JCLY 14, 1921 



The Florists' Review 



19 



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AMMANN TELLS OF TRIP 



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TOURING THE TRADE. 



By J. F. AMMANN. 



Report of Pacific Coast Trip. 



The writer in this article would like 

 to be understood as speaking from the 

 standpoint of a representative of the 

 S. A. F., the National Flower Growers' 

 Association and the Florists' Telegraph 

 Delivery Association, rather than as an 

 individual. It was as such, and primar- 

 ily in the interest of national and local 

 cooperative advertising of flowers, that 

 the trip was undertaken. 



The hospitality and kindly welcome 

 given Mr. Swenson and myself at every 

 city we visited was beyond description 

 and, as we so often remarked, was, we 

 hope, given chiefly in honor of the great 

 societies and the cause we represented 

 rather than the individuals. Neverthe- 

 less, we felt ourselves fortunate in hav- 

 ing been the lucky ones chosen for this 

 grand trip. 



Time and space will not permit going 

 into details and mentioning names; in 

 fact, it would be impossible to remem- 

 ber the names of all who had a part in 

 the great work, everywhere along the 

 line. The officers, however, of every 

 local organization did valiant work and 

 we feel much indebted to them. SufSce 

 it to say that there are plenty of 

 boosters in every city, and we found 

 the far west and northwest no excep- 

 tion. 



Community Advertising. 



Advertising is not new to the florists 

 in the west any more than to those of 

 the east; in fact, cooperative advertis- 

 ing was born in the west, and some of 

 this has been done among the florists 

 from time to time in a more or less dis- 

 organized manner. As a result of this 

 trip St. Paul, Minneapolis, Spokane, 

 Seattle, Tacoma, San Francisco, Los 

 Angeles, Salt Lake City, Denver and 

 Omaha are organized for cooperative 

 advertising. Portland, Ore., and Kan- 

 sas City, Mo., were already organized. 



In most places the percentage plan 

 was adopted and the various branches 

 of the trade were classified as follows: 



Class A — Wholesale growers, to pay 

 one per cent on total sales. 



Class B — Retailers, to pay one per 

 cent on all purchases of flowers, fin- 

 ished plants and greens. 



Class C — Wholesalers, to pay one per 

 per cent on commissions. 



Class D — Eetail growers, or growers 

 who retail seventy-five per cent or 

 more of their products, to pay one- 

 half of one per cent on total sales. 



Equitable Plan. 



There is no question that the ])er- 

 centage plan of assessment for the ])ur- 

 pose of raising funds for advertising 

 is a most equitable and fair one and in 

 time should be universally adopted. 

 When the larger portion of the trade 

 is organized on this plan an amount 

 equal to five per cent or not to exceed 

 ten per cent set aside for national 

 advertising from such local funds and 

 the individual subscriptions from those 

 not so organized will be amply 

 suflicient to carry on a liberal cam- 



paign of national magazine advertising, 

 keeping our slogan before the Ameri- 

 can public and continually creating 

 new fields for the use of our product, 

 thereby giving the local cooperative 

 and individual advertisers a universal 

 scheme to tie up with. This program 

 may seem complicated, but, if it is 

 really put into effect, is simple, and 

 what makes it all the more easy to 

 carry out is the fact that it is just and 

 fair in every respect, everybody paying 

 only in proportion to the amount of 

 business he does. 



A Wrong View. 



Ever since the matter of local co- 

 operative advertising was first insti- 

 tuted, and because some of the cities 

 where this has been in force have, in 

 lieu of their individual subscription 

 to the national publicity fund, agreed 

 to pay a percentage out of their local 



The Editor is pleased when 

 a Reader presents his Ideas 

 on any subject treated in 



As experience is the best 

 teacher, so do we learn 

 fastest by an exchange of 

 experiences. Many valuable 

 points are brought out by 

 discussion. 



Good penmanship, spellinK and 

 grammar, thouch desirable, are not 

 necessary. Write as you would talk 

 when doing your best. 



WE SHAIX BE CLAD 

 TO HEAR FROM YOU 



fund that would be equivalent to or 

 greater than the total individual sub- 

 scription, the impression seems to have 

 been going out that the national com- 

 mittee would not ask for further indi- 

 vidual subscriptions. For that reason, 

 we believe, many individual subscrib- 

 ers to the national fund have withheld 

 their payments, expecting at some lat- 

 er date to join in with a local coopera- 

 tive scheme, thereby meeting their ob- 

 ligation to the national fund on a per- 

 centage collection through the local or- 

 ganization. Now, this plan would be 

 all right if it were to be put in effect 

 at once, but a matter of this kind 

 cannot be perfected so quickly. It 

 takes several months and sometimes 

 a year before a local organization gets 

 to functioning properly, and the na- 

 tional committee cannot deal in fu- 

 tures; the money must be in hand or 

 most of it in sight before contracts 

 can be entered into for national adver- 

 tising. So everyone should bear this 

 one point clearly in mind, that the in- 



dividual contribution to the national 

 fund must be continued indefinitely or 

 at least in every locality until the per- 

 centage from the local board is ready to 

 be turned over. In fact, the contribut- 

 ing of a percentage from the local fund 

 to the national fund should never elim- 

 inate all individual subscriptions to 

 the national fund, because there will 

 always be scattering growers and re- 

 tailers in the outlying districts who are 

 so situated that they cannot join a co- 

 operative local organization for adver- 

 tising. These should always continue 

 to contribute to the national fund in a 

 lump sum. In addition to these we 

 have the jobbing and supply houses, 

 who can only be partakers in the na- 

 tional program in the same manner; 

 hence the plan is not ever to do away 

 with all individual contributions to the 

 national fund, but only from florists 

 in communities where local organiza- 

 tions are collecting funds on the per- 

 centage plan and turning over their 

 pro-rata to the national fund. 



Some Observations. 



In closing, I want to give these few 

 observations with reference to our trade 

 throughout the west and northwest. 



I believe, from what I have seen from 

 California to Seattle, that more money 

 is spent per capita where flowers grow- 

 wild outdoors all the year around than 

 m any other part of the country. 



I saw in some of these cities in the 

 west and northwest some of the finest 

 and most modern flower stores and 

 growing establishments in the country 



I saw cut roses selling in stores in 

 San Francisco from $3 to $5 per dozen, 

 when the same quality of stock could 

 be had right on the same street corner 

 tor oO cents per dozen. Why did cus- 

 tomers go to these stores? Because 



17 .r*"'^ "^'"^^ *° P^y ^o'- service, 

 and they surely got it there. I be- 

 lieve now, more than ever before, that 

 the retailers' greatest asset is service. 

 1 believe prices are more uniform and 

 normal, "not at all cheap," through- 

 out the west than elsewhere in the 

 country, a very healthy condition. 



Westerners Awake. 



The west coast florists are wide 

 awake. I believe they work few« 

 hours and accomplish more than we 

 <lo. Most stores do not open until 9 



Sn^i' *^^°^^'^* ^ P- '''■> and are closed on 

 Sunday. As I said to Dr. Moore, of 



ittfT'^.Tf.'*^ Hollywood Gardens of 

 Seattle, "the one big difference I see 

 between you folks out here and us 

 ZolV^'^ '' *^^* ^'^ *>^^« ^ vacation 

 week.- ^''" ''"" ^^^' ^* «"^« ^ 



Los Angeles this fall is going to pull 



and r "^ ^''' ^'^'''''' horticultural 

 and flower shows, October 20 to 23 in- 

 clusive, ever held .in this country 

 Seven acres of outdoor garden and over 

 lotPd t.T>.'^ indoor floor space are de- 

 voted to this gigantic exhibition. Our 



tobello. Cal., ,s at the head of this 

 great movement. 



There are more S. A. F. members in 



