Could this work?????

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Luc

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Nov 1, 2002
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Elliot Lake
www.a1florists.com
State / Prov
Ontario
Where I live, the price of gas has jumped like any other towns in the USA and Canada.

My delivery price is only $4.00 for in town. I have a independant driver that delivers for me and 2 other pharmacies. He only delivers at schedule times during the day to make it worth his while. He has manage so far.

Out of the $4.00 I charge I give him $3.00 per delivery. I have $1.00 to play around. THe $1.00 was to cover re-delivery, damage products etc during the year. I agreed to increase is take to $3.50 per delivery starting next week. Also I agreed to use common sense regarding deliveries, trying not to get him to come in just for 1 delivery at noon.

I have taken steps to eliminated some deliveries in the outline area that is not worth my while to do. I have increase some deliveries fee to areas take can take up longer to do, especially if we only go there with 1 deliveries.

I want to keep my deliveries fees down as much as I can, so I was thinking of advertising the fact that we would do our outmost to keep our delivery fee from rising, but if the price of gas keeps going up, I will have to adjust my fee. I am hoping to buy myself some time and do it around Christmas.

DO you think this would make people happy that I still have not raise my delivery fees and gain some customers through this campain or it does not look right. I need a insight if it makes senses or not.

THe other questions is I charge $8.00 for out of town delivery and I am thinking of raising this to $9.00 so the florist at the other end has little bit more money. Should I do it now or wait for a price increase from a florist.

Any feedback is welcome.
Luc
 
I for one....

"understand" your town a little better now Luc.....I see why you have such difficulties getting your prices up!!
Having said that.....I've seen first hand, how many deliveries you do, and cannot fathom you being able to cover your costs, let alone making any money from deliveries, at your current pricing structure.
If your home, and shop, and vehicles, and life insurance were ALL paid for, and you felt like " thanking your customers for their patronage" by keeping such low prices, then I'd say go for it!!...better than paying the tax man...BUT, from MY point of view, "strike" while the iron is hot, and people actually SEE the high prices of fuels, and may protest a little less, than IF you were to wait till say "Christmas" like you suggested!!
You have a very special "delivery guy"!!...where would you be IF God forbid, something happened to him/her????.....you'd probably be stuck, cause NOBODY would step forward, and deliver at those rates!!
 
I have been telling all my customers we've had to add delivery charges to hospital, funeral homes etc. We are now not doing deliveries until one "whole" time. If they want it specificially at a time, we'll have to demand a double delivery charge, I guess. But so far, Everyone!!! has said "of course you need to charge for delivery" Amazing their understanding. Especially when we have a dumb "craft shop" still advertising "Free Delivery".
 
We've done pretty much what Luc and Rhonda have described. We also have a contract driver, and she simply had to have more money to operate. At the same time, we did not want our delivery fee increase to drive away customers. We revamped our delivery rates by decreasing the area for which we deliver at out lowest rate ($6.99), raised the fees to other areas, and simply dropped some areas from our delivery area. We were keeping $.99 of the fees to cover our costs of paper, inks, and other incidentals. We have started giving our driver another $.50 of that so that our "take" is now the remaining $.49. We are keeping our fee to mortuaries and hospitals at $6.99 because we usually have multiple orders going to them.
I spoke with a customer yesterday who lives in one of the $9.99 (formerly $6.99) areas and explained to him about the increased fee, and he was fine with it, understanding the gas situation.
 
I am not sure why you are dropping the delivery to farther places,, why not put a realistic cost based del. fee and let the customer decide if it is reasonable to them. We live in rural NH and there are a few towns that we list as $25.00 delivery.. our min is $15.00 for a bud vase and we will even deliver that..but $25.00 is for the delivery charge and to some people this is ok.. if it is important enough. we also offer to del. to the workplace for these people since most work closer to town..
Let your customer decide what they want... just make sure you have done the cost analysis for each of these towns.. we figure mileage and time for driver..

Maybe now is the time to re-figure what you sell to customers..for years this board has talked about $35.00 and up as the only way to make a profit.. well that may no longer work.. we offer $15.00 & up and we are very cost concious. Mike Soeronson (FTD CEO) said the research shows that customers think $35.00 is about the right price for flowers... well if that is what they are willing to pay then I need to find something to sell them for that price unless I can entice them to WANT TO SPEND MORE.
If i do not fill my customers' needs at his price point then he will go someplace else to get something,anything that will fill his needs at his price point. Not every floral arrangement has to have roses & gerberas.. you can make real pretty arrangements with poms,minis, alstro & steel grass or ting ting or curly willow that have pizzaz and are distinctive for less money.. then show larger or more expensive options.. but just cause he has a total of $25.00 in his pocket shouldn't mean he can't get something delivered! and if it does than maybe our industry really will fade away.
 
Total Agreement with Carol...

Why not charge accordingly for those far out deliveries? We, regrettably, have just raised our Del. Charges $1.00 across the board. Also, any non-funeral timed deliveries will be a flat $10.00 (before, we had not enforced this...). Far out areas have been adjusted as well. My farthest area could take a driver 45 min EACH WAY...this area now commands a $15.00 delivery charge. (was $10).

We too have "adjusted" what we sell. We have NO minimum for delivery - because WHATEVER we sell, we make $$$ on! And, as long as the delivery charge is paid as well, I see no problem.

We have streamlined our delivery system as well. One thing is if a re-delivery has to be made, the recip. MUST be home and SPOKEN TO... If we make the 2nd attempt and they are not home, the package WILL be left. They are told this when they respond to our 1st attempt (door tag, call), and ALL have been VERY understanding. In fact, we have seen an increase in the number of people who want to PICK UP the order - it's just easier for them - they are out and about anyway, so they stop in. To show our thanks, we give them a flower for picking up the order.

It has been 9 months since our last delivery charge increase...but we had to do it. I ran the numbers and with the projected fuel costs for Sept. and the # of deliveries - with a 5% increase - I hope :) -, we would have lost money on deliveries. Also, our insurance premiums have just gone up for 2 of the 3 vans...ugggh.

- H.
 
There is no difference in the consumer's mind between $8 and $9.95. Go for the round numbers with your pricing. From $4 to $4.95 is nothing to the consumer, and an extra dollar for you. That's about half a litre of gas!

Ryan
 
"In the City Limits" our delivery fee is $8.00. We have assigned a delivery fee to every zip code we deliver to. There's no room for arguement that way. Some really far away places are still up to the descretion of the owner & manager (me). What will determine those prices are exact distance, & time of day the order is placed & what the driver's current schedule is like. These fees vary from $12 - $20.

Your delivery fees should, at the end of the month, pay for fuel, insurance, vehicle maintenance, & driver's wages. We feel this should never be paid "out of pocket" by the shop. This department should be self sufficient by way of the delivery fees. Of course, any profit is always saved for a "rainy day" such as unexpected vehicle repair, deductables, and the dreaded but unavoidable redelivery of undeliverables.
 
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