OCTOBBB 18, 1821 



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Thcrlorists' Review 



31 



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BETTERING BOTH BRANCHES 



BETAILEB AND GBOWEB. 



Relation of One to Other. 



In order to get a proper background 

 for the all-important subject of the re- 

 lation of retailer and grower, let us sum- 

 marize a little by seeing, first, what re- 

 lation the retailer has been to the grower 

 in the past; second, what the relation 

 now is, and third, a summary of what 

 the future relation we hope will be. 



Those of us whose memory goes back 

 a quarter of. a century or more can here 

 witness that there always was a rela- 

 tionship between the retailer and the 

 grower. In fact, many of their past 

 actions, one toward the other, has al- 

 most convinced us at times that they 

 were truly blood relations; from the 

 way they fought and scrapped, equal, 

 I am sure, to any true family row. 



The matter of fact is that the relation- 

 ship in the past has not been what it 

 should have been for the best interests 

 of all concerned. One of the greatest 

 evils nurturing dissension and discord 

 was, to my mind, the peddling system 

 of the grower; that is, the selling of a 

 part of the grower's product directly 

 to the retailer's customers. There are 

 a few communities where this system 

 is still in vogue and it is usually there 

 that discord is the greatest. 



The coming of the wholesale commis- 

 sion man and the strictly wholesale 

 grower on the scene has helped the 

 cause for a closer and better relation- 

 ship between the retailer and the grower 

 a great deal, and this brings us to the 

 second consideration, namely, what the 

 relationship now is between the retailer 

 and the grower. 



Wholesaler Bridges Gap. 



We must surely all admit that the 

 ushering in of the wholesaler — whether 

 as a commission man, or as an organized 

 body of growers distributing their stock 

 from one central point, or as a large in- 

 dividual grower strictly wholesaling his 

 entire product — on the present day 

 wholesale commercial basis has mate- 

 rially helped to bridge a gulf of much 

 unpleasant relationship between the re- 

 tailer and the grower. This, the so- 

 called middleman's service, has, in my 

 opinion, come to stay, for it is the true 

 American way of distributing products. 



Another large factor of just a few 

 recent years has been the matter of 

 cooperative advertising. In many com- 

 munities where this work is progressing, 

 there is indeed a much closer relation- 

 ship between the retailer and the grower 

 than ever before. "Why? Simply be- 

 cause they find by helping each other 

 they are helping themselves, and that, 

 after all, is the tie that binds. 



Those of us who have had a part in 

 the organizing and promoting of the Na- 

 tional Flower Growers' Association be- 

 lieve that in this work we are also paving 

 the way for a closer relationship between 

 the retailer and the grower. It is with- 

 out doubt a fact that it was largely 

 due to the organized district growers' 

 associations that local cooperative ad- 

 vertifling got its start. Through these 

 district organizations we hope in time 



The address of J. F. Ammuun, secretary of 

 the National Flower Growers' Association, on 

 "The Relation of Retailer and Grower," de- 

 livered at the annual meeting of the Florists' 

 Telegraph DeUvery Association, at Toronto, Oc- 

 tober 11. 



to get accurate data on our business — 

 annual reports as to the amount of glass 

 area, capital invested and stock grown 

 and much other valuable information 

 that will not only benefit the grower 

 but the retailer as well. Many of us 

 feel this is an essential part of our 

 organization work. We^ therefore, so- 

 licit the good will of all branches of 

 the trade towards perfecting the Na- 

 tional Flower Growers' Association. 



We can, I think, point with great 

 pride to the fact that the relationship 

 between the retailer and grower is more 

 friendly and better today than it ever 

 has been. That is not said, however, 

 with the implication that there is not 



The statement issued last 

 week by a government bureau, 

 that 172 trade organizations 

 were engaged in issuing market 

 supply and price reports and 

 that over 450 such organiza- 

 tions collected some sort of 

 market data, indicates the ex- 

 tent of a means of trade pro- 

 motion florists have not yet 

 undertaken. How we may do 

 this and benefit thereby is the 

 message of J. F. Ammann's 

 Toronto address, on this page. 



still a lot of room for improvement, 

 which brings us to the third considera- 

 tion of our topic, namely, what their 

 future relationship should be. 



