The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



January 12, 1911. 



you iiiid ucvor buy from you again, it' 

 you are not wise enough to go and ask 

 for Avliat is your own, doing it cheer- 

 fully but firmly, and making the eall 

 soon after- — sometimes very soon after- - 

 the "next pay day." 



(!ood help is certainly a blessing, but 

 inolficient help is a loss in more ways 

 than one. If you have not good help, 

 the liest way is to go after it nntil 

 you get it. and often that means that 

 they must lie personally trained. The 

 best liel)) is developed from boys and 

 girls-^in' grown-ups. for tli;:t mutter — 



RETAILERS' DELIVERY CARS. 



'i'lie le.'iding retail florists in (Jhicago 

 are r;i])i(lly chMiiging their delivery 

 (■((uipment from horse drawn \ehi(des to 

 motor wagons. Th»> automobile has two 

 advjintages for the retailer. In tlie first 

 place, a car will do the work of two or 

 three teams, but it also has the ad- 

 vantage of being a Hrst-cbiss advertise- 

 ment. A iiandsome car looks like pros- 

 perity—like l)usiness. 



in order to make the automobile ile- 

 lixery ecoiioiuicnl it is necessary to kee[i 



New Packard Delivery Car of C. A. Samuelson, Chicago. 



who have a real fondness for flowers 

 and jdants. This kind of help i)ays, 

 and is worth all the trouble it takes to 

 get it. .\ll delivery boys should be 

 clean and (piick. as well as obliging. 

 Just t.'ilk to them and show them the 

 necessity of being <(i. or oH'er, if it 

 seems ailvis:ible. to :nld an e.xtra cpiar- 

 ter to tlieir wages, or whatever you 

 think tlie imjudxcd ser\ ic(> is worth. 



It Pays to Advertise. 



Adxcrt ising ])iiys. (iixc it all due 

 attention. It is as interesting, too. as 

 any card game, when oiu-e ymi get into 

 it. Its cost must be, like other things. 

 in proportion to the size of your trade. 

 Tlie advertisements sluuild cliange from 

 time to tiiiH'. e\ en if they consist of 

 only the merest heading and ;i short 

 sentence over a |irice list, but if you 

 wish to work up a trade in a dull town, 

 talk interestingly about flowers or ferns 

 — pist what y(Mi wish to juish — and jii\e 

 peojde the [trices of a few things. 



Keep <iii hand ,•! sujiply of boxes, pa- 

 j»er, ribbons, wirework. etc A little 

 study n\er s;iles will show what proves 

 most salable, .'ind tiiere is no good rea- 

 son, t hei'etdre. for letting necessities get 

 out of stock. Add something entirtdy 

 new and <list i net i\'e t(i your stock oirce 

 in .a wiiiie, esjx'ciiilly in tlie line of ril - 

 lions. letting their cdsl le in kei'ping 

 with the kind of work in which they 

 are used. It is little things that most 

 frecpieiitly need w;itcliing. so that ttiev 

 shall not le wa>te(i m- cost out of oro 

 portion tot lieil' use. \'. S. (). 



Derby, Conn. The Ansoni.a lloiai ( n. 

 h;id charge of the decorations at the 

 midwinter recejition and dance given 

 in .^t. MarvV |,;,li bv i'rof. M. K. (arev. 



the machine quite constantly employed; 

 ■an automobile standing in the garage 

 will eat its head oH' Just as (piickly as a 

 horse in the st.able. Hut it is charac- 

 teristic of the leading retailers in Chi- 

 cago that their liusiness extends more 

 or less all over the city. Jt is at least 

 necessary to mak(» frefjuent trips from 

 the store to the wholesale section, ami 

 tile downtown retailers ha\'e deliveries 

 to make in ail sections of the city. Thi> 

 is where the aut(»moliile is economical. 

 .\ trip can i)e made to the far south 

 side in ;i fraction of the time that would 

 be reipiired with a horse. 



One of the accompanying illustrations 

 shows the new car put on the street 

 just lief ore (liiistmas by ( . .\. Samuel 

 son. It is a l'a(d<ard (diassis, with a 



body specially built for the florist, high 

 and wide, with space for the carrying 

 of bulky plants. With its plain, high 

 finish, its brass trimmings and its fore- 

 doors, the machine attracts attention 

 wherever it goes. Mr. Sannielson was 

 • hdayod in getting the car into service 

 hy the trouble the body-maker had in 

 luitting a perfect finish on tin* large 

 p.-iiuds of the sides. These wer<! in the 

 first place made of wood and refinislied 

 time after time, only to show checks 

 just as it was thought the job was going 

 to turn out perfectly. In the end the 

 side jianels were made of pressed paper, 

 the same material that is used for ear 

 wheels by the railroads. 



Muir, at 3530 Michigan avenue, did 

 business forty-five years witli horse 

 drawn delivery vehicles; after forty- 

 five days' experience with an auto, it is 

 stated that: "We would find it a hard. 

 iiKitter to get along with horses now." 

 'i'iiis is a Piercc-.Vrrow machine, supplied 

 by II. I'aulman & Co., Chicago, and has 

 ;i body of unusual prcjportions built 

 especially for the florist. The color is 

 dark blue and the machine is one of the 

 most noticeable on Chicago's streets. 



THE COST OF RIBBONS. 



florists have not failed to appreciat'.^ 

 that in the recent past they have been 

 getting exceptionally good ribbons at 

 lower cost than ever before. The ex- 

 planation in part is found in the follow- 

 ing from a textile journal's review of 

 the year: 



"I-'ashioii, which decreed that flow- 

 ers, feathers and a dozen or so other 

 decorations were to be used for milli- 

 nery purposes, wrought havoc with the 

 ribbon business throughout th(; year. 

 While the greatly restricted consumj) 

 tioii would have been a serious matter 

 in itself, there were other factors that 

 made for a reduction of mil! jtrofits and 

 oftentimes mill losses. The chief of 

 these was the extraordinary competition 

 for the coin|)aratively small business 

 that was procurable. I'riccs were re- 

 duced to such low levels in order to ob 

 tain orders for occupation that profits 

 were a secondary consideration. Based 

 on the cost of raw material and the cost 

 of production, it is doubtful whether 

 ribbon \alues were ever as low as cUir- 

 iiig tli<> year lilKl. Narrow ribbons, an<l 

 I)arti<'iilarly baby ribbons, sold freely 

 thrmighout the year. These are used 

 for so many purposes that they have 

 lieconie almost indisi>ensali]e in more 

 th.an a score of ways; but although the 



Piercc-Arrow Delivery Car of Muir, Chicago. 



