Coming soon to a Rite Aide near you...

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jbarb

jbarb

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Oct 31, 2002
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Well, I knew it was coming. One of the reasons that I dropped FTD last year before selling the shop.
I went into Rite Aide yesterday and guess what I saw?
Yup! JAWs bouquets! To give them some credit, they did not have the big FTD sticker on them, yet.... I asked the manager were they were getting the flowers and sure enough, they get them from, you guessed it... FTD fresh flowers.....

by the way, in case anyone was wondering, I happen to be in the floral business again, just in a bit of a different way. I am managing a large chain store that has a full blown floral dept, only they are all silks. We do everything but wire orders. Weddings, funerals, etc. etc. Pretty cool

Jim
 
cheater.....

you told us you were "done" with the biz, and NOW, you want us to feel "sorry" for you, now that you're in a "chain store"???
Yer a "traitor" Jim
 
Chain saw store ya say ??

Hey Jim....good to "see ya"...

What type of chain store is it ? Grocery with a floral dept ?? Sporting goods with a floral dept? Hardware ?

As to the Rite-Aid gig, yep does happen, when there is not a member in the area that wants a piece of the action...but like in Grand Rapids MI, a local florist does the stocking and controlling....

Keep in mind, the same company owns both "franchises" these days...

By the way, my Rite-Aid had plants too, but they came from me, and with nothing to do with FTD...very convienent for me as they are right across the street...

Now, if your chain saw store has alot of foot traffic, you might be smart to put the FF product in as well, for incremental sales that would require very little work on your part...

Welcome back, kinda missed ya around here...
 
Hey Boss,

It's an arts and crafts sorta place, you've probably got one near you.
The company is "Michaels". I don't get involved all that much with the actual designing, however floral sales in my store have quadrupled since I have been there. I turned the floral dept into just that, a floral dept instead of a cluttered bunch of artificial flowers. Anyway, it's been fun so far. Their recruiter called me the day we turned over our shop to the new owners, so I figured what the heck eh?
Good pay, regular days off, paid vacation (gotta have those, already have my Caribbean vacation booked) and all the rest of the typical benefits.
So we'll see what happens. I'm still going to go look Sher up in Florida one of these days :bangles:
 
The Michael's stores in the NE (Mass & ME some of them) have designers who do whole silk weddings. Another part of the small town businessperson's day to day.
Good to see you Jim, but now you're part of the taking.
 
Same here Rhonda

And Jim, glad to see you knew I was pok'n ya...

The Michael's here are a wreck as yours must have been prior to your arrival, maybe you should CREATE your own position where you travel to each store to set them up the way they should be....Hmmmmm

But like Rhonda said, they are taking sales away from the traditional florist. In my case, we no longer carry "everyday" silks. We concentrate on the stems that range from 10 bucks and up per stem...something Michaels (here anyway) does not carry...

Best of luck to you...
 
I suppose in a way you are right Rhonda. On the other hand we supply most of the real Florists in the area with the silks that they use in their shops. Our prices per stem are typically less than what shops out here can buy them for wholesale. I work with most of the shops in the area, about 8 of them, and furnish them with wedding materials and silks. We make an effort not to compete with the local florists, we would rather support them. In fact just yesterday a bride came in to my store with a list from her florist of things she needed for her wedding that we could help her out with. Our stock vases etc when on sale are less then wholesale from Syndicate sales.
I never really thought about Michaels being competition when I had my shop because we rarely ever had orders for silks....
 
Hey Gfloral

jbarb said:
I never really thought about Michaels being competition when I had my shop because we rarely ever had orders for silks....
Click to expand...
How many silks do you do ??

In some areas of the country, silks are BIG BIZneZ for florists... I know G does a TON of the things....

Not saying Michaels is real competition, however Jim, if they continue to hire folks like you, how long do you think it will be before they migrate to the fresh side of the biz ?
 
These are all competitors

I noticed that some don't consider one company or another as a "competitior". It is only my opinion, but all of these companies are your competitors. Michael's, Jo-ann Fabrics, Hobby Lobby, etc. They are competiting for your customers dollars. The local Hobby Lobby near here has a very extensive silk wedding area, as well as, wedding rental items.

We talk about Home Depot, Menard's and Lowes as competitors for plants and we are now faced with "instant" flower bouquets from every drug store, hardware store, lumber store and gas station. Some consider this as "helping the market grow". I don't! Many will say that the professional florist is providing the better quality and therefore the consumer will continue to go to the florist. Well, if these other locations are provided flowers with a well known name or logo on them and the flowers are located in coolers and the flowers are maintained by a professional florist, then why would the customer still want to go to a flower shop and pay twice as much.

