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OCTOBU 19, 1011. 



The Weekly Florists' 



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THE RETAIL 



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SUPPBESSING THE BIZABBE. 



In The Beview for April 20 there was 

 a reproduction of a photograph of a 

 funeral design in flowers representing a 

 structural steel workers' derrick with the 

 glove of the deceased hanging on the 

 book. The Beview tried to point out the 

 undesirablenesa of such designs. The 

 note fell under the eye of the editor of 

 Popular Mechanics, who published the 

 f flowing comment, which has been wide- 

 ly, jcppiipd into newspapers of general cir- 

 culation : 



FLORAL DESIGN IS CONDEMNED. 



' ' Florists throughout the country are 



commenting adversely on a floral design 



recently made in Indianapolis for a 



^. ^orkman wl)o, was killed on> a npw build- 



^,„ i^g. They generally coft^B'n'*' t^ie dMgfC 



^ lUas being entirely too vivid a rehiinder or 



the manner in which he came to his 



death. 



"The man was a structural iron work- 

 er. One of his gloves caught in the hook 

 of the derrick just as the engine started. 

 He called ' Slack down ' to the engineer, 

 but was raised thirty feet in the air be- 

 fore his cries were heard, and then his 

 hand slipped from the glove and he fell 

 to the ground, receiving injuries from 

 which he died. 



' ' An organization of which he was a 

 member ordered a floral piece for his 

 funeral made in exact representation pf 

 the derrick and required the florist to 

 place an empty glove in the hook, as the 

 glove was found after the accident. The 

 words 'Slack down, 'which the engineer 

 failed to hear, were worked into the base 

 of the design. ' ' 



THE EVOLUTION OF BETAILINO. 



riower Selling Undergoing Change. 



That the methods of merchandising 

 cut flowers are undergoing a permanent 

 change is a fact that is given too little 

 consideration by the majority of retail- 

 ers. Perhaps it is because he does not 

 comprehend the direction of the cur- 

 rent that the average man who feels the 

 effect of the new methods is inclined to 

 inveigh against "price cutting" rather 

 than plan moves by which he can hold 

 his place in the retail field. That chang- 

 ing conditions demand some change in 

 methods will be apparent to anyone 

 who gives thought to the subject. 



The retailer of yesterday looked upon 

 himself as an artist rather than as a 

 merchant, and he conducted his busi- 

 ness on a basis to correspond with his 

 estimate of its character. Some of the 

 most successful flower stores in the 

 country today still are managed along 

 the old lines, but they cater only to 

 the excessively rich, or they mostly 

 are in the cities that do not have large 

 local supplies of cut flowers, or are lo- 

 cated outside the business districts, 

 where the trade is of a neighborhood 

 nature. In either case it is more than 

 likely that they are beginning to feel 



the pressure of the new order of flower 

 selling. -V 



Competition Orows Keener. 



There is, of course, more or less 

 keen competition between the flower 

 stores in every city, but the competi- 

 tion is almost sure to grow sharper 

 ratlier than* the reverse. The man with 

 a nice establishment in a high class 

 residence district of a good sized city 

 has been looked upon'as having all the 

 best of it; his overhead expenses were 

 usually much lighter than they would 

 have been downtown and he did not 

 have to do so large a business to make 

 an eqtti^ -profit: "Witti the advent of 



^ . ACHRYSANTMEMUM SHOW 



WERY flower 



I lover ts interest' 



ed in the free 



CTuysanthefnum d i s - 



play jhown at dur 



'Store annually. 



This fall we are 

 pleased to after a dis- 

 play uonvated by pteceding 

 j-ears. 



Chryiuithemttmf in cdlort, 

 white, yeUov and pink, in va- 

 rious lemt))i of steo), Sl.OO per 

 dozen and np. 

 American Beauties, in all lengths of 

 stem, 75c per dosen and up. 



JUses, colors pink, white and red, 35c 

 per dozen and up^the {ra£T4nt variety. 

 Orchids, SOc each. 



Carnations— the variety mother liket— 

 25c per dozen and up. 

 W>lets, 25c. per bnncdi and up. 

 Gardenias and BouvardiM- 

 Decorations of all kinds quickly and concisely 

 accomplished. 

 , Free delivery to Oak Park and Evantton. 



Positively the UrgestAn4 most interesting, stock 

 of fine, fresh flowen. 



