

18 



The Rofists' Review 



June 23, 1921 



Karl P. Baum. 



to unburden a grievance, when a sales- 

 man 's best endeavor to rise to the occa- 

 sion is not half so efficacious as a few 

 words from the head of the business 

 himself. It is always the part of that 

 individual, no matter how big the busi- 

 ness or how much responsibility or au- 

 thority he may delegate to others, to be 

 still the "trouble-shooter," to be on 

 deck when something goes wrong so 

 that by his experience and skill he may 

 meet the situation most effectively. If 

 he is negligent in this particular, leav- 

 ing this important duty to less able 

 liands while he goes to the bull game, 

 it will not be long before he pays the 

 penalty of his neglect. 



The store of the Fleischman Floral 

 Co., in the loop in Chicago, furnishes an 

 example of convenience; the manager's 

 desk is behind a partition of glass and 

 marble which screens it from the pub- 

 lic, but yet allows a view of the entire 

 store. Another example, where space 

 is not so restricted, may well be that 

 of the E. Wienhoeber Co., in the north 

 side residence district of Chicago, where 

 there is a private room off the short 

 corridor that leads from the salesroom 

 to the workroom. Many other examples 

 might be cited similar to these well 

 known stores. 



Business Office. 



The office in which is done the clerical 

 work of bookkeeping, dispatching and 

 receiving mail and telegrams, etc., 

 may be more remote from the sales- 

 room; sometimes it is on a different 

 floor, as in Penn 's store, in Bos- 

 ton, and in Grimm & Gorly's, in St. 

 Louis, as in other places where upstairs 

 space is available and easily acces- 

 sible, while ground floor area is costly. 

 In some stores the cashier's cage is 



more nearly a room and it houses the 

 proprietor's desk, the bookkeeper and 

 maybe one or two persons engaged in 

 clerical work. This does not give the 

 proprietor the privacy and quiet he 

 occasionally requires, though it has its 

 compensating convenience. 



In any style of arrangement, the 

 office should be as neat, as orderly and 

 as pleasant for the workers as the sales- 

 room is for -customers. Look at the 

 illustration on page 17, showing the 

 main office of Baum's Home of Flowers, 

 at Knoxville, Tenn. The room is more 

 spacious than most florists' offices, yet 

 there is no reason why others should be 

 less neat than this extremely good ex- 

 ample of what such a place may be. 



Properly Planned Workroom. 



As important as a convenient and 

 well ordered office is a properly planned 

 workroom. A restricted store area often 

 compels the use of space partitioned off 

 from the salesroom for this purpose. 

 Then, too often, there is an overflow 

 into the front of the store. Occasion- 

 ally one even sees work being done on 

 a counter in full view of customers, a 

 practice not calculated to raise the 

 tone of the store. Flower buyers expect 

 no more to see a funeral piece made in 

 their presence than to see a seamstress 

 at work at a sewing machine in the mid- 

 dle of a modiste's shop. 



More commonly the workroom is at 

 the back of the store or, in city shops, 

 in the basement beneath. The light, 

 airy spaces beneath the sidewalk serve 

 well for this purpose and for store- 

 rooms, as in such stores as Fleischman 's 

 and Lange's, in Chicago. Often a large 

 quantity of work is done in a small 

 room that is well equipped and conveni- 

 ently arranged, such as at Mangel's, in 

 the same city. Of course, an ice chest 

 of large capacity is needed when the 

 workroom is at a distance from the 

 salesroom, where, in such ease, only a 

 showcase is kept. Not always is the 

 workroom supplied so fully with all 

 the facilities that make for comfort as 

 the designing room at Baum's Home of 

 Flowers, Knoxville, Tenn. This room, 

 pictured on the next page, is 22 x 24 

 feet, contains a large storage icebox 

 and has six outside windows to fur- 

 nish light ajid air. The photograph of 

 this room was taken at a busy time last 

 fall, when half a dozen hands were kept 

 on the go. The secretary-treasurer and 

 general manager of the company, Karl 

 P. Baum, is partly seen behind a big 

 basket, overseeing the work. 



. Suitable Equipment. 



Good lighting should always be pro- 

 vided in the workroom, so that ribbons, 

 baskets and flowers of the correct 

 shades may be selected when occasion 

 requires. Ample elbow room should be 

 allowed, also, for the best designer is 

 hampered by lack of space to do work 

 with ease and rapidity at the same 

 time. Proper ventilation is necessary 

 for both workers and flowers. Counters 

 of the proper height are a matter of 

 importance, since a matter of a few 

 inches can make considerable difference 

 in the degree of celerity with which 

 work is done. To have shipping boxes 

 at hand always when they are wanted, 

 bins should be provided, so that they 

 may be stored according to sizes. 



Storage Booms. 



One of the least considered, though 

 most important, of a retail flower store's 



departments is the storage room ( r 

 rooms. The space required depends up( i 

 the nature and amount of work whic i 

 is done at the store. When wire frame . 

 and baskets are painted and varioi , 

 other such jobs performed, addition: j 

 space and facilities are required. F( 

 this work a part of the storage spa( 

 may be used, since it should not be don 

 in the vicinity of the designing. Usi 

 ally an np^ floor or a basement pr( 

 vides space. It is advisable to partitio.: 

 this space, so that there is a definit 

 place for each kind of stock. Basket 

 will then be kept in one room or se( 

 tion; glassware, vases, jardinieres an. 

 other pottery in another; ribbons an. 

 chiffons in another, and miscellaneou 

 supplies in still another. Backs, shelve 

 or cases for storing such things syst( 

 matically pay for themselves in tli. 

 time saved employees and in the dam 

 age avoided on the stock. Backs fo; 

 each size of wire wreath, when it i 

 mossed and ready for the designer, an 

 exceedingly handy. One room shouhi 

 be provided for the storage of the bijj 

 decorative fixtures that are used only 

 occasionally. These are bulky objects 

 and, if left around where employees 

 must work, are constantly in the way. 

 A portion of the room devoted to thesi: 

 objects should be fitted up with a car 

 penter's bench, so that small repairs 

 can be made here in employees' leisure 

 time. The florist who thinks he is sav 

 ing money by using these fixtures until 

 they are broken and then replacin<i 

 them by others is on the wrong tack. 

 Their appearance would be improved 

 and their life prolonged by a little at- 

 tention now and then. There is always 

 some one around the store who delights 

 in the use of tools, and there are plenty 

 of odd hours when business is a littfe 

 slack that may be devoted to that pur- 

 pose. 



The view of basement No. 2 at 



Charles L. Baum. 



