1-800flowers and Credit cards

[Rhonda]

Yes, 800Flowers is Mr. McCann's baby and yes, he has developed the Bloomnet wire service so shops can fill his gathered orders. Yes, he was the smart person we all wish we had bought that phone number many years ago. Since that time, their price points have dropped, their pictures online are deceptive (just as the other wire services do) and they usually try to send very specific styles and flowers to areas not able to easily fill them. They are pretty much the original order gatherer and now justify it by opening stores, franchises, and their own wire service for fulfilling where they don't have their own fulfillment center.
(trying to be nice about it) lol

 

[Carrington]

Yes, 800Flowers is Mr. McCann's baby and yes, he has developed the Bloomnet wire service so shops can fill his gathered orders. Yes, he was the smart person we all wish we had bought that phone number many years ago. Since that time, their price points have dropped, their pictures online are deceptive (just as the other wire services do) and they usually try to send very specific styles and flowers to areas not able to easily fill them. They are pretty much the original order gatherer and now justify it by opening stores, franchises, and their own wire service for fulfilling where they don't have their own fulfillment center.
(trying to be nice about it) lol

Thnaks for that but Bloomnet doesn't appear to get as much negative comment as say, Telflora or FTD. does that mean it's better, not as big or that any negative about 1800 is being negative about bloomnet as well.

 

[lori042499]

Thnaks for that but Bloomnet doesn't appear to get as much negative comment as say, Telflora or FTD. does that mean it's better, not as big or that any negative about 1800 is being negative about bloomnet as well.

Oh they get just as much negative. They are different though, you sign on to them knowing most of the orders come through their own website and that they are gathering the orders and you are a filler. If you play their game right you can get enough volume to make a profit. I find many good reasons to belong to 800/bloomnet where other people hate them and feel they were the beginning of the end. When actually they just were better marketers than most all florists...Opinions vary...

 

[Rhonda]

I am not bloomnet, I do not fill specific 800Flowers orders, they have to send me a non specific design ie: basket arrangement, vase arrangement, sympathy arrangement for a price I can produce a design I can be proud of and deliver cost effectively. That is the only way I fill orders for them.
(I'm real tired of them asking for the "standing sympathy basket" and when I tell them they are NOT available, they say "we'll contact the customer and get back to you" only to have them call a few hours later with the same darned order). We do mache's here in the woods......NO Wire Standing Baskets!! :rofl::rofl:
They don't call me that often anymore so the other two shops here with NO design experience is filling their stuff and looking like

 

[TOTO]

Sends through anyone they can!

Given I am still learning about the Stateside operators can you just clarify somehting. Is this 1800 flowers the Jim McCaan operation or something/someone else.

If the former why don't they send orders through Bloomnet which I thought was their florist based wire service.

If the latter who is it really? C

Sorry for the confusion Caroline.

Suffice it to say that, under the best of circumstances, this company has always been VERY CONFUSING!

In their beginnings, (1984 circa) they were a MEMBER IN GOOD STANDING OF FTDA, or so I was told by one of the FTDA EMPLOYEES, and despite the fact that, they were in violation of the FTDA BYLAWS at that time.

Over the years, they continued to use every Wire Service in the US in order to get their orders filled with special attention to the wire service which would pay them the highest rebates. Point in fact, this company has always been JUST A FLORAL ORDER GATHERER collecting orders from customers and then, subcontracting them out to any florist via any wire service, through which, their orders could be fulfilled, and whichever wire service who was PAYING THEM THE HIGHEST SENDING ORDER REBATE!

AFS, (long bankrupted because of 800) had agreed to pay them a $6.00 US per order rebate back in 1990 as they thought that, they could be the little train that could.

Now, they try NEVER to use FTDI nor TELEFLORA to send their orders through, and prefer to use their own network of BLOOMNET members, but they simply don't have enough of THEIR MEMBERS to effect total coverage.

And so, by default, they must revert back to either FTDI or TELEFLORA as a last resort, and when that option fails, they will try and call a florist at the point of delivery while asking them to BILL THEM DIRECTLY, after which, the filling florist receives their payment less their 30% discount.

In essence, a filling florist who fills their orders at a gross price of $50.00 US, gets a payment of $35.00 US in total with nothing for their delivery costs.

Anything like this operating on your side of the Sea?

PS: Send me some BANGERS and MASH ASAP and a WEE PINT couldn't hurt either!

 

[TOTO]

NAW! Folks just get DUPED!

Thanks for that but Bloomnet doesn't appear to get as much negative comment as say, Telflora or FTD. does that mean it's better, not as big or that any negative about 1800 is being negative about bloomnet as well.

Some folks have never been able to figure it all out while others choose to SLEEP WITH THEIR ENEMY!

