Some Simple Expedients for Easing the Pressure 

 While Increasing the Total of Easter Sales 





[VERY business has its draw- 

 backs, and in the retail 

 flower trade the difficulties 

 are at least as numerous as 

 in other lines; but of all the 

 handicaps, none is greater 

 than the necessity of doing a whole 

 holiday's selling within a few hours. 

 It is characteristic that people put off 

 ordering flowers almost to the last mo- 

 ment. It is true of funeral flowers, of 

 gift flowers, and of almost all kinds of 

 flowers except, possibly, wedding flow- 

 ers and large decorations. Consequently, 

 any little increase in business means a 

 rush, and any little falling off in trade 

 means almost complete stagnation. With 

 the florist it is either a feast or a 

 famine. 



The trade in general is so accustomed 

 to the short-notice, rush-order style of 

 business that with the majority no 

 effort is made to get orders early — the 

 retailers act as though they were sat- 

 isfied to take the business when they 

 can get it. But they don't talk that 

 way. One hears a lot of kicks about 

 there being nothing to do up to the last 

 day, and then a rush that cannot be 

 handled. It reminds one of the story 

 used by a florist who was arguing the 

 negative on the proposition that "satis- 

 fied ' ' and ' ' contented ' ' are synonymous 

 — of the same meaning. He. illustrated 

 the difference in meaning by stating that 

 he is satisfied that when he stays at the 

 store all the night before a holiday his 

 wife goes to the theater with an old- 

 time sweetheart — he is satisfied, but not 

 contented. 



Those florists who are not contented 

 with the natural flow of Easter business 

 are finding several simple expedients 

 for easing the pressure while increasing 

 the volume of Easter sales. 



A Limit on One Day's Sales. 



There is a limit to what any man, 

 or set of men, can do in one business 

 <'ay — even though that day be stretched 

 from one morning to the next. When 

 the holiday trade is left to its natural 

 course, the last-day customers are so 

 numerous that they cannot be waited 

 on; every retailer has had the experi- 

 ence of seeing good people walk out 

 the door because they would not wait 

 for the clerks. And every retailer 

 knows that he gets the largest sales 

 out of the buyers who are ordering at 

 their leisuj^. In & crowd a buyer orders 

 what must be had, «nd lets it go at 

 that. If given time to look around, and 



the attentions of a skillful salesman, a 

 much larger order is obtained. It is 

 extremely bad business to rush one's 

 customers. 



If you were able to wait on only a 

 certain number of customers the Sat- 

 urday before Easter last year, and some 

 went out without getting attention, you 

 cannot possibly, with the same facili- 

 ties, increase your sales March 22 this 

 year; the only way you can do it is to 

 make some of the sales earlier. Friday 

 you had time. Probably Thursday there 

 was little doing, and Wednesday the 



Rote Tausendschofu 



clerks were idle. The plain evidence is 

 that the way to increase the business is 

 to sell earlier. Any number of retail- 

 ers will, when they stop to think of it, 

 admit that the reason the Easter busi- 

 ness does not gro^ faster is because it 

 is all crowded into one day. 



How, then, are earlier orders to be 

 had! ' - 



Those who have thought on the sub- 

 ject have found numerous ways. The 

 popularity of pot plants makes it easy 

 to decorate the store earlier than was 

 possible in the old days, when cut flow- 

 ers were principally used. The retailer 

 can just as well have his show present- 

 able the Monday before Easter as to 

 wait until Thursday. Of course it will 

 not be desirable to get in all the Easter 

 stock a full week ahead, but it is worth 

 the loss of a little material to get the 

 business started early. 



Ways of Waking the Buyers. 



With the plant display in place and 

 the store dressed up in its holiday at- 

 tire, customers will order freely if you 

 only can get them into the place. The 

 plant baskets are there as samples; the 

 customer is told that he will not receive 

 the identical basket he is looking at, 

 which is a sample, because it will be 

 past its best by Sunday, but that he 

 will receive one exactly like it. It 

 makes the plant selling easy. And cut 

 flowers are cut flowers any day. One 

 can as satisfaetorily take an order for 

 cut flowers on Monday as on Saturday 

 — as satisfactorily, that is, to the cus- 

 tomer. 



So it gets down to being a problem of 

 getting the customers into the store. 



Advertising Makes Things Possible. 



Since retail florists have taken bold 

 of advertising they have found many 

 things possible which had not been con- 

 sidered possible before. The non-adver- 

 tising retailer cannot reach the buyers; 

 he must await their pleasure. But the 

 retailer who has learned that there is 

 profit in telling the story to the public 

 can put his facts before the buyers and 

 shape the trade more or less as he will. 



As a general proposition, the Easter 

 advertising is too late. It serves only 

 to add to the rush at the last moment. 

 Those who have tried it have found 

 that the advertising is no doubt more 

 effective in the three days before Easter 

 than it is three days earlier; but what 

 is the use of bringing in customers 

 when you cannot satisfactorily wait on 

 them I Consequently, the retailers who 

 use newspaper space are now using it 

 earlier. They are using it to get the 

 early orders, knowing that the natural 

 run of business will keep them busy the 

 la^t few days. ' '- * • 



One of {he most successful retailers 



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