Flowers Make the Best Christmas Gifts 



BKPARING for tlio lioliday 

 season this ycTii-, ttie lioriat 

 fiiuLs liiniscll' faciiifi a dif- 

 ferent set of conditions 

 tlian have ])revailed the 

 last few years. A year ago, 

 althongh tlie lavisli spend- 

 iiifj which liad eharaeter- 



ized the previous season 



liad soniewliat diminished, 

 so far as general Itusiness was concerned, 

 llorists enjoyed liberal jiatronage from 

 the jiuhlic at Christmas. Since tliat date 

 the trend of business has been, accord- 

 ing to the charts and statistics of those 

 who regularly review the industrial and 

 commercial situation, generally down- 

 ward, though a recent rise has been 

 noted in a good many lines. There are 

 lieartening reports that unemployment is 

 not so large as it was, though there are 

 still considerable numbers of wage-earn- 

 ers out of work. But it is important 

 to note that the lack of work by a com- 

 paratively small per- 

 centage of this 

 country's industrial 

 forces is not so im- 

 portant as the tight- 

 ening of the purse 

 strings by jiractic- 

 ally all the rest of 

 the buyers in the 

 community. 



The Difference. 



Difference between 

 the peak of prosper- 

 ity and the depth of 

 deprassion is chiefly 

 in the curtailing of 

 purchases of the ne- 

 cessities of life and 

 the foregoing of 

 Bome of the luxuries. 

 It is the difference 

 between "paying 

 any price that is 

 asked" and "shop- 

 ping around" to 

 see where one can 

 buy the cheapest. 

 This habit on the 

 part of customers 

 has already been 

 noted this fall by 

 many florists. 



Those retail mer- 

 chants, in other 

 lines, whose sales 

 for the holidays be- 

 gin earlier than do 

 ours, report that 

 this change of atti- 

 tude on the part of 



tlu' Imying public is extended to pur- 

 chases for Christinas. For this reason 

 we cannot expect this year the nuni- 

 l)er of $oO and $100 orders which was 

 received at Christmas a year ago. There 

 will not be found the same willingness 

 of a certain class of customers to ])ay 

 any price that is asked. On tlu' other 

 hand, there will be no lack of buyers for 

 flowers at n^asonable prices. Those 

 retailers who have seen the signs of tin' 

 times and have reduced their prices in 

 accordance with the decline in wholesale 

 (quotations, have found the public will- 

 ing and ready to buy. The wholesale 

 figures for Christmas, which have al- 

 ready been published, indicate that 

 there is room for considerable reduction 

 from the prices charged the public last 

 rear for flowers and plants. 



Valuable Talking Points. 



Iiiilce(i, the reduction is im|>ortant 

 enough in almost all cases to be a valua- 



Can You Suggest a Finer Christmas Gift than This ? 



bl(! talking point to retail florists in their 

 advertising for the holiday. 



As a talking |)oint it is doiilily valua- 

 ble in view of the fact that this ("hrist- 

 nias the florist faces the necessity of 

 using the sales power of printers' ink 

 to bring buyers into liis store in the 

 wanted numbers. In the last few years 

 tlic florist's greatest need lias been 

 [pro|ier organization and system to 

 liandli' the tremendous voluiiie of busi- 

 ness at (!hristmas. He will have need of 

 similar organization and system this 

 year, but instead of being able to count 

 confidently on selling all the flowers and 

 plants he can handle, he is called upon 

 for unusual effort in order to bring in 

 the buyers that last year came in of 

 their own accord. 



In this situation the strong talking 

 points in jjossession of the florist for 

 advertising purposes are especially val- 

 uable. Jle has one particularly telling 

 one, double-barreled; namelj% tliat flow- 

 ers and plants are 

 unusually plentiful 

 as a result of the " 

 peculiar conditions 

 of this autumn, and 

 that they jire, in 

 coiise(|uence, lower 

 in price than at 

 Christmas time in 

 scv<M-al years. 



For Gifts. 



Florists liave an 

 excei'dingly power- 

 ful talking point for 

 their wares at the 

 holiday, one which 

 they have never 

 a(le(|uatcly utilized, 

 jirobably b e c, a u s e 

 they have not often 

 had to talk much to 

 sell all their stock 

 at Christmas. This 

 point is expressed in 

 the slogan at the top 

 of this page. Last 

 year a few adver- 

 tisements of mem- 

 bers of the trade 

 e m p h a s i zed the 

 point. Some of these 

 are reproduceil on 

 other pages of this 

 issue of The Keview. 

 They were consid- 

 ered extraordinarily 

 successful by the 

 florists who bene- 

 fited by them. In 

 their preparation of 