As I've witten in the past, 800 was just a NUMBER and if it wasn't for the old FTD, he would've collected all those orders but, WITH NO PLACE TO GO!

Even the OLD FTD chose to SLEEP WITH THEIR ENEMY since, many of the BLACK HATS on that old board were compromised by the amount of orders he would send their way, albeit through FTD.

No question that, he's been and was able to employ people who enabled his company to stay one step ahead of the herd. Then again, and back in those days, and when you had insider trader information, that allowed your company to stay one step ahead of the heard, EY?

In todays NEW MARKET, many shops have finally figured out for themselves that, they loose money on all HIGHLY DISCOUNTED ORDERS subcontracted to them by THIRD PARTY MIDDLEMAN FLORAL ORDER GATHERERS.

And for the ones who perport to MAKE A PROFIT, in most cases, they simply CURTAIL those orders by chopping off 30% from the gross and then, chopping off their COSTS OF Delivery.

In the end, and when the sending floral customer sees the result of that curtailment (I spent $75 but the arrangement looked like $42.50) they STOP SENDING FLOWERS altogether, or NEXT TIME, they seek out and find a REAL FLORIST in the recipient's area who will fill their order properly.

There are NO GOOD GUYS in this arena Carrington! Only some PLAYERS whose time has come and gone. And that includes the remaining TWO wire services who have morphed from ONCE BEING OUR PARTNERS to BECOMING OUR COMPETITORS and the one 800 wannabee.

What if I sent you an order for 25 Quid but only paid you 17 Quid after I deducted my commission and my order transmission charge.

And then, your cost for making that delivery was 3 Quid?

Just your costs to create the order was 8 Quid, your cost of labor was 5 Quid, and so your total costs equals 16 Quid for the order.

And so, you think you made 1 Quid profit on the order, RIGHT?

NAW! You forgot to factor in the annual dues and fees of belonging to their NETWORK and based on an annual bases, then divided by the amount of orders you received during the course of that year.

On this side of the ocean, those annual fees and dues can range anywhere from $2,500.00 to $5,000.00 per year, or more and depending upon their other bells and whistles you bought into.

If those shops were lucky enough to receive 30 incoming orders per month, on average, at $50 GROSS per order, per average, that would equal an annual GROSS incoming order amount of $18,000.00 on 360 orders.

If their annual dues and fees were only $2,500.00, the additional cost per incoming order would amount to another $6.90 or an additional 13.8% per incoming order discount.

If their annual dues and fees were $5,000.00, the additional cost per incoming order would be 13.88 or 27.76%.

In the first case, the deductions on that $50 order is as follows:

$50 GROSS less 30% = $35.00 NET TO FILLER. $35.00 less 30% COG = $20.00
$20.00 less 20% COL = $10.00 $10.00 less 15% COD = $2.50 $2.50 less 13.8% dues and fees = (-$4.40) or a net loss per order of (.088%).

In essence, and on the surface, each of those incoming orders cost the filling florist a total of $32.50 to fill and on the surface, they think that they are making a profit of $2.50 per order. What they fail to factor in is the annual dues and fees, which in the first case, would amount to another $6.95 per order cost. If they, or their accountant is SMART ENOUGH to figure that one out, they would then discover they actually have a NET LOSS PER INCOMING ORDER OF (-$4.45)

In the second case, the disaster of their loss is that much worse!

Many shops have been able to figure out the WSs and 800 Floral Order Gatherer SMOKE and MIRROR scam for what it is.

Others have yet to figure it out!

And OTHERS continue to dilude themselves into a false sense of reality, when they continue to tell everyone that, THEY CAN MAKE MONEY when filling these discounted JUNK ORDERS, and only because they're happy when everyone in their shops are KEPT BUSY, PRODUCT IS MOVING OUT, their Drivers are making deliveries, and WOW, it's wonderful to SPIN MY WHEELS FOR NAUGHT!

Besides, I get all warm and fuzzy when my products get into the homes of all of them recipients because, I know that SOME DAY, SOME WAY, they will all become MY NEW CUSTOMERS, and I will make my future on their sales.

As Herb Mitchell put it best when he called that: " The Santa Claus Myth " It's a WS story which has been perpetuated over the many years in their efforts to justify the losses a filling florist is forced to deal with on every order! Facts are that, SANTA CLAUS will never come to your town since FLORAL RECIPIENTS are, for the most part, JUST RECIPIENTS and RARELY, if ever, get turned into FLORAL SENDERS!

My own five year direct mail marketing campaign study to floral recipients from 1984 till 1989 with coupons and discounts only gave us a return of less than half of 1%. Since it was not enough to justify the costs, we decided to abandon the program. The facts proved out the SANTA CLAUS MYTH!