 iK)0 plants for me. "Some nd!"— Mnple Wood 

 liardens. Ernest L. Lntz. Prop., lioonville, Ind., 

 Kehruary 9. 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. 



