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Much 9, 190S. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



885 



View in the Store of McAd^m & Cowell, Fort Wortii, Texas. 



A SHIPPER'S VERSION. 



A great deal has been heard from 

 the man who rj^ceives a box of cut flow- 

 ers which, for one reason or another, 

 do not come up to his anticipations. The 

 following is one shipper's view of the 

 other side of the story: 



"It may be well at this time to say 

 a few words about the relation between 

 the wholesaler and retailer, or shipper 

 and buyer. The retailer from the city 

 of B wires in his order, but does not say 

 whether first or second train will do. 

 He simply takes it for granted that 

 the wholesaler has his ice box full of 

 all kinds of stock, waiting for orders 

 to come in. He forgets that stock is 

 scarce and that home buyers are hust- 

 ling around and picking up anything 

 that is scarce and in order to get it 

 pay the top-notch price, in many cases 

 paying 2 to 4 cents apiece more than 

 the wholesaler dare charge on a ship- 

 ping order. At that, nine times out of 

 ten the party they are shipped to feels 

 that he was charged too high and pro- 

 ceeds to WTite to the shipper and com- 

 plain about the price. It makes it ef- 

 fective to say the roses were poor and 

 not worth half the price charged. Let 

 us look at the other side. The ship- 

 per had the opportunity to sell these 

 roses at home, as I said before, for, say, 

 2 cents each more, but not to disap- 

 point the customer who depends on get- 

 tinp his order filled, he docs not sell 

 them to the home customer. He goes 

 to the extra trouble to pack and box 

 them and thinks he has made friends 

 by filling the order as best he can, as 

 he feels that wnen a customer wires 

 for stock he must have an order for it 

 and to not get it would be a great dis- 

 appointment. Therefore the whole- 

 saler makes every effort to fill the order, 

 and I know numerous incidents where 

 the wholesaler bought the stock and 

 billed it out at a loss in order not to 

 have his customer think that he was 

 'robbed.' This often happens when flow- 

 ers are scarce and the price suddenly 

 takes a jump. Can we charge this raise 

 to our shipping customers? No. they 



won't stand for it, but our home cus- 

 tomers must pay the price notwith. 

 standing. 



"I find that those who do the most 

 'kicking' on price are those who order 

 only occasionally, when stock is scarce 

 and they have none themselves and 

 their home supply is short. I think on 

 a whole the outside trade gets the best 

 of the deal all the time. When stock 

 is scarce the wholesaler 'breaks his 

 neck' to get the stock td fill the orders. 

 Does he do this for his home trade? 

 Oh, no! If he has not the stock he 

 tells them so and that ends it. The 

 would-be buyer looks further. 



"Then, again, there are customers 

 who" make a point df kicking. To get 

 a rebate they write^ you that the stock 

 came in such a condition that they 

 could not use it. How does it happen? 

 I, from Chicago, send 100 carnations 

 to Texas, and the same to Minnesota; 

 same carnations, equally fresh, packed 

 and shipped at the same time. Note 

 the difference in the distance of ship- 

 ments. ' Thie Texas party . writes back 

 that he received the stock in fine condi- 

 tion. The Minnesota man says it was 

 the worst stock he ever reeeivedj he had 

 to throw them out. What do you thiVik 

 of that? Is it a square deal? I don't 

 think so. Why doesn't that party send 

 them back on the next train? Any 

 wholesaler would willingly pay the re- 

 turn charges, because he would feel sat- 

 isfied that he was not 'worked.' 



"There is a^so another kind of 'work- 

 er.' His game is to refuse a C. O. D., 

 stating that the goods were late in ar- 

 riving, an hour or two, as the case may 

 be. The agent is instructed either to 

 release or sell to best advantage. The 

 wholesaler in many cases gets a bill 

 from the express company for charges. 

 I have adopted a new plan. I wire the 

 agent to return the box on the next 

 train, it makes no difference from what 

 distance. In no case yet did I not come 

 out 'ahead of the gdme,' both in satis- 

 faction and money. If this were done 

 by all wholesalers, this practice would 

 stop, to the benefit of all concerned. 



"It ought also to be understood that 



the wholesaler's responsibility ends aft- 

 er the goods are delivered to the ex- 

 press company. We cannot agree to de- 

 liver them in another city at any cer- 

 tain time. We deliver to the express 

 company in time tor a certain train, 

 which should, barring accident, reach 

 the destination in time. But if trains 

 are snow-bound or the engine breaks 

 down, or any other of the many un- 

 avoidable accidents occur, should the 

 wholesaler be held responsible? I say, 

 no, and we are not, either morally or 

 legally. 



"But if it can be shown that, on ac- 

 count of carelessness of the express 

 company the goods were delayed, we can 

 by request from our customer, if a loss to 

 him resulted, help him make a com- 

 plaint and file a claim for such loss to 

 be adjusted by them. In any case, cost 

 or not, the goods ought to be accepted 

 by the consignee, making note on the 

 company's book of the delay and time 

 of delivery as a protest. The whole- 

 saler would then proceed to assist to 

 get the company to stand the loss. I 

 think that every wholesaler would make 

 every effort to push the claim for his 

 customer. 



"The writer received a telegram for 

 a large shipment of flowers during the 

 heavy snow storm. All trains were late, 

 in and oyt. The express company 

 would only accept the shipment subject 

 to delay. Tliis party wanted to know 

 the exact time the stock would reach 

 him. You might guess my answer. Un- 

 der the most favorable circumstances 

 this could not be promised with safety. 

 The order was not filled. 



"Another practice the wholesaler lias 

 to submit to, which should be stopped 

 is in a case like this: A wholesaler 

 gets an order. He can't fill it because 

 stock is not to be had or because the 

 order came in too late for the train 

 mentioned. He wires his customer that 

 the order cannot be filled. The cus- 

 tomer reads the telegram, then refuses 

 to pay the charges, which the whole- 

 saler has to pay. Such people ought 

 never to receive another reply, but be 

 made to await the disappoiptment when 



