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APRIL 13. 1905. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



J 225 



The Special Sale Pavilion for Cut Flowers in a Kansas Qty Department Store. 



many other things if they could be of- 

 fered at a price which would serve our 

 purpose of attracting a crowd." 



As the Retailer Sees It. 



In order to set forth the effect of the 

 department store flower sales on the re- 

 tail flower stores, the retailers at Kansas 

 City, who have had as much experience 

 of this ' ' competition ' ' as anyone, were 

 appealed to for their views. Samuel 

 Murray, who does a large business and is 

 a heavy buyer in the same markets as 

 those drawn upon by the department 

 stores, writes as follows: 



"In regard to the special sales of cut 

 flowers by the Emery, Bird, Thayer Co. 

 and others, I do not think that they at- 

 tract many of the people who patronize 

 the better class of flower stores; maybe 

 some, but on the whole they do the retail 

 florists good by reaching a new class of 

 people and creating in them a love for 

 the beautiful and for flowers. Later 

 these people will come to be regular pat- 

 rons of the florists, buying to adorn 

 their own homes but especially buying 

 flowers for gifts to those in suffering 

 and sadness, something they had not 

 thought of until the cheap sale awoke in 

 them the loVe of flo^.ers. I feel that 

 every flower brought into the home, be 

 it rich or poor, brings just so much sun- 

 shine. I was very much pleased last 

 Saturday (March 18) to see so many 

 people in town carrying bunches of car- 

 nations and violets from one of these 

 sales. ' ' 



W. L. Rock is one of the representa- 

 tive florists of the west. He writes as 

 follows: 



"It is our candid opinion that these 

 department store flower sales are a bene- 

 fit to the retail florist, providing they go 

 no farther than having specisd sales on, 

 say, one day in the week. The sales 

 certainly do us no harm. The class of 

 people buying the department store flow- 

 ers buy them because they think they 

 are a bargain, and sometimes they are 

 bargains. This class of people would 



not buy of the legitimate florist if there 

 were no sale. The only danger we can 

 see is that these sales, when well pat- 

 ronized, may have a tendency to tempt 

 the department stores to place cheap 

 flowers on sale regularly, or every day 

 during the spring season, when stock 

 of this character is plentiful and cheap. 



"We have two large department 

 stores here which have flower sales near- 

 ly every Saturday. Still our business 

 increases each year, especially so on 

 Saturdays, as tltat day is made up 

 largely of transient business. 



* ' We have had a few special sales our- 

 selves and find they bring the people 

 into our store, but we don't advocate 

 having them oftener than once or twice 

 a season and then giving the public a 

 sure-enough bargain, something they will 

 talk about. 



"We understand that the Emery, 

 Bird, Thayer Co. have contracted with 

 some Chicago firm for 5,000 lilies and 

 15,000 fancy carnations to sell the Sat- 

 urday before Easter at 15 cents for lilies 

 and 2 cents for carnations. Such a sale 

 as this is apt to hurt the smaller retail 

 stores but not the stores where the 

 higher class patronage goes. We only 

 regret that such sales occur for the rea- 

 son that they cannot handle lilies as an 

 experienced florist can handle them and 

 the result is that a lot of people will be 

 disappointed Easter Sunday, and a num- 

 ber of smaller florists also disappointed in 

 their sales, and no one benefited, for the 

 department store has made no profit and 

 the grower most likely could have sold 

 them to the florists. 



"These sales usually wear themselves 

 out; just let them alone. The people 

 are becoming better educated each 

 year as to quality. Those who are buy- 

 ing cheap flowers this year may be the 

 regular florists' customers next year. So 

 on the whole I think these sales a bene- 

 fit," 



As the Wholesalers See It. 



"There can be no doubt of the value 

 of these special sales to the wholesale 



markets and the growers, ' ' said a lead- 

 ing Chicago wholesaler. "They are a 

 good thing for the market in that when- 

 ever the production is so great that 

 prices get down to a certain level there 

 is an assurance that everything at that 

 price will be cleaned up on at least one 

 day, which serves to establish a bottom 

 price for Thursday and Friday and 

 cleaning up the market has the effect 

 that on Saturday and Sunday values are 

 well maintained. And it is not only 

 the man whose stock goes to fill the big 

 order who is benefited; the whole mar- 

 ket feels the benefit. I always like to 

 hear that these orders are in town, 

 whether I get them or not." 



"It is not right to refer to these de- 

 partment store orders as 'cheap or- 

 ders,' " said another wholesaler. "We 

 have found these people ready to pay 

 fair prices. Of course they do not buy 

 until arices are down to a low level, but 

 then Tney buy in big lots and pay just 

 as good prices as any florist will pay 

 who can use a thousand of 'our selec- 

 tion.' Naturally the department store 

 buyer wants to get his stock as cheaply 

 as he can and underbidding makes him 

 shift his order from one house to an- 

 other. But if no more than $7.50 is 

 now sometimes paid lor ai thousand car- 

 nations it is because of the seuer's anx- 

 iety to sell. He might as easily get 

 $12.50 if nobody would pack up stock 

 for less." 



* ' If one of my customers tells me that 

 department store sales are hurting the 

 Saturday business," said a commission 

 man, "I tell him to go fight the devil 

 with flre. If a florist who has anything 

 like a central location does not approve 

 of the department store sales, it won't 

 be hard to stop them. Have a special 

 sale of your own on the same day as 

 the department store. Advertise just as 

 widely, sell just as cheaply (you can 

 buy as cheaply) and put the goods up 

 in better shape. Hardly any department 

 stores expect to make money on flower 

 sales;, it's to draw the crowd they have 



