Flowers insolita Blog

A well-known dot-com flower company (whose name begins with a number) has been busy promoting “Free shipping or No Service Charge” ad campaign.

A misleading word play.  Here’s the truth…
Most consumers will not get what they might think they are getting: Free delivery of florists-delivered products.  Delivery charge is hidden and consumers still pay these charges.

What consumers don’t pay this time is a middleman’s commission called “Service Charge” which, if they call a local florist directly, they don’t have to pay in the first place.

Please see the chart below.

In this example, a consumer is sending a $40 bouquet.

If she calls a local florist directly (right column), she would be told how much her delivery charge would be ($10 in this example).  With sales tax, she would be paying a little over $54 in this example.

She would have to pay >$15 more if she went through .com flower companies.

Take a look at the left column.

First of all, her delivery charge would be “included” (meaning “hidden“) in the price listed in their web page.  It doesn’t matter which .com flower companies she goes (FT*, 1800*, or whatever, all the same).  Delivery charges are always hidden.

What does it mean?  Well, what it means is that, to order a $40 bouquet, she would have to order a $50 bouquet on their web ($40 plus $10 hidden delivery charge).

If she ordered a $40 bouquet, thinking that she is sending $40-worth of flowers, she will be disappointed….

Or not.  Because she won’t be seeing the flowers delivered, she won’t know how tiny her gorgeous “$40″ bouquet would look like, – the fact that these .com companies are fully taking advantage of.

Wait….  It actually gets even more interesting.

During checkput, they will charge her a “Service Change” (or “Handling Charge”), usually in the range of $12-15.  She would think this is a delivery charge.

Sorry, but she is wrong.

This “Service Charge” is a middleman’s commission that this .com company keeps in their pocket.  It has nothing to do with delivery fee.

All in all, she would end up paying $69.51 on their website, >$15 more than is necessary.  Isn’t this a rip-off?

We believe it is, and can be completely avoided if consumers call a local florist direct.  Virtually all of us have 1-800 numbers and many of us now have a website for you to place order online.

Maybe our site is a little more inconvenient than national .com flower websites.  But you don’t pay the middleman’s commission here!

What this national .com company is saying in this ad campaign is that, because they are afraid of losing sales, they will remove this middleman’s rip-off fee for the time being.

Should you jump onto this opportunity to take advanatge of this “free” offer?  We are not so sure about that.

In another post, I talked about a nursery guy who was claiming that it’s been difficult to find a “decent young people” willing to work in his establishment. I also wrote that I hear the same stories from many small business owners.

Well, one of our employees, who happens to be a young Long Island person, just disappeared. I say “disappear” because she didn’t tell us she was quiting. She just didn’t show up one day, and that was it. That day, she left a message in our answering machine, saying she had “forgotten” that she had to go to school that day, so she couldn’t come to work. Sounds stupid, we thought but we didn’t know she actually had quit. Interestingly, her mom showed up instead, to pick up her pay-check.

On her next workday (Friday), she didn’t show up again. At that point, we realized that she actually had quit and her message on Monday was a complete lie.

We are clueless as to why she quit. Regardless, there’s nothing wrong for anyone to quit the job. But, I would have expected her to tell us that s/he is quiting, preferably two weeks in advance. Not showing up one day, making up a story, and sending her mom to pick up the paycheck… that isn’t something I would have expected a grownup to do.

The bigger question, though, is how come her mom is allowing this behavior. Does she know that her daughter just lied to us? Or was she also being misled by her daughter. Maybe she told her mom a completely different story, along the line of her being a victim of a terrible work place or something.

Anyway, it doesn’t matter. We know the truth. In the meantime, we now have an opening for a sales rep position. Hopefully we can find someone responsible this time.

We are located in Long Island, the Island of Lindsay Lohan and spoiled brats.

I was talking to the owner of a nursery the other day.  He was complaining how difficult it is to find “decent young people” to work in his establishment.  I often hear the same story from many small retail-business owners here; young people in Long Island do not want to work in their stores. 

Come to think of it, in the last three years, we have hired about two dozen young local people (all of them are female); only two lasted more than three months.  One lasted only 3 hours, which is the current record of the shortest tenure of our past employees.

Take a look at any fast-food restaurants in Long Island.  Do we see any young Long Islanders working there?  I don’t think so.  Flipping burgers is not a kind of job that princes and princesses in Long Island would take.  Too much of a work for too little pay, just like a job in a flower shop or nursery for that matter.

I often go to a local supermarket (STOP & SHOP) to buy fresh fruits used for fruit baskets.  There are a couple of young people “working” there.  By “working”, I mean a) chatting with friends and b) text-messaging, while paying absolutely no attention to customers.

