The changing floral industry!
     Sometimes change is good but when the change is at the public's expense, I have to comment on it.  My last blog was all about order grabbers but a post on a florist website and the grumblings of many of my colleagues have encouraged me to put it into dollars and sense, perhaps...common sense!
     Let's run the numbers shall we???   If you placed a $50.00 floral order with an order grabber, (There are plenty of them out there.  If they're address isn't in the zip code that you are sending to, they are an order grabber who is using current technology to send the order to a florist in that zip code.)  you paid on average, $14.99 for their service fee which sometimes is disguised as a delivery fee.
     When that order is sent to the receiving shop, that shop is going to be reimbursed $35.50 for that order and charged $2.25 by the order grabber as a transaction fee, leaving the florist $33.50 to fill your order.
     It now becomes clear as to why when you order on a "grabbers" website and not an actual florist's, why the received arrangement doesn't look as full as the showcased picture.
     There is no way for the small town florist to "beat" these order grabbers, they are making huge profits doing business this way and can afford prime time television ads and internet pop up adds.  They also snag a lot of customers by promising $10.00 off, or a percentage off of your order.  This generally is added back in somewhere or, is still more expensive than calling that local florist or ordering on their website.
     All of this order grabbing irritates me to no end.  I hate to see the loved ones of the residents of my small town "fleeced" of their hard earned money.
     The good news is....if you are reading this, you are already floral savy because you are on my website.  You are MY customer, not the order grabber's customer and 100% of your spending money goes into your arrangement.  (Not to mention, I work VERY hard for my customers!!! and perhaps, yes, I will admit it, my customer's orders take precedence to those of the order grabbers.)  So ...Kudos to you!!!
     That's all for today, my rant is done and I'm on to enjoy working with some beautiful spring iris, hydrangeas and gorgeous "circus" roses!!!