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The Florists^ Review 



29 



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TOPICS AT TORONTO 



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SHOULD $5 BE MINIMUM? 



The much-discussed question, whether 

 orders of less than $5 should be sent 

 by wire, came up for debate Wednes- 

 day morning. Charles Henry Fox, who 

 advertises "I will never send you an 

 order less than $5," declared himself in 

 favor of a general rule among associa- 

 tion members making that sum the 

 minimum. He declared that almost 

 everyone who wishes to send flowers 

 by telegraph is willing to sj)cnd that 

 •much. In his own store he experienced 

 next to no difficulty in that respect. Oc- 

 casionally at Christmas an inexperienced 

 salesperson took a telegrajjh order for 

 less than $5, but even in such cases, he 

 said, he adliered to liis pledge by mak- 

 ing up the difference; for instance, add- 

 ing $2 to tlie $3 j)aid by a custonuT. 



A plea for the florist in small towns, 

 where $2 or .$o often buys a good many 

 flowers, was made by Max Scliling. He 

 believed tliat the customer's desires 

 should always be met. Tlie same thought 

 was presented by William V. Ciudc, who 

 stated that occasionally a customer 

 wished a simple token — a single rose or 

 a bunch of violets — telegraphed to a 

 friend in another city. He declared 

 that a customer who would pay in tele- 

 grai)h charges, as sometimes ha])])ened, 

 more than the cost of the flowers sent 

 was a customer wliosc desires should 

 be satisfied. 



Undoubtedly the lloiist in a large city 

 is embarrassed at times by the receipt 

 of an order of small amount from a well- 

 meaning florist in a small town, es- 

 pecially if the latter specifies exactly 

 what his customer wants to have sent for 

 the money. For the better satisfaction 

 of his customer and for the sake of his 

 fellow florist's interest, tlie sender of 

 an order should alwitys take into con- 

 sideration the trade conditions in the 

 city to which he is relaying it and ask 

 of the receiving florist nothing which he 

 himself would not be willing to do in his 

 place. The sender should not si)ecifv 

 too exactly how tlie order is to be filled 

 and with what and how many flowers. 

 It is better to allow some latitude to the 



florist at the other end. Then he is 

 likely to do as much as he can for the 

 money and so better please the recipient 

 and therefore the original purchaser 

 of the flowers. No hard and fast rule 

 is able to be laid down regarding a 

 minimum for telegraph orders, it was 

 the consensus at Toronto, for the ex- 

 ception is usually important. Every re- 

 tailer of flowers, of course, wants to 

 sell as manj' as he can, for his own 

 profit. He should attempt to keep the 

 standard of telegraj)!! orders up, for his 

 own sake and his brother florist 's. But 

 small ones should be given full attention 

 for the good of them both also. 



OBDERS FOB HOSPITALS. 



How much care may be given to filling 

 orders to be delivered to hospitals — yet, 

 occasionally, with discouraging results 

 — was recounted at the Toronto meeting 

 by Charles H. Grakelow, who sends out 

 many flowers to hospitals in Philadel- 

 phia. That city is not so favorable to 

 florists as is Chicago, according to 

 (Jeorge Asuius, who stated that little 

 difficulty is now experienced with hos- 

 pitals there. Jn many other places be- 

 sides the City of Brotherly Love are hos- 

 pital attendants without proper con- 

 sideration for flowers received for their 

 ]>atients and some florists may wish to 

 follow Mr. Grakelow 's practices. Mr. 

 (irakelow lias jjlaced stickers on boxes 

 going out, some to insure prompt de- 

 livery to the i)atient when no receipt at 

 the liospital office was given, some to 

 request the nurse to give the flowers 

 attention. 



Perhaps the most vexatious matter is 

 that of a receipt. Florists' delivery 

 men should always obtain a receipt 

 when it is })ossible. They should also 

 endeavor to learn if the ])erson to whom 

 the flowers are addressed is at the hos- 

 pital. Nothing is more ])rovoking than 

 a box of flowers returned a few days 

 after delivery with the statement that 

 . the i)atient has left or was never at the 

 hospital. 



l'roni])t delivery of tlie flowers to the 

 patient by the attendants should be 



urged upon hospital officials by the local 

 florist. If the flowers cannot be ^ent at 

 once to the sick room, they should not 

 be left next to a steam pipe or in a 

 drafty place. The handling of the 

 flowers in the hospital is outside the 

 control of the florist, but he may, by 

 jjcrsonal conference with the manage- 

 nient, succeed in improving the cus- 

 tomary mode. If he can, he will in- 

 crease the pleasure of the recipients of 

 the flowers and the satisfaction of those 

 who have ordered them. 



WHY IS THE $5 HOBBY BOX? 



In these columns not many months 

 since appeared a «tory of the Hobby 

 box, the lla|)py-liaji fern and the 

 Tisket-tasket basket, which form the $5 

 trio advertised by (ieorge M. Stumpp, 

 New Vork. That article was concerned 

 primarily with Mr. Stum])[)'s methods 

 of advertising these special items of 

 his. The object of them from a mer- 

 chandise point of view was explained 

 at Toronto last week by Mr. Stumpp 

 before the F. T. I), members. 



A fundamental principle of present- 

 day advertising (considering that word 

 in its larger sense, as including merchan- 

 dising and selling as well as the use of 

 l)rinters' ink) is that a trade-marked 

 article strengthens a line of merchan- 

 dise. That is why so many of the things 

 you buy, from toothbrushes and soda 

 crackers to washing machines and plows, 

 are sold under a name, either a regis- 

 tered trade-mark or the name of the 

 manufacturer. The reason is that one 

 can develop sjiecific talking j)oints al)out 

 a Prophylactic toothbrush, Uneeda bis- 

 cuits, Tlior washers or Deere plows, 

 whereas one can only talk in a general 

 way about the need of toothbrushes, the 

 jirice of soda crackers, the labor-saving 

 of a washing machine or the usefulness 

 of a ]dow. The ]irincij)le so widely ap- 

 ]>lied in manufactured articles is suit- 

 able to our business, too. For instance, 

 Mr. Stuniiip, instead of advertising a 

 box of flowers, advertises the Hobby 

 box at $.'(. He can talk of its quality, 

 its ease of purciiase, its attractive 



Posed for their Photograph in Front of the Horticultural Building at Exposition Park, October 12. 