The S1:-00 boT of cut flowers is especially at- 

 tractive this week- 

 Telegraph, telephone and- mail orders given 

 prompt attention. 



A. LANGE, Florist 



2S East Madiion Str—t 



T«I. Cantral 3777-3778 



. Orig:uuIIy a Double Q>Itrnin Display. 



the cheaper class of downtown stores 

 that have become so numerous in the 

 last few years, the high class down 

 town store has felt the need of a 

 change in method, and, making that 

 change, the effect has then been felt 

 with augmented force by the stores in 

 the residence districts, which are not, 

 as a rule, in position to avail them- 

 selves of the same methods that suc- 

 ceed downtown. No matter how fine 

 a man 's flowers are, or how perfect his 

 service; no matter how certain he may 

 be that his wealthy customers will 

 come to him when they want to be sure 

 of getting just the right thing in every 

 particular, it is not pleasant to see in 

 the current past the windows those 

 same customers carrying home or wear- 

 ing the flowers bought at the store that 

 has adopted more or less of the depart- 

 ment store plan of retailing. 



How to meet the new form of com- 

 petition is something that every retailer 



must figure out for himMlf, but of this 

 much he may be sure: While good serv- 

 ice never will cease to be a factor, the 

 store that merely rests on its reputa- 

 tion will do well to maintain its vol- 

 ume of business; the natural increase 

 will go to the stores that adopt tke 

 progressive policy. 



The Department Store Frlniciples. 



The new order of flower selling doee 

 not involve so much price cutting as at 

 first, sight might be supposed. It in- 

 volves price cjjtting, yes, if bne com- 

 pares the prices with those previously 

 charged, but the man who thinks he 

 must have the old 100 per cent dif- 

 ferential between wholesale and retail 

 prices should stop to considei; that, if 

 he sells, of a Saturday,- ten dozens of 

 Beauties at a profit of $1.50 per dozen 

 he has made more money than if he had 

 asked $3 a dozen profit and 'had sold 

 only two dozens, or three (dozens, or • t' 

 even four dozex),^. , To put it another ^ 

 way, there comes a time in the growth 

 of the business that the retailer can 

 well afford to sell on a margin much 

 less than was considered essential for 

 success in tha days when the Volume of 

 sales was small. Stjll, the new method,, • 

 „f}ep<j}\d3 TOOS^ on bujdng right. ». ifei. 



, ijThe modern piethod employs the prin- 

 ciple of the department store not only 

 in that the retailer makes liberal use of 

 the advertising columns of his leading 

 daily paper, but also in that he keeps 

 in close touch with his wholesale mar- 

 ket and uses the paper to tell his pub- 

 lic of the conditions he finds there. 

 Like the department store, the florist 

 who employs the new methods prices 

 his merchandise from day to day in ac- 

 cordance with what he pays. If he is 

 able to pick up, of an afternoon, 500 

 36-inch Beauties at two-thirds the price 

 he would have to pay if he were buying 

 only one or two selected dozens of the 

 longest stems, he takes his risk of 

 bad weather and offers his purchase at 

 corresponding prices in his advertise- 

 ment. The old way was to hold retail 

 prices at about a certain level, regard- 

 less of fluctuations in the wholesale 

 market price. It doubtless was a good 

 way in the days when flowers were 

 scarce ten months in the year, but it 

 presents manifest difficulties now th^t 

 stock of one kind or another is plenti- 

 ful ten months of every twelve and 

 there stand enterprising gentlemen 

 ready to take advantage of ev^ry oj- 

 portunity. 



Some of the best stores in America 

 practice the new principles of flowtei 

 merchandising, stores that give good 

 service. These stores may, as the man 

 ager of one of them says he does, 

 •'throw in the art," and he is one bt 

 those who once thought the art should 

 be charged for, but if there is any 

 doubt that the present method is su<- 

 ceeding that doubt will be dispelled by 

 a few words with the wholesalers who 

 supply the stock; the quantity of stock 

 handled not only is large, but it k" 

 creases steadily. 



The Spirit of Enterprise. 

 The retailer who does not fully cotu 

 prehend the fact that volume is what 

 now must be sought in flower selling 

 is inclined to feel, when he sees the 

 operation of the newer method, that the 

 advertising florist has in some manner 

 been given an unfair advantage; the 

 chances are that the volume of pur- 

 chases and sales of the advertising 

 store, and its expenses, are not cor- 



'fw 



