14 



The Florists' Review 



FEBftUAHY 12, .1914. 



1,000. That ought to convince you that 

 the small ads are read-." 



Smith: "That's all right when you 

 liave something to offer for a special 

 sale, but what are you going to do 

 when you can't offer a special sale?" 



Knoble: "You can tell people, as I 

 said before, of the excellent equip- 

 ment you have and the excellent serv- 

 ice you give, and that the greater the 

 volume of business, the easier it is to 

 handle it at a smaller cost. These facts 

 can be printed so that they are in 

 keeping with the dignity of the profes- 

 sion. If a customer enters your store 

 ■when you have not a special sale on 

 and she doesn't know exactly what she 

 wants, the salesmen do not stand bafck 

 and make no attempt to wait on her or 

 to make suggestions in order to induce 

 hel' to buy your goods. Now, so far 

 as the dignity of the business is con- 

 cerned, what is the difference between 

 making suggestions and quoting prices 

 to possible customers who come into 

 your store, and putting down these 

 same suggestions and prices in black 

 and white in the daily papers, nearly 

 every reader of which may be consid- 

 ered as a possible customer?" 



. What to Say, and How. 



Brown: "But how will you know 

 what to put in your ads? An adver- 

 tising man told me only the other day 

 that he had to treat these new kinds 

 of advertisements in a hit-or-miss fash- 

 ion, and depend on luck for results." 



Knoble: "Let me tell you, the fel- 

 low who told you that could not have 

 been much of an advertising man. Ad- 

 vertising is nothing more or less than 

 salesmanship on paper." 



Brown: "But salesmanship is a 

 matter of individual ability. Each man 

 does it in his own way. ' ' 



Knoble: "Do you mean to say there 

 are no fixed rules of salesmanship?" 



Brown: "You must be a student of 

 Sheldon." 



Knoble: "Yes, I have been, and I 

 profited a great deal by it. But to re- 

 turn to the subject, the fact remains 

 that there are fixed rules in regard to 

 selling flowers or anything else. Some 

 men follow them unconsciously, others 

 consciously. The main thing is, the 

 rules are there to follow, and they will 

 increase your business if you use 

 them. ' ' 



Smith: "The question is, are the re- 

 sults enough to pay for your time and 

 work, and the cost of the ads?" 



Knoble: "How many thousands of 

 people do you suppose there are who 

 do not buy flowers, not because they 

 can't afford them, but because they 

 don't know enough about them and 

 their cost, and have not had them 

 brought to their attention as much as 

 automobiles, theaters and other luxu- 

 ries they spend money on?" 



Smith: "But will newspaper adver- 

 tising reach them?" 



Knoble: "Did you ever know of a 

 florist who started advertising, who 

 stopped? That's the tip to follow. Get 

 in the bandwagon! I'm glad of this 

 chance to give you my views on ad- 

 vertising. The only thing you need 

 to convince you is a little thought 



about it. Well, I'll have to leave you 

 and give you time to think. Glad to 

 have met you, Mr. Brown. ' ' 



Brown: "You've half convinced me 

 I ought to advertise, as well as our 

 friend. ' ' 



Smith: "I'm going to think about 

 it." 



I THE RETAIL «^^^^ | 



FLORIST...... I 



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^s 



A RETAIL FLORIST'S ROUTE. 



Perhaps there are many retail florists 

 who have worked up something similar, 

 but the method of a greenhouse man on 

 the north shore of LaJce Michigan, 

 above Chicago, is one that has not pre- 

 viously been described. This florist is 

 located between two first-class sub- 

 urban towns. The majority of the resi- 

 dents are city people in fairly well-to- 

 do circumstances. The florist's chief 

 business is growing cut flowers for the 

 city market, but, like many of his kind, 

 he does more or less retailing at the 

 greenhouses. In the course of time he 

 found that many of his customers 

 wanted regular supplies of flowers every 

 Saturday; they wanted to spend a half 

 dollar for the decoration of the Sunday 

 dinner table. The result was that the 

 florist started out on Saturdays with a 

 basket to make deliveries to regular 

 customers. At first he used the street 

 car. Then the bicycle was employed. 

 Later a horse and wagon became neces- 

 sary. Now an automobile is used, for 

 the Saturday route has grown to in- 

 clude 100 customers in one town and 

 150 customers in the other. The florist 

 finds himself with 250 people who take 

 50 cents' worth of flowers every Satur- 

 day. Sometimes, of course, they want 

 extra flowers, but ordinarily his deliv- 

 eries are as regular as those of the milk- 

 man. Short-stemmed stock will do, and 

 the florist has his customers trained to 

 accept whatever variety of flowers he 

 chooses to deliver. Naturally, he uses 

 the kind that happens to be most plenti- 

 ful at the time. In times of high prices 

 he is not able to make much money on a 

 50-cent bunch of flowers, even if deliv- 

 ered without a box or other expensive 

 accessories, but for at least forty-eight 

 weeks in the year he is able to give a 

 fairly generous bouquet and clean up 

 good money on so big a quantity as is 



required to serve 250 regular customers. 

 It seems to be a plan that is capable 

 of development wherever a florist is 

 suitably situated. 



A COUNTRY RETAILER'S RANGE. 



The article in The Keview for Jan- 

 uary 8, on "Making a Flower Store 

 Pay in a Country Town," proved to be 

 of so much interest to the readers of 

 the paper that the accompanying il- 

 lustration, showing the range operated 

 by the owner of the store, will not be 

 without interest to them also. The 

 greenhouses are those of F. E. Blake, 

 of Marion, 0., whose son, B. F. Blake, 

 is in charge of the retail store in that 

 town. The plant now contains about 

 35,000 square feet of glass. It is lo- 

 cated about one mile from the center 

 of the town. From seven to ten men 

 besides Mr. Blake are employed at the 

 greenhouses, and all the stock grown 

 here is disposed of at the store ia town. 

 The material used in the construction 

 of these houses was supplied by the 

 John C. Moninger Co., and the Foley 

 Greenhouse Mfg. Co., both of Chicago, 

 and .all of it has been found to be 

 first-class and quite satisfactory by the 

 owner. 



MORE ABOUT FUNERAL CLAIMS. 



In your issue of January 1 there ap- 

 peared an article on "Claims for Fu- 

 neral Flowers," in which it was stated 

 that when an estate is small and the 

 claims against it are many, the courts 

 hold that "the whole funeral expense 

 must be kept within the reasonable cost 

 of a decent Christian burial." Now, I 

 should like to know what is considered 

 a "decent Christian burial." 



In December, 1909, a farmer, who 

 was worth perhaps $10,000, died, leav- 

 ing a widow and three grown-up chil- 

 dren. The two sons came and ordered 



The Greenhouse Establishment Back of F. E. Blake's Retail Store at Marion, Ohio. 



