Pricing bulk flowers

[Lizi]

I had a bride and groom in this afternoon, the wedding is July 24. The need 4 bouquets and 4 bouts, as well as bulk flowers for 2 large arrangement, centerpieces and serving platters. The brides Aunt is wanting to make those. Brides bouquet is around 175.00, maids 90.00, bouts 15-20. They are fine with these prices but want less expensive flowers for the arrangements. How should I price the ones by the bundle, I will be cutting, and keeping in the cooler for a few days.

 

[secretgarden]

When we do our prices we for bulk we take the wholesale cost by 2.5. Some do less some do more. If you are cutting and storing them I believe 2.5 is a fair rate. I also require them to purchase the entire package. For example, you can not buy 20 roses and 3 hydrangea, you have to buy 25 roses and 5 hydrangea. I want to cut and store, not sort and mark buckets. This is the way we do it, it works well for us. We have even sold wholesale to local restaurants and churches using this method. Oh and we do nothing more then cut and condition (in flower food) the flowers, no stripping of thorns, no picking outer petals, and no wiring of any kind.

 

[Sabrinas]

If I do no processing I would do a two time markup. If I process and store I would do a 20% discount off normal retail per stem price

 

[BOSS]

How many stems???

"Bulk" for me starts at 100+ stems, or full cases when it's Hydrangea and the like....... anything less is regular pricing...

 

[Missy]

Ordering, recieving, