68 



The Florists^ Review 



JVLT 6, 1922 



THE RETAIL STORE 



A PAGE OF HINTS AND HELPS 

 FOR THE RETAIL FLORIST j 



A SHOWER OF SHOWERS. 



Though florists in some localities 

 complain of the absence of the one-time 

 June business in graduation bouquets, 

 those in other places are more fortu- 

 nate. In Boston they are particulifrly 

 so. 



For instance, a feature of the gradua- 

 tion exercises of the Walnut Hill School, 

 for young ladies, was a shower of 

 shower bouquets. Each graduate — 

 there were twenty-three — was presented 

 a bouquet in the class colors, white 

 and lavender. These bouquets are 

 shown in the illustration on this page. 



The shower was a great surprise and 

 the innovation most effective. Sweet 

 peas of the most delicate tints, bor- 

 dered with maidenhair fern, with flow- 

 ing showers, made this work of Thomas 

 F. Galvin, Inc., Boston, of outstanding 

 brilliance. 



' 'ADVERTISE IT WITH FLOWERS." 



A Chicago advertising agency calls 

 attention to the manner in which the 

 Lehon Co., of Chicago, manufacturers 

 of Mule-Hide roofing and shingles, made 

 use of flowers to advertise their prod- 

 uct at the recent convention of the As- 

 sociated Advertising Clubs of the 

 World, held at Milwaukee, Wis. 



"The readers of your publication," 

 writes the Business Research Co., "may 

 be interested to know that to the slo- 

 gan, 'Say It with Flowers,' can be 

 added the phrase, 'Advertise It with 

 Flowers. ' 



"This statement is by no means a 

 hollow one, because the Lehon Co. def- 

 initely secured attention and results 

 through the employment of their big 

 floral piece. 



"The receptacle, shown in the illus- 

 tration, was five feet in diameter and 

 was made of galvanized iron. In it 

 3,600 carnations were placed to form 

 the trademark. 



"The Lehon Co. states that it not 

 only created enthusiastic comment, but 

 that it netted a nice business for the 

 local dealer in Mule-Hide products. ' ' 



KEEPING THE BOOKS PROPERLY. 



Figuring Interest on Capital Owned. 



Rapid progress is being made today in 

 a department of the retail florists ' busi- 

 ness which long languished; namely, the 

 accounting department. Some day a uni- 

 form system will be devised for this 

 trade, as has been for other trades, in 

 some cases by trade associations, in 

 some by the bureau of business research 

 at Harvard University. In the mean- 

 time, advance is steady by florists as 

 individuals. In one respect practices 

 of retailers, not only florists but others 

 as well, in bookkeeping vary consider- 

 ably, and more uniformity must be ob- 

 tained before one man's costs and prof- 

 its are to be compared accurately with 

 another's. 



Owing to different methods of financ- 

 ing businesses, significant figures for 

 comparison can be obtained only by in- 



cluding interest both on borrowed 

 money and on net investment as an 

 operating expense. The net investment 



Twenty-Three Shower Bouquets of Sweet Peas for Boston Graduation. 



"Advertise It with Flowers." 



on which interest is charged is exclusive 

 of real estate, because the charge on the 

 books for the use of the real estate is 

 made to "rentals." 



The average net investment on which 

 interest on capital owned is determined 

 is the average net worth of the business. 

 It is the sum of the assets (not includ- 

 ing real estate), less the sum of the lia- 

 bilities to outsiders (not including capi- 

 tal stock or surplus of a corporation or 

 undivided profits). The assets include 

 cash, notes and accounts receivable, net 

 inventories of merchandise, equipment, 

 supplies and prepayments, such as pre- 

 paid insurance. Good will is not included 

 unless purchased outright. The liabili- 

 ties include notes and accounts payable 

 and accrued items, such as unpaid taxes 

 (not mortgages on real estate). 



A corporation determines its net in- 

 vestment in the same way as a propri- 

 etorship or a partnership, irrespective 

 of the amount of capital stock issued. 

 The capital stock authorized may or 

 may not equal the net investment; 

 hence the net investment is determined 

 independently. 



The rate of interest to be used in cal- 

 f'ulating the amount to be included on 

 the books under "Interest on Capital 

 Owned" is the ordinary rate on long- 

 time, reasonably secure investments in 

 the locality in which the business is sit- 

 uated. 



For Uniform Accounting. 



In its investigation of the costs of 

 iloing business in retail trades, the Har- 

 vard bureau of business research con- 

 siders as an operating expense interest 

 on owned capital as well as interest on 

 borrowed capital. The effects of this 

 treatment of interest are that total ex- 

 pense is increased and a more exact def- 

 inition is given to net profit. The final 

 earnings of the business, however, are 

 unaffected, since the interest charge for 

 owned capital is credited back to the 

 business through an item called "In- 

 terest and Rentals Earned" before the 

 total net gain for the year is deter- 

 mined. It is necessary that interest 



