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Fbbbuaby 4, 191S. 



The Florists' Review 



15 



CAREFUL CATERING TO ig 

 X COUNTRY CUSTOMERS 



■1 ■" ■■ '■■ ■■ "■ " " 



I HE flower 

 business, 

 more than al- 

 most any 

 other busi- 

 ness, necessi- 

 tates cater- 

 ing to out-of-fown trade, for 

 home consumption is not large 

 enough to insure success for a 

 florist outside of the large cities. 

 Hence, every florist who is located so 

 that the railroad facilities are good, 

 must expand by working up an out-of- 

 town business. This line requires ex- 

 ceedingly careful handling, for the 

 motto should be "Hang on to the old 

 customers and the new ones will come. ' ' 

 As a rule when a florist makes a ship- 

 ment to a small town everyone in that 

 town knows that Mrs. So-and-so re- 

 ceived some flowers. If they are not 

 up to standard, his future orders from 

 that town are going to be extremely 

 small. But if he sends good stock, 

 properly packed, so that the blooms 

 arrive at their destination without hav- 

 ing been chilled and without half the 

 heads broken oflP the roses or the out- 

 side petals torn off because the flowers 

 were not tied to the box, he will in all 

 likelihood hear from that place again. 



My Method. 



The method I have used to work 

 up out-of-town trade is 

 to secure a good agent 

 in every town within 

 shipping distance and 

 allow him or her a com- 

 mission on all orders, 

 the persons ordering 

 paying the cost, such as 

 express, parcel post, 

 telephoning or tele- 

 graphing. We issue a 

 weekly price-list to all 

 our agents, keeping 

 them posted on prices 

 and flowers in stock, 

 making a notation on 

 the varieties that are 

 scarce, so that they 

 may work on the flow- 

 , ers that are in largest 

 supply. We also keep 

 each agent supplied 

 with a catalogue of il- 



— -lustrations of floral ar- 

 rangements of all kinds, 

 so that the customer 

 may select the style, 

 emblem or design, and 



/ the varieties, etc., 



' which he or she desires. 

 The object is to make it 

 as easy as possible for 

 • the agent to secure the 

 order and not take too 

 much of his time. 



Through the agent, 

 lot shipments may be 

 made, bringing the ex- 

 press charges down to a 

 niinimum. We discour- 

 age parcel post ship- 

 ments whenever we 



■ " " '" " ■" ■' "' " '"= 



A paper entitled "Floral Suggestions to Out- 

 of-town Flower Lovers," read at the annual meet- 

 ing of the Nebraska State Florists' Society, at 

 Lincoln, January 19, 1915. 



can, for we know the handling of flow- 

 ers is not a success when mail sacks 

 are thrown around as they are. We 

 do not guarantee the arrival of flow- 

 ers on time by parcel post, as it is 

 quite uncertain. For these two rea- 

 sons we suggest making shipment by 

 express when possible. Of course, local 

 rural routes are all right for cut flower 

 shipment, as the mail for these is not 

 sacked. 



Small Profits in Plants. 



As to working off the surplus in pot- 

 ted plants during the spring months, 

 we have not paid as much attention to 

 that end of the business of late as we 

 did in former years. We have had con- 



Ed. WilUams, the Mao who put the Grand In Grand bland. 



siderable experience 

 with this line, and think 

 it better if it can bo 

 eliminated. Of course^ 

 we solicit out-of-town 

 shipments of potted 

 plants and have a nice 

 trade in them, but we do not 

 work it as extensively^ as for- 

 merly. 

 In the early days we used to 

 keep two or three teams out from May 

 1 until the end of June, but the ex- 

 pense is too great to allow a good mar- 

 gin of profit in disposing of them in 

 that manner now. We tried to get an 

 agent for plants in every town in 

 our territory, but it is hard to find 

 the right person. Our agents for cut 

 flowers do not, as a rule, care to deal 

 in plants. We get good results, how- 

 ever, by asking them to refer to us 

 some one who they think would like 

 to handle plants for us. 



During the last few years we have 

 picked out the leading papers in our 

 territory and placed in them advertise- 

 ments calling attention to our agents 

 and stating that we carry a full line 

 of house and garden plants, on which 

 we should be pleased to submit prices. 

 For this purpose we have printed in 

 pamphlet form a price-list of all our 

 plants. Nine out of every ten inquiries 

 result in an order, and the cost is 

 small, for there is no 

 commission to be paid. 

 Then, too, when an or- 

 der comes direct, you 

 can ship the plants out 

 of pots, adding an ex- 

 tra plant or two, and 

 the transaction is much 

 more satisfactory all 

 around. For these rea- 

 sons I think this method 

 is better than agents. 



Counting the Cost. 



Now, the cost of do- 

 ing a shipping business 

 is considerably larger 

 than that of disposing 

 of all your stock at 

 home, for you are vir- 

 tually doing a wholesale 

 business. When you al- 

 low over twenty per 

 cent to agents, there- 

 fore, you are giving too 

 much. In securing new 

 agents now we try to 

 get them to accept fif- 

 teen per cent. Of 

 course, where there is 

 competition we have to 

 allow more, but we have 

 a limit. I think a com- 

 mon understanding that 

 twenty per cent should 

 be a uniform discount 

 would be welcomed by 

 the trade. 



Ten years ago we re- 

 ceived practically the 

 same prices that we are 



[Continued on page 72.] 



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