Flowers insolita Blog

From SAF (Society of American Florists) news:

The number of retail florist establishments continued to contract in 2006 according to just-released data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s County Business Patterns.

The number of retail florist establishments declined 4.3 percent in 2006 to 20,227, down from 21,135 in 2005. As shown in the figure, the survey has documented a decline in the number of florists each year since 1996. From 1996 to 2006, the number of florists fell 24.3 percent.

It’s a sad news. The pie is shrinking and some of the weaker florists are being pushed out. It’s a difficult time for all of us.

It’s not that flower industry as a whole is in decline. In fact it has been more or less flat in the last several years. It is that people are no longer buying flowers from retail florists.

Increasing number of consumers now buy flowers at supermarkets, discounters (Costco, etc), and on the Internet. This is part of a general trend in which mass marketers are killing small mom&pop shops. Independent bookstores, for example, are having a very difficult time.

To not only survive but also grow, we believe that we need to achieve two goals.

The first is to be distinctive. Our products and services should not be like anyone else’s. Our customers should receive an experience that they cannot get in mass marketers.

The second is to be price-competitive. We know it goes against a conventional wisdom that small retailers can’t compete with big guys on price. We actually disagree. While it is not easy to do, but there are many ways for us to be price competitive.