The other day, I was in the self-service checkout.  One of my items didn’t go through.  I dared to press “Help” button, which I shouldn’t have.  After several minutes, a young lady reluctantly showed up.  I explained the situation to her.  Annoyed by this unexpected extra work, she sighed to my face.  If one of our sales associates ever sighed to our customer asking for help, I guarantee you that she would be fired on the spot. I’m usually pretty quiet, not complaing about anything.  But I wasn’t having a good day on that particular day, so I told her, “But you are paid, right?”  To which she replied “You’re mean!”  The Princess spoke and I humbly accepted my defeat.

I sighed… I wonder if the manager of STOP & SHOP knows this.  Whoever the manager is, my guess is that s/he probably knows about it, but can’t do anything about it.  That’s because, if s/he complains, these kids would simply quit, creating a vacancy that s/he would have to fill again with, what, the same kind of kids.  There’s no realistic chance that the next one would be better.  Worse yet, their parents might sue the shop or manager for whatever reasons they come up with.  Not worth the fight. 

Linnea Johansson said in a USA Weekend magazine that flower arrangements can be a total rip-off for parties.  Now, SAF (Society of American Florists), of which we are a member, formerly protested to both Ms Johansson and USA Weekend magazine.  Here’s the quote…

“While SAF understands and appreciates the need to provide readers with decorating options, the negative statement seems unfair and unnecessary, as the advice following the comment can stand on its own,” SAF writes in letters to USA WEEKEND and Johansson. “You may want to consider that some readers enjoy the convenience and appeal of professionally designed floral arrangements, especially during the busy time of party preparation.”

When you place an order for flower delivery at 1-800-flowers.com, FTD.com, or ProFlowers.com, at the end of checkout, they will charge you a fee for their service.

In case for 1-800-flowers, it’s $12.99 and they call it “Shipping and handling fee.”

You might think that the fee is reasonable, because they will deliver your flowers to the recipient. Any florist charge a delivery fee, right?

Wrong. 1-800-flowers’ “Shipping” fee is not a delivery charge. The actual delivery charge is already included in the price of flowers. This fee is a “Service charge”, an additional profit, that they keep and has nothing to do with delivery.

Now 1-800 went a step further. They are offering “FREE shipping and handling.” We believe that this promotion is quite misleading, because the actual delivery charge is not waived (it’s included in the price of flowers you order).

What they are waiving is their mark-up profit called “Shipping and Handling” fee, the extraneous money that you would not pay if you called a local florist directly.

Over 100 retail florists around the country signed a complaint letter to FTC (Federal Trade Commission) to investigate.

Needless to say, we are one of the signatories.

In Nov 11 issue of USA Weekend magazine, Linnea Johansson, author of “Perfect Parties: Tips and Advice from a New York Party Planner”, offered the following “tip” for Holiday parties.

“Flower arrangements can be a total rip-off,” Johansson says. Instead, buy one kind of flower, in one color, in bulk. “Make your own multiple arrangements,” she says.

First of all, we must appreciate Ms Johansson for her strategically placing the word “can” in front of “rip off”, as it makes her statement impossible to prove wrong. Any merchandise or service “can” be a rip-off for sure.

Yet coming from a (supposed) party expert, we believe that her statement is nonetheless libelous and merits our formal response.

The essence of her accusation is that professional flower arrangements for a party are overpriced relative to the value you get from the arrangements. She goes on to imply that you can create arrangements of the same value, just by going to Costco, buying flowers in bulk, and arranging them by yourself.

She failed to mention, however, that most likely you can’t create professional arrangements, unless you are a pro. Our lead designer (Lori) has over 30 years of experience in this field. She was chosen as one of the best designers in Long Island. By trusting us as a florist for your party, what you are paying for is not just a bunch of flowers, but actually years of professional experience and skills that should make your party a great success.

Apparently, Ms Johansson sees absolutely no value in our professional experience. OK, then, shouldn’t we also skip the service of a professional chef like Ms Johansson, because it “can” be a total “rip-off”? Of course not. Most of us can’t cook like a professional chef.

We believe that Ms Johansson could have made her point across without insulting other profession she apparently knows nothing about.

Also check out “Real Holiday Flower Tips for Linnea Johansson” written by Cathy at Avante Gardens (Anaheim, CA)

On my way home today, a Honda smashed into the passenger side of my car.  I’m really p*ssed.

It happened at the intersection of Rt25 & Round Swamp Rd.  It was raining and dark.  Worst of all, the traffic light was completely out.  Every car was stopping at the intersection because the light was out.

