Mabcu.5, 1914. 



iThe Florists' Review 



13 



RETAIL STORE MANAGEMENT 



WHAT THE LEADERS IN THE TRADE ARE DOING 



BLOOMS FOB BUSINESS BLOCKS. 



A movement for the beautification of 

 office buildings and business blocks by- 

 means ■ of window boxes and the like, 

 which has been started in several cities 

 in this covHrtry of late, is under way in 

 Kansais City and has an earnest advo- 

 cate in A. F, Barbe, who finds time, 

 aside from the management of his flo- 

 rists' business, to assist in the manage- 

 ment of the city, and sits in the city 

 council. Such a plan, if carried out by 

 the landlords and tenants of the sky- 

 scrapers, would add not a little to the 

 ■florists' profits, besides cultivating a 

 desire for greenhouse products that 

 .would subsequently add to the trade's 

 incoftie. Alderman Barbe believes it 

 .may be done as well here as in Euro- 

 pean cities and in this connection says: 



"Two summers ago I was on a trip 

 abroad and landed at Bremen, Ger- 

 many, and as I walked along the busi- 

 ness streets I was struck by the pro- 

 fusion of flowers that were everywhere 

 I looked. Blossoming plants and trail- 

 ing vines were on all sides. Window 

 ledges and balconies of business houses 

 and residences were bedecked with 

 masses of bloom, while vines trailed 

 down the walls, half covering the brick 

 and stone work. No one can imagine 

 the odd and lasting impression the 

 masses of color in the midst of the 

 commercial traflic o^ a congested city 

 made on unaccustomed eyes. 



"Later I saw the same thing in 



Berlin and other German cities, and in 

 Belgium, France and Switzerland. In 

 Berlin the custom was particularly no- 

 ticeable, for the reason that there is 

 practically no open ground- space there, 

 as compared with the wide lawns in 

 many American cities, yet flowers are 

 everywhere one goes. ' ' 



CALMINO KICKING CUSTOMEBS. 



When a customer kicks, keep cool. 



Every customer thinks the right to 

 kick is part of what he or she pays 

 for — it's the same as trading stamps 

 with the goods. And what the cus- 

 tomer thinks, goes; or the customer 

 goes. 



It is a losing game to try to con- 

 vince them that they're wrong. So 

 play it safe, and don't argue. 



Keep cool and keep your customers. 

 Get even by selling them that much 

 larger orders. The florist who is al- 

 ways civil, no matter what his cus- 

 tomers may be, is the one whose trade 

 is ever on the increase. 



THE SPBAY OF BOSES. 



There doubtless are stores in which 

 the pillow still is the most frequently 

 called for funeral desigii, but in most 

 up-to-date establishments the wreath 

 has supplanted the pillow as the popu- 

 lar thing. And the wreath is giving 

 place to the spray. In the so-called 

 high-class stores wire frames are used 



much less than they were a few years 

 ago. Indeed, there are plenty of stores 

 where wreath frames are about the 

 only ones carried in stock and where 

 more sprays are made than all other 

 funeral designs combined. 



The accompanying illustration shows 

 a popular form of spray. This one 

 was -made with a base of leucothoo 

 leaves and contained approximately 

 sixty roses, with a little Sprengeri, 

 and some adiantum and asparagus with 

 the tie. The use of chiffon is becom- 

 ing nearly universal; it adds immeas- 

 urably to the appearance of the design. 



CONCEBNING FBOFIT MABGINS. 



The Philadelphia Public Ledger for 

 February 20 contained an item, appar- 

 ently inspired by ' ' big business, ' ' that 

 has set the local florists l?y the ears. 

 It i-eads in part ka follows: 



' ' The census found that a ton of 

 bituminous on the car at a mine was 

 worth $1.07. It also found that it cost 

 exactly $1 to put it there. Besult: 

 Profit of 7 cents on each ton, which 

 must pay for depletion of mine and 

 also interest on the moeey invested. In 

 the state of, Pennsylvania that was a 

 shade over three per cent. 



"Seven cents a ton looks like a tiny 

 margin to work with. A big Philadel- 

 phia florist tells me that when he sells 

 the retail man $1 worth of flowers the 

 latter charges an average of $3 to his 

 customers for them. 



A Spray of Sixty White Roks on a Background of Leucotfioe. 



