28 



The Florists' Review 



September 8, 1021 



f^m 





Established 1H97, 

 by G. L Oraut 



Published every Thursday by 

 The Florists' Puulishing Co., 



SOOSeOCaxton Bulldlnt;, 



608 South Dearborn St., CbicaKO. 



Tel., Wabash 8195. 



Kefflstered cable address, 



Florvlew. Chicago. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dec. 3, 1897, at the post-office at Chi- 

 cago, 111., under the Act of March 

 3.1879. 



Subscription price, $2.00 a year. 

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



Advortlslnijr rates quoted on 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 vertising accepted. 



EESULTS. 



We give them. You get them. 



We both have them. 



Nobody can make money on a customer 

 who does not pay his bills. 



The outlook for an adequate supply of 

 flowers next winter is not so reassuring 

 as that for the demand for them. 



From all reports there will be few lilies 

 next Easter. It will be in line to make 

 provision for "something just as good" 

 to offer the public. 



If your stock includes something not 

 offered in the Classified section of The 

 Eeview by anyone else, there is a golden 

 opportunity there. Countless buyers scan 

 the Classrified lists each issue, seeking 

 stock they can use. 



Low prices are not to the interest of 

 the trade, because low prices prohibit high 

 quality and first-class service. But it 

 is equally undesirable to maintain prices 

 at a level so high that it curtails the vol- 

 ume of business. 



The dollar box, which either disap- 

 peared or became a $2 or $5 box, accord- 

 ing to the locality, in the last few years, 

 is again in much evidence in some places. 

 The condition of tlie market of late has 

 favored this Saturday feature. 



Eetail stores in this trade do not carry 

 inventories of considerable amount and 

 for this reason florists escaped the losses 

 that hit merchants hard in some other 

 lines, where stock on the shelves liad to 

 be marked below cost to move it. 



It is a mistake to limit the influence 

 of the war in slackening the moral fiber 

 to those who crossed the water to partic- 

 ipate in it. Some of those who show the 

 worst effects are business men who stayed 

 at home. A few are in this trade, but 

 ere long they must change their ways or 

 get out. 



With the advent of cooler weather, 

 new names arc added in greater numlicrs 

 to the list of retailers represented in the 

 Pink Part. As the telegraph business 

 assumes greater projiortiniis year by 

 year, more and more florists are desirous 

 of partioijiating in the profits it brings. 

 And no list of retailers handling tele- 

 graph orders is consulted by so many 

 florists as is the Pink Part of The Re- 

 view. 



E. Q. Hill will celebrate his seventy- 

 fourth birthday anniversary at Richmond 

 next Sunday, September 11. 



Tact is a priceless asset in a flower 

 store. Yet for so valuable a thing, how 

 frequently is even the attempt at it lack- 

 ing! 



Evidence of an upward turn to ])ricps 

 affecting this trade was contniued in ai. 

 annouiueiiiciit this week of an increase of 

 ten per cent on all its boilers by the Amer- 

 ican Radiiitor C'o. 



Five double-page ads in last week's 

 issue of The Review, six in this issue, one 

 of them printed in colors. It is cheaper 

 than circularizing, as well as more effec- 

 tive, also much less work and quicker. 



It's the little things that count in 

 floral arrangements. The florist who 

 wishes to mnke a name for himself and 

 his work must give increasing attention to 

 detail and send out only what will satis- 

 fy his own taste and conscience. 



Prosperous times saved some miaman- 

 agers from the results of their reckness- 

 ness. A change in the tide of business 

 left them on the rocks over which they 

 had been sailing all the time. The care- 

 ful pilot is not in danger now because he 

 steered wisely then. 



Canadian florists will serve as hosts 

 to the Florists' Telegraph nelivery Asso- 

 ciation for the first time next month. The 

 convention at Toronto, October 11 to 13, 

 is occasioning much preliminary activity 

 there and a large attendance is expected 

 to honor their efforts. 



Customers who wish to tell the florist 

 how to carry out their orders should 

 rather be listened to than rebuffed. First, 

 they may give the florist some new ideas; 

 second, they take an interest in the flor- 

 ists' wares and, with proper handling, 

 will be back for more. 