For the Future. 



So now that we have built a back- 

 ground for our subject by a brief re- 

 view of the past and present, let us, 

 as a finale, just take a brief glance into 

 the future, with a vision, yes, but rather 

 more so with a true knowledge based 

 on our experiences of the past, both as 

 to mistakes and progress. I wonder how 

 many producers in our trade ever have 

 taken into consideration the fact that 

 we are among the few industries in the 

 country that are so fortunate as to have 

 dealers who handle only their one par- 

 ticular line. To be more specific, retail 

 flower stores in this land of ours are 

 among the few shops that specialize 

 in only one kind of article, flowers. I 

 wonder if that is not largely responsible 

 for most of our progress. Truly it can 

 lie said, I am sure, that the one great 

 'outstanding movement, namely, the pro- 

 motion of florists' telegraph delivery, 

 could not have been put across so suc- 

 cessfully if our dealers were not spe- 



cialists in our particular line only. This 

 great movement, that means so much to 

 both retailer and grower today, is the 

 great tie, above all others, that should 

 tend to bring a closer relationship be- 

 tween the retailer and the grower in the 

 future. 



This is not to be a paper, however, 

 on the wonderful success of the F. T. 

 D. But one cannot touch upon the re- 

 lationship between the retailer and 

 grower without also touching upon the 

 great work of this wonderful organiza- 

 tion, its achievements up to the pres- 

 ent day and the great future yet to 

 come. I have a vision of a future rela- 

 tionship between the retailer and grower 

 that will eliminate such conditions as 

 existed, for instance, last Mothers' day, 

 when many retailers throughout the 

 country had to close their shops before 

 the regular time because of insufficient 

 stock to accommodate their trade. This 

 should not be, gentlemen. Growers must 

 more carefully study the needs'ocf the 

 retailer for such special days, and pro- 

 vide accordingly. There should be con- 

 ferences between the retailer and the 

 grower months and weeks in advance 

 of such time, the former intelligently de- 

 scribing his needs and the latter even 

 so intelligently listing his supplies. If 

 it is found that a possible shortage 

 exists, special efforts should be made 

 on the part of the growers to meet these 

 necessary demands, for above all we 

 must be able to give the public what 

 we advertise, or our expenditure along 

 that line is wasted and our efforts to 

 create demands become harmful rather 

 then beneficial. 



Mutual Advancement. 



Then, too, we hope to see the day — 

 and to see it is to strive for it — when 

 there will be a regular council estab- 

 lished, consisting of retailers and grow- 

 ers in the various communities, so that 

 products may be listed according to the 

 time they will be ready for market and 

 in what proportion, in order that we 

 may intelligently do cooperative and 

 individual advertising. The retailer 

 wants to and must know a long time 

 in advance as to the probable supply 

 of the various kinds of stock. The 

 grower wants the retailer to know this 

 in order that the surplus, if any, may 

 be taken care of, and he also wants to 

 know the retailer's needs. If this work 

 is mutually and accurately done, much 

 of our market glut conditions will be 

 oliminated, and it will prove a benefit 

 to both alike. Let us, in closing, remem- 

 ber this: In order to form a closer 

 and more friendly relationship we must 

 only render a service worth while to 

 some one and our friendly relations at 

 once begin. We as a nation have more 

 friendly relations with the various na- 

 tions of the world today than any other 

 nation on earth. Why? Because we 

 have helped them unselfishly, rendered 

 service in many ways, even to our late 

 foe. So it is with us in our business 

 relations. Mr. Grower, if you will ren- 

 der the kind of service — by giving in- 

 formation, by producing the desired 

 stock, or in any other way — that will 



