Afbil 9, 1908. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



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23 



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THE RETAIL 



FLORIST 



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PREPARATIONS FOR EASTER. 



Make a Good Show. 



A flower store should at all times be 

 a model of neatness and good order, but 

 at Easter it is especially necessary that 

 effort be made to have an attractive dis- 

 play. If your store is not as attractive 

 as that of your neighbor you cannot ex- 

 pect to get an equal share of the public 

 attention ; jou cannot make your share of 

 the sales, nor can you get as good prices. 

 Bear in mind the advice once given 

 by William Scott to a young florist just 

 starting in business : ' * Hang out all your 

 wash, and wash all you got." It fits 

 everybody's case when holiday business 

 is the object sought. 



It is not every flower store that has 

 the space for so good a display as is 

 shown in the accompanying illustration, 

 but practically every store gives room 

 for a number of made-up baskets, and 

 plant arrangements of various kinds, to 

 serve not only the purpose of decora- 

 tion but as samples of the stock for the 

 sale. 



Filling Orders. 



Some retailers make it a practice to 



make actual sales from a stock dis- 

 play, marking the pieces for delivery 

 and putting them away as fast as the 

 customers make their selections, and 

 bringing in from the greenhouses or 

 reserve stock new arrangements to take 

 the place of those sold from the display. 

 But not many have the facilities for 

 handling the Easter rush in that man- 

 ner. "With most of us it is necessary 

 to book the orders as early as possible 

 and postpone the making up utatil the 

 night before Easter, when all hands work 

 as late as may be necessary, and it 

 frequently is all night, filling the orders 

 for early morning delivery. 



The Requisites. 



Get your stock of supplies ready right 

 away; there is danger in letting this go 

 until the last minute. See that you have 

 all the baskets you will need, and crepe 

 paper, and ribbon, and the dozens of 

 requisites that you need for the Easter 

 orders. See that you get a specimen of 

 each kind of pot cover, hamper, basket, 

 etc., into the display. It often happens 

 that the basket sells the plant, although 

 we would wish it to be otherwise. 



Get your cut flower boxes made up 



and stored in a convenient place; get 

 a fresh roll of paper where you can get 

 at it quickly when the one on the reel 

 runs out. Attention to the small de- 

 tails of preparation will do much to- 

 ward making everything go smoothly 

 when the high pressure is on. 



Easter Deliveries. 



Figure out your delivery plans. Re- 

 member that a mistake in delivery often 

 means the loss of a customer, and see 

 to it that you have a system which will 

 reduce the friction and worry to a 

 minimum. 



In one of the large cities at Christmas 

 a leading retailer had several hun- 

 dred pieces to deliver Christmas morn- 

 ing. He arranged for extra wagons and 

 he hired from the plantsmen, whose rush 

 was over, several extra skilled men to 

 do the wrapping. In his shipping room 

 he set aside a place for each route and 

 as fast as the orders were put up the 

 package was passed to a wrapper and 

 then placed on that part of the floor 

 designated for that particular route. The 

 clerk who was responsible for the routing 

 also checked the order to see that at- 

 tached to it were the cards showing the 

 name and address of the recipient and 

 the card of the person who sent the 

 gift; also the receipt blank for signa- 

 ture to prove correct delivery. When 

 Christmas morning came the nearest 

 routes were sent out first, and when the 

 wagons came back from the first round 

 they were sent to the farther ones, dis- 

 tant orders having been left and not 

 put up until the nearby ones had gone. 

 In this case only one error in delivery 

 was reported ; and that was a case where 



A Well-Appointed Flower Store in Its Easter Attire. 