This Honda probably didn’t see that the light was out.  It smashed right into my car when I was making a left turn.  I saw it coming; it made no attempt to slow down.  If I had not made a quick left turn, we would have had a head-on collision!  Jesus!

I can’t wait to see Lori showing up in Judge Judy.  When that happens, of course she must wear a T-shirt with our logo and telephone number on it, so that million people can see it.

Judge Judy is one of my favorite programs.

By the way, here’s one of my favorite episodes: I found it on Youtube.

The case is about a cop (plaintiff) and a young girl (defendent) who was pulled over for speeding by that cop.  Whe she was pulled over, she told the cop that her father was also a cop (which is true), trying to get a break from him.  He simply ignored her plea and gave her the ticket, which was the right thing to do.  Now angry over his “rude” treatment, the kind of treatment which she apparently has never experienced in her 21 yrs of life, she filed a complaint to the police department, which triggered the investigation.  He was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing.  Now the cop is suing the girl for false allegation.  Watch…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1Qp-hY_Zsk[/youtube]

Now Richard is taking extended leave, I am back in delivering flowers again. Since I like driving, I enjoy delivery. BUT, there are also things I hate…

(1) Unleashed dogs

While it is illegal to let a dog loose, I see at least one or two unleashed dogs per week. Maybe the owner is believing that his/her “leetle” puppy can’t hurt anyone. But they don’t understand that, for that “leetle” puppy, a delivery man is actually a total stranger invading his/her territory. It is any dog’s instinct to protect the territory and the way they do is to bite the invader.

Please dog owners, leash your puppies. It’s not only dangerous to delivery men, but also potentially harmful to your dog, too. If your dog bites a person, your dog will be labeled “dangerous” by New York statue. Depending on where you live, you may no longer keep your dog.

(2) Unmarked houses

When we deliver, we need to be able to see the street number on the house. Unfortunately, there are many houses that do not post their street numbers. I see one of those “un-marked” houses everyday.

Then all I can do is to guess. If I try to reach “3 xyz st” and can see “1″ and “5″, I assume that the house between “1″ and “5″ must be “3″. It works this way most of the time, but not in rural area such as in Lloyd Harbor.

Oh my, Lloyd Harbor is a delivery nightmare. The houses in Lloyd Harbor are located in the wood, accessible only through a tiny private road. Sometimes several houses have their mail boxes put together at the entrance of the private road, so that mailmen don’t have to drive into the private road.  But we have to.  Now, OK, I see number 2, 4, 6, 8 in each mail box. So I drive into the private road and, at the end of the road, see four houses standing apart from each other in the wood. Please tell me which one is the number 4???

Flower delivery may not matter that much, but imagine you had an emergency and called 911. Unless your house is clearly marked, the emergency vehicle won’t be able to locate your house quickly.

So please put up a distinctive sign with your street number or your name, preferably both, right in front of your house, somewhere a driver can see from the road. The good place is on the mail box if it’s located in front of your house, or right next to the front door.

People sometimes ask us why flowers are so “expensive”?

OK, my answer is simple: flowers are not expensive at all. In fact the price of flower arrangements has been flat for the last 10-15 years. During the same period, the price of gas tripled, while the average price of meal in a restaurant doubled. Everything went up, except for flowers.

Considering all the human efforts put into making a flower arrangement (from grower to importer to wholesaler to retail florist), I cannot help wondering how come flowers are so cheap now.

Question: What kind of gift item can you purchase for a mere $50 these days?

With a simple phone call to a high-end florist like us, $50 would purchase a tasteful flower arrangement that can be (1) customized to your taste and (2) hand-delivered to your recipient on the same day.

Or, you can go to a shopping mall by yourself, if you don’t mind spending your time to look for a nice gift that costs less than $50. However, you can’t customize it to your taste, for that kind of money. After finally deciding on what you want (a pair of inexpensive sandals maybe?), you then drive to a drug store and buy gift wrapping materials. Exhausted, you go home and wrap your gift, only to find out you’re too tired to bring it to the recipient today…

Or, you can spend hours on the Internet, looking through all those virtual gift shops. You then suddenly realized that the gift must be delivered right a way. You click on the delivery option, and they say you’ve got to pay $20 for “over-night” delivery. Only $30 left for the gift itself! You also remember that last time you ordered one of those, the actual item you received looked a lot cheaper than the picture shown on their web-site. You never know what you’ll get…

Fore more information about the impact of flowers as a gift, see “Flower Fundamentals” at aboutflowers.com (Society of American Florists, of which we are a member).