Ninety per cent of the big concerns of 

 the country — the hardest hit by the busi- 

 ness readjustment — have "turned the 

 corner," in the estimation of a promi- 

 nent banker. The small concerns, not hav- 

 ing large inventories, recovered sooner. 

 The better psychological feeling on the 

 part of the buying public is believed to 

 have already been felt. 



Advertising men have a method of 

 computing a publication's rate by divid- 

 ing the price per page by the number of 

 thousand circulation. Various odd names 

 are applied to the quotient, which do 

 not matter. The point Ls, on such basis 

 of computation. The Review's rates are 

 by far the lowest of the mediums in this 

 trade. Yet the returns, shown by fre- 

 quent examples, are easily the greatest. 



WHO KNOWS? 



Please ailvise through your columns 

 where T may obtain baskets of the 

 Czecho-Slovaicia stvles. M. B. 



Can you give me the formulas used 

 in the preparation of leaves, ferns, etc., 

 or put me in touch with someone who 

 knows them? S. & M.— Cal. 



binations. The Review would like to 

 record a few. Readers please report. 



Let's start the list with: 



Herman C. Kroseberg, florist and 

 furrier, 628 Grand avenue, Milwaukee, 

 Wis. 



BUY COAL NOW. 



Those whose experience as large buy- 

 ers qualify them to speak with authority 

 advise all florists to take in at once as 

 much coal as they can get or handle. 

 Those who best know the signs say there 

 will be a flurry in the fuel trade within 

 the next few weeks, and that it may 

 develop into a serious situation for 

 florists who have no reserve stocks to 

 carry them through the winter's pinch. 

 It is quite certain that the usual quan- 

 tities of coal have not been mined this 

 summer and that the bins of consumers 

 never have held so little coal at this 

 date in other years. All those who want 

 to play safe will stock up at once. 



RETAIL SALES TELL STORY. 



A spirit of pessimism too frequently 

 exaggerates the effects of the present 

 business readjustment, with consequent 

 alarm when there is no occasion for such 

 feeling. To restore the confidence of 

 florists who may have succumbed to such 

 anxiety, the report of the Federal Re- 

 serve Board regarding retail sales for 

 the month of July does excellent work. 

 Giving indication of the public's present 

 buying power and attitude, it is as im- 

 portant for florists as any statistics that 

 can be found. 



The volume of sales during July, 

 measured in dollars, was but fifteen per 

 cent less than that of July, 1920, accord- 

 ing to this report. Prices have beyond 

 doubt fallen at least to a similar extent 

 — probably in the stores included in the 

 survey the decline has been measurably 

 greater. The actual amount of goods 

 moving over the counters, it is reason- 

 able to infer, was therefore as great as, 

 if not greater than, last year. 



There is, of course, some variation 

 from section to section, but no well de- 

 fined tendency is discernible toward 

 worse conditions in industrial centers, 

 where unemployment would first make 

 itself felt. The houses included in the 

 list (354 in all) are department stores 

 for the most part in the larger centers 

 and may not for that reason be fully 

 representative of retail trade as a whole. 

 But the figures are, nevertheless, con- 

 vincing evidence that both unemploy- 

 ment conditions and the decrease in pur- 

 chasing power have been exaggerated in 

 many current statements. 



UNUSUAL COMBINATIONS. 



There are many men and women in the 

 trade who have taken up the work be- 

 cause of their love of flowers and who 

 have continued their other lines of busi- 

 ness. The result is some unusual com- 



WHAT HAVE YOU TO OFFER? 



Any florist who has good stock, much 

 or little, not needed for his home trade 

 will do somebody a favor by printing an 

 offer of it in the classified columns of 

 The Review. All kinds of plants are in 

 demand among readers of The Review. 

 Like this: 



Please discontinue the ad. as we are sold out 

 on the plants offered. — W. D. Howard, Milford, 

 Mass., August 29, 1921. 



One insertion more than did the work. — L. N. 

 Brown, Clyde, O., August 30, 1921. 



Sold out stock tliicc il.iys after the ml ap 

 peared in The Uoviiw :iiirl iim rolMriiint: ten 

 to twenty checks a day. A\'ho says it does not 

 pay to advertise? — Attica Floral Co., Attica, Ind., 

 August 30, 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. 



