I have been working in the floral industry for over 16 years and there is one disturbing trend
that cannot be denied; supermarkets are killing the local flower shop. Look around your
hometown to see how many locally owned flower shops have survived on the main streets of
your town and I bet you’ll see what I mean.
Flowers on display at the grocery store—you know, the ones right near the checkout line or
intermixed with the produce department—have depreciated the value of fresh cut flowers
with their poor representation of what “fresh” flowers look like. First, flowers require specific
care to ensure their maximum vase-life and in many cases the staff at the grocery store is not
properly trained to do this. The result: flowers don’t stand a chance of blooming to their full
potential.
Second, flowers and fruits share the same hormone, ethylene gas, which causes them to ripen
so when flowers are intermingled with fruits they force each other to mature and consequently
die more quickly. This is further evidence that the grocery store has no idea how to properly
care for fresh flowers. Keep this in mind the next time you wonder why those roses you just
bought yesterday at the supermarket immediately wilted at the neck. It’s not the flower’s fault;
it never had a chance.
Third, the grocery store makes money on the food and other products you buy and they
intentionally take a loss on the per-stem price. Obviously this is a business model that’s
designed to undercut the real cost and hence devalues flowers in the consumer’s eye. I have
seen flowers on sale at the supermarket for less than they cost through my wholesaler!
This is why flowers in a flower shop seem so much more expensive than they do at the
supermarket: First, they order in specific inventory that they/their customers like. This
includes more than the alstroemeria, roses, baby’s breath and artificially died stems that
the grocery store stocks. Second, their experienced staff takes the time to unpack & inspect
stems, clean foliage & remove thorns, properly hydrate each stem, and display them in a cooler
ensuring a longer vase-life than the neglected blooms at the checkout line. Finally, the reason
that flowers cost a little more at a flower shop is because it’s their business! They have to make
money on the flowers or they will close their doors. They specialize in flowers—they don’t
have a deli counter or junk food aisle after all!—so taking a loss on every stem is simply not an
option.
So skip the flowers at the supermarket and visit your local mom-and-pop flower shop. Taking
the time to walk into a flower shop and choose specific blooms is far more thoughtful than
grabbing a cookie-cutter bouquet from the checkout.
When is the last time you bought fresh flowers?
Amen to that! I’ve long said that this was the case. As grocery stores cheapen what customer’s expect to pay for flowers, it’s driven the wire services to offer less expensive options. That means the average florist needs to sell more arrangements to make the same amount of money. Add to that less expensive options aren’t usually as beautiful as what you could get for a few dollars more and customer’s scratch their heads wondering why did I bother ordering flowers at all if this is what they sent.
There is one way to compete, and it is not on price. Offer superior design and service and you will win. Competing on price can only lead to a race to the bottom.
And Amen to that, Miles! When I worked at a big, busy flower shop (years ago…it closed its doors in 2001!) I thought the wire service was “where it’s at”. That was the beginning of the end for the art and quality of floral design. The FTD-123 in the birthday mug with a teddy bear clinging to the handle is something that florists should refuse to partake in! It would be nice if florists could skip the wire service “designs” and let designers create their own fresh arrangements to breath some life into a craft that brings so many people joy–especially the customers who receive them. There is not all that much thought that goes into ordering the #5…it’s not a deli, it’s a flower shop!
Cheap? yes the prices are low as you said sometimes lower than the wholesaler. The varieties are so limited and they buy in bulk, really huge quantities.I think shops closing has to do with the demise of downtown, people shop at the grocery store for everything in one stop. Small independent businesses are hurting. I live in a town where chain stores have a hard time getting in and our downtown is doing well as it can right now. Strip malls are ugly and I think bad for a community it kills the downtown area, how many subways does one town need? The strip malls pop up grocery stores locate there and there goes your local flower shop.
I am looking at an established flower shop for sale right now in an upscale suburb of a major city in Florida. The price appears to be on the low side considering the value of the inventory and the owner’s stated income for the past two years. I know of one other shop in the immediate area that recently closed its doors. What should I be doing to be reasonably sure I’m not considering buying a pig in a poke?
As a 30 year veteran of the floral industry, I’d like to offer a different perspective on what is killing the local florist. It is not supermarket floral departments, although poor displays and old flowers hurt everyone in the floral industry. While you are correct about the negative effects of ethylene gas in supermarkets, ethylene is a major problem for florists as well from many sources. The biggest problem that is killing all retailers in floral is our poor handling procedures from floral farms to the arrival of flowers in markets all over the US. This carelessness erodes more than half flowers’ potential vase life before supermarkets or florists ever get their flowers. Consumers recognize this and either don’t buy flowers at all, or (since they think there is not a lot of difference in quality regardless of where they buy) seek out the cheapest place to buy. Our greatest competitive threat is not from other retailers of flowers, but from other competitive industries that understand that consumers want maximum value for every purchase they make. If they can’t get it from flowers, they will instead buy wine, or candy or a thousand other products that give them their money’s worth. We have to start demanding that flower suppliers follow proper procedures from farms to your door. Then we can clearly differentiate the value of buying from a quality retail florist.