It looks like we keep shooting ourselves in the foot every holiday and the consumer has more and more choices as to where to buy their flowers or alternatives and yet we keep telling ourselves none of this is going to effect "OUR" business. At what point does one think this will effect "THEIR" business??
 
Griff

I concur !!

Hence my thoughts as to DOING IT ALL IN YOUR MARKET....

Yes, they ALL compete, but if one so chose, they could provide ALL the product sold in their market to a point.

Not saying I like it, nor that this is how it "should" be, just how it is headed, and those chosing to work with, rather than against may be the ones to remain on top ??
 
Contol or lack of control, BOSS

Boss, you indicated that florists "could provide all the product sold in their market to a point". In the beginning, I think that is probably what the opportunity looks like. However, big business always comes down to some very simple logic - how can we do it cheaper. you were indicating that in the beginning, the plans for Home Depot was the florist was getting a cut of the flowers and was responible for the dumpage. Now we hear florists talking about no cut on the flowers and only be paid a monthly fee to maintain the flower stock. Even if some florists think this is acceptable, the question is how long is the arrangement workable. Eventually, one of the three parties is unhappy with their share and wants to change. Whether it was FTD that initiated the program of even a local florist by delivering and maintaining plants in a local hardware store, eventually the program will change. If Home Depot feels that 20% is not enough, the florist will get the cut. If the hardware store feels they can make more money by dealing directly with a grower of the plants rather than a local florist, the florist will get cut.

None of these programs, in my opinion, having any long term benefit to the florist. The florist might be there in the beginning to help get the program started, but I don't see them there for very long.

This is like playing checkers or chess. Everyone should be looking several moves ahead if they want any chance to win.
 
I have no knowledge of the change in the way it works...but an email is on its way, and I will report back if/when I get an answer...
 
And the envelope please....

The answer is, that yes, Griff and I are BOTH right as usual :)

Seriously, yes, there are TWO ways to work the FTD FSP (Florist Supplied Product) Program.

The first as I have discussed is for the florist to provide both the product and the service, garnering a percentage of each sale.

The second, and the one I was unaware of until yesterday is that FTD will contract with a florist at a flat rate to provide the service of stocking, rotating and so on.

In both cases, the product flows thru the FTD Florist store, is processed and delivered to the remote locations.

Depending on volume one could work better than the other in different cases. The later being you are not responsible for any waste, however, if there is little, and they do a large volume, you may lose out on dollars if the location has high volume sales.

I know folks doing it both ways, and they all seem happy, and very satisfied at this point...time will tell.

Along with all this, yes FTD is still direct shipping some locations where florists have not decided to work this segment of the industry. They do NOT want to do it this way, and would preffer to deal with florists. Their plan is to be 100% florist supplied (no direct ship) by 01-05.
 
It just struck me!!! FTD could tell people that their flowers are at _______ store. Pick them up. All fresh and and arranaged and ready to go. No freezing on the doorstep! No florist to deal with, just __________ store. And ______ stores don't mind making 1/4 cent per can of peas, now do they?????

Judy
 
No arrangements - YET!

No Judy, to my knowledge, this is for pre-made bouquets only. No arrangements.

This is all about dumpage and what you have to do to control it. I'm not aware of all the arrangements, but as I understand it, the actually billing for these flowers is done between FTD and Home Depot and like all the arrangements with these large box companies, the box company ONLY PAYS for what goes thru the register. FTD or the local florist doesn't get paid for any flowers that have to be "dumped". Hence, the idea is to have the local florist care for the flowers and hopefully reduce the dumpage so both FTD and the florist make some money.

To show how much a concern this is, there is a local grower <plants only> near here that grows exclusively for Home Depot. The reported dumpage was somewhere around 60% and the grower was only being paid for 40% of the product. To solve this problem, the grower has hired reportedly 14-16 people to service the local HD's. They water and care for the product 2 days a week and order any plants that HD might need. Afterall, HD doesn't care because they only pay for the plants THAT GO THRU THE REGISTER.

I have referred to this whole concept as a pandora's box because no one has been able to give any insight as to what this will do to the florist's local business if inexpensive alternative flowers are available all around the area. Grocery stores are one thing, but the question has to be if this is good or bad for the industry.
 
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