Florist News

Got this from another chat forum in America..

Well well, how things have changed, just a few short years ago, the year 2006 to be exact, there were around 30,000 independant retail florists in the industry, there were 3 major wire services and a couple minor ones, and not one of them could agree on anything.

Some florists said that you had to quit the wire services to make a difference, to force them to see things our way, some said no "it works for me" and others simply turned their heads and ignored the sittuation hoping things would get better...and things did for some....

Today, in the year 2015, there are only 12,787 individual retail floral operations, but combined they account for 36,982 outlets. These florists decided to fight back, they formed alliances amongst themselves and formulated a plan to attack the industries problems head on, they knew their very survival depended on it, and based on their philosophy, they not only survived, but as you can see by the number above, they grew and expanded the industry.

Gone are the supermarket's and mass marketers. They died out due to inferior product quality, uneducated employees, failure to adhere to the cool chain process and a general lack of care and/or caring.

Gone as well are the wire services as they were known in 2006, their refusal to listen to their member florists, and adapt in ways that would better the florists first and the wire services second, deemed them unreliable, untrustworthy, and unnecessary to the industry. A select group of 10 major florists got together and pooled enough funding to expand an already existing platform, given away free to the other florists to enhance the industry as a whole. It invoilved real time order information flowing back and forth coast to coast, and was based on 100% (minus service charges) going back and forth.

With the demise of the wire services away went the non-florist SFO's and OG's simply because they were not allowed into the mix of the new game from the beginning, and once all the remaining florists realized they could regain the order volume, they began to refuse any order not coming from within the florist new system.

The new Florist's 2015 system offered group insurance, vehical discounts, medical, dental, retirement and anything you could think of that would benifit the group as a whole, not based on an individual store or member, and the neat thing was it was all paid for by profit investment back into the group.

Who were these 12,787 florists you ask...they are and were some of 2006's smartest and most influential, they saw the future and decided to make a stand to make a difference in the long run knowing it would not happen overnight nor that it would be easy.

They started out by taking over their markets, they offered the highest quality product money could buy, they priced competitively to attack their competition on the local level and started to grow. Next they took in every inbound wire order they could get their hands on form any source they could, once again to gaing the highest volume in their cities possible.

After a couple years, once they had 80-90 percent of the local as well as incoming business, they made a decididly shrewd move, and cut the wire services and order gatherers out of the mix, simply by saying no, I think it happened the week prior to Mothers Day 2011. This accomplished two things, it killed the SFO'S and OG's because they could no longer get a discounted order placed, and it brought the mighty wire services back to ground forcing them to become partners in the industry if they wanted to survive at all.

Today, yes there are fewer florists, but there are more high quality locations to purchase flowers, and due to a change in consumer attitudes and higher product quality, along with unmatched service the floral industry is alive and well on a global scale and growing every day.