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14 



The Florists^ Review 



OCTOBBK 21, 1916. 



RETAIL STORE 



WHAT THE LEADERS IN THE TRADE ARE DOING 



DO AUTOS HURT OR HELP? 



A correspondent writes: "Notwith- 

 standing the financial depression 

 through which the country has been 

 passing, the automobile business seems 

 to be going ahead by leaps and bounds. 

 Many automobile agents this y^ar have 

 far exceeded their best previous rec- 

 ords. Many persons have purchased au- 

 tomobiles who, judging by appearances, 

 are not able to maintain them. A con- 

 siderable number, it is known, have 

 mortgage^ homes for which they have 

 been saving through a long period of 

 years, in order to buy a machine. An 

 incident came to the notice of the 

 writer, where a widow received a legacy 

 of about $3,000 in cash, besides the 

 home she lived in. She put a substan- 

 tial portion of her cash legacy into an 

 automobile, which, after she had used 

 it a few days, had lost probably half its 

 value, as far as her ability to realize 

 any money on it was concerned. 



"Many who own machines are find- 

 ing that it is costing them far more 

 than they had planned for the upkeep. 

 Yet such is the almost universal desire 

 to own an auton^obile that hundreds of 

 others, who really cannot afford to buy 

 machines, are planning to get them' as 

 soon as they can scrape a little more 

 itaoney together. . 



"Has this automobile craze injured 

 the florists' business? Many have been 

 asking the question. Business generally 

 has been so upset during the last year 

 that it is harder to get at the true 

 answer to this question than it would 

 be when general business conditions are 

 more stable. But there are a growing 

 number of florists who are coming to 



feel that the rapid increase in the 

 growth of the automobile business is 

 hurting them. In one sense flowers are 

 aJUiiEury, and if a family's surplus 

 mbni^y goes for an automobile and its 

 upkeep, it cannot go for flowers, jew- 

 elry, etc. 



"It is undoubtedly true that there is 

 no one who will entirely cut out the 

 purchase of flowers because he has pur- 

 chased an automobile, but there are 

 many who doubtless will buy flowers 

 and plants in smaller quantities than 

 if they had no machine. If a funeral 

 piece is desired, it will be a cheaper 

 one than they would otherwise pur- 

 chase. If flowers are to be purchased 

 for a wedding, the quantity will be less 

 if there is an unpaid garage bill to be 

 met also. House bouquets, purchased 

 by those who have to economize on 

 other things because of the expense of 

 the upkeep of their autos, will be 

 smaller than before the machines were 

 purchased. There will be a tendency 

 on the part of some to 'shop' in order 

 to get flowers where they can be. pur- 

 chased the cheapest. Florists whose 

 flowers, while not strictly fresh, still 

 look good, may benefit by such trade, 

 but the house whose aim is to always 

 furnish the finest quality of goods will 

 suffer to some extent. 



"There is a large class of people 

 who can afford to keep automobiles 

 without curtailing their expenditures 

 for flowers and other things which 

 might be classed as semi-luxuries. But 

 there is the other class of those in 

 moderately comfortable circumstances, 

 who have but a limited amount of 

 money that can be used on extras. If 



they spend an unusually large propor- 

 tion of their incomes on automobiles, 

 they must economize correspondingly in 

 other lines. The question is whether 

 the aggregate of the economies of such 

 people is sufficiently large to make a 

 perceptible difference in the business 

 of individual florists. There are many 

 who think it is, though few, if any, 

 will state that the amount is suf- 

 ficiently large to cripple them." 



There are all sorts of ways of look- 

 ing at things. Of course it Snith 

 spends all or most of his money with 

 Jones for an automobile, Smith cannot 

 spend it with Green, the florist, but 

 what will Jones do with itf If he made 

 money on the deal, quite likely he will 

 send his wife a corsage bouquet and 

 phone her to come down to dinner and 

 the theater. And perhaps, business be- 

 ing good, the restaurant man and the 

 theater manager may each buy rather 

 more and better flowers than they would 

 if Jones stayed home. 



WINDOW SIMPLICITY. 



A little thinking will save a lot of 

 unproductive effort and experiment in 

 dressing up a window. The distinctive 

 feature of the window illustrated on 

 this page is the simplicity of arrange- 

 ment, which is the more striking be- 

 cause there was no attempt to cram the 

 window with something of everything 

 in the store. Here is where the window 

 artist, in this instance, did his thinking 

 before trimming the window — not after- 

 ward, as happens not uncommonly. 

 Especially beautiful is the center 

 decoration of a corsage bouquet upon 

 velvet, draped over an artist's easel 

 and palette, which at once has the 

 suggestion of art and^ beauty, as if, 

 perhaps, devised by an artist for a sub- 

 ject. Its effect is preserved because 

 the window was not crowded full of 

 other flowers, and in this lies the secret 

 of its simplicity. To have filled the 

 space in the window to any greater ex- 

 tent, simply because the space was 

 there, would have destroyed the effect. 

 The window is that of the Jones-Rus- 

 sell Co., of Cleveland, in its new branch 

 store opened early in October, at Euclid 

 avenue and the Taylor Arcade, where 

 half the store is occupied by a con- 

 fectioner. 



New Branch Store of the Jonet-Ruiaell G>., Clevelaod. 



A STUDY IN CONTRASTS. 



The photograph reproduced on page 

 15 shows the decorations which Max 

 Schling arranged for the wedding of a 

 Los Angeles bride, at the Waldorf- 

 Astoria, in New York. Although the 

 color scheme is not apparent in the 

 picture, a good idea of the care given 

 to it can be had by noticing the ex- 

 cellent contrasts obtained. The pleas- 

 ing effect of the bower at the left, un- 

 der which the ceremony was performed, 

 was a striking feature of the decora- 

 tion. Flowering apples were used ia 

 the bower and also in other corners of 



