28 



The Rorists' Review 



tA 



May 21. 1014. 



OPCN LETTEi;*)^^ READEIi6 



HIGH PBICES AND HOLIDAYS. 



Is There Any Remedy? 



Every holiday that brings a big de- 

 mand for flowers, brings at the same 

 time numerous complaints against the 

 resulting high prices. No one is strong- 

 er than the florist in the belief that 

 high prices are a detriment to the suc- 

 cess of these special flower days, so far 

 as the florist is concerned. But that 

 does not prevent a certain proportion 

 of the public from thinking the flower 

 dealer is a barefaced robber, and some 

 go so far as to call him by that name. 

 The trade is doing some studying in 

 an effort to avoid the conditions that 

 give rise to these hard feelings. The 

 suggestion to this end is as worthy of 

 florists' thoughts as the defense of the 

 present situation in the subjoined re- 

 ply to "a complaint on this score. 



The Federated Churches of Cleve- 

 land, an organization of much strength 

 in that city, addressed the following 

 letter to the leading florists of the 

 place. The capacity of the organiza- 

 tion for injury to the trade, as well 

 as the publicity given to the charge of 

 high prices in the daily papers, led F. 

 C. W. Brow^i,. manager of the J. M. 

 Gasser Co., to take this opportunity 

 to put the other side of the case before 

 this influential body. The letter sent 

 by the Federated Churches of Cleve- 

 land read as follows: 



The Complaint. 



' ' The attention of the Federated 

 Churches has been called to what many 

 believe to be an overcharge for carna- 

 tions just prior to Mothers' day. We 

 have been requested to ask leading flo- 

 rists in the city if they will not co- 

 operate in making it 1><)q|ible for large 

 numbers of men and^^^^omen to pur- 

 chase carnatijwis at a reasonable price. 



"It is in no spirit of criticism that 

 this communication is addressed to you, 

 but only in response to a request that 

 has come to this office, urging us to 

 ca^^^ the attention of the florists of 

 Cleveland to the fact that overcharges 

 have been made in the past by some 

 florists. 



' ' We are sure that you will cooperate 

 in making the most of Mothers' day 

 for Cleveland." 



The Reply. 



In the following letter, Mr. Brown 

 met the charges made against the flo- 

 rists in this matter, setting forth the 

 exigencies of the case so fully that it 

 must lead members of the trade to in- 

 quire whether a remedy cannot be 

 found for any of them: 



"Flowers are no longer a luxury, but 

 have become a public commodity, and 

 the amount of°capital invested in their 

 production and distribution would, if 

 put in statistical form, be quite sur- 

 prising to the great majority of the 

 »lic. 



"The business of growing and Bell- 

 ing has been put on t^e same basis as 

 the production of any other commodity, 



and while perhaps there is more or less 

 sentiment attached to many of the pur- 

 chases of flowers, if the grower is to 

 pay his staff of from one to 1,000 em- 

 ployees, or to pay his coal bill, which 

 at many of the larger establishments 

 runs from $300 to $1,000 in a single 

 day, or to pay a fair amount of inter- 

 est on the capital he has invested, 

 which in single companies amounts to 

 over half a million dollars, he must 

 somehow overlook the sentimental fea- 

 ture of the business and, borrowing a 

 phrase, come down to brass tacks. 



Coming Down to "Brass Tacks." 



" 'Brass tacks,' in this instance, is 

 bowing to the law of supply and de- 

 mand, which we all realize regulates 

 our commercial existence. 



"For the sake of clear understand- 

 ing we will deal with the flower you 

 have particularly mentioned, the car- 

 nation. If you are a flower buyer, you 

 know that there are many times when 

 carnations are sold at retail for as low 

 as 30, 40 and 50 cents per dozen. At 

 such times the flowers are sold at a 

 loss to the grower, for he must receive 

 that sum to pay the actual cost of pro- 

 duction. So it should not be hard to 

 understand that there must be times 

 when a greater price is necessary to 

 make up for the losses incurred. There- 

 fore the law of supply and demand does 

 the equalizing. 



"The grower sells at a loss when his 

 supply is greater than the demand, 

 thereby increasing the demand and hav- 

 ing his output consumed. When the 

 supply is less than the demand, he 

 increases his price, not curtailing the 

 demand, but so arranging that the price 

 is equalized in the rise, at a standard 

 whereby he is permitted to continue 

 growing, so that the public may be sup- 

 plied with what it desires. 



"We desire to point out to your so- 

 ciety that flowers are not like a great 

 many other kinds of merchandise. It 

 is not possible in the quiet season to 

 store up and put away the blooms for 

 a time when there is a demand for 



them, and while it is true that nature 

 has given us a little control over the 

 plants, so that we can force an extra 

 amount of blooms for special days when 

 flowers are in great demand, we have 

 not yet succeeded in forcing nature to 

 yield a crop to compensate- us in a day 

 for the year-around care, attention, 

 space and expense incurred in bringing 

 to the public our stock in trade. 



' * We are not even as fortunate as 

 the dealer in fruit, who can, by means 

 of cold storage, bring his wares from 

 the side of the world that is given sum- 

 mer sunshine when we are given winter 

 snows. You buy peaches for 75 cents 

 per basket in August, but you do not 

 grumble at paying 75 cents each at 

 Christmas time for an even inferior 

 fruit brought from Africa, if it seems 

 essential that you should have them. 

 We cannot bring carnations from 

 Africa. 



On the Sentimental Side. 



"Now, if you will permit us to wan- 

 der from the mercenary standpoint 

 back to the sentimental side of the 

 question, we will quote from a letter 

 published in the Plain Dealer of May 

 8, under the heading of 'Mothers' day.' 

 The letter refers to three little boys 

 who wanted to buy carnations on Moth- 

 ers ' day: 



" 'At the third place we went to, we 

 told them we wanted some carnations 

 awful bad, and couldn't they let us 

 have just a few for 30 cents, and they 

 tgok us out in a back room, where they 

 had some that were not exactly fresh, 

 and they gave us four of those for 30 

 cents.' 



' ' Aside from being proud of our flo- 

 rist who truthfully told the little boys 

 that the carnations were not perfectly 

 fresh, we want you to remember that 

 the children were able to procure car- 

 nations. 



"Do you realize that on such a day 

 as Mothers' day, or, in fact, on any 

 special day, there is an abnormal 

 demand for flowers, a demand that 

 really doubly exceeds the supply, and 

 if flowers were and could be held to a 

 low, standard price, a few people would 

 buy in sueh quantities that the masses, 

 the three little boys above quoted, 

 would find, when they went to purchase, 

 that all flowers had been sold to a few 

 who had more money than they and 

 had the foresight to order in advance. 



"Your letter also voices a sentiment 

 unfortunately quite common with the 



Residence and Office of Carl Hirsch, Hillsdale, Mich. 



