Really don't see the problem. Does he carry a full range of flowers or just the ready mades etc. If he's not offering a complete range which means most of what is available, then he can't really claim to be 'the florist'. If you have the same landlord, then it's quite obvious that he has no clause in his lease preventing you from opening or you wouldn't have opened. That is probably what he is p@@sed off about, he didn't think to do that on day one. Our lease has a clause that prevents the landlord letting any of the other units to the same trade.

Why is he worried? If he has a busy fruit & veg shop with a reasonably high footfall, then he should be selling lots of 'ready mades' at a bargain price. If he has ambitions of creating an 'upmarket florist' image alongside the cabbages, then he is wasting his time. It just won't work. He won't ever get people to pay the right price for bespoke bouquets and flower arrangements. People walk into fruit & veg shops expecting everything to be cheap. That is the nature of food retailing, it's very price sensitive.

Been there...done that....15 years selling fruit & flowers...totally different ball game to your florist shop. You just don't have time to mess about with the flowers. You just want to sell them. We managed to get turnover up to well over a million pounds a year at bargain prices. You don't want to be making up bouquets and spending time with people, you just want to be sure that everyone who walks through your door picks up a bunch of flowers. Much like what Tesco does now.

If you're offering the up market products, then he should be gratefull. It's another service that should help to stop people driving to another town, where they may just buy their fruit & veg as well. He should be buying you lunch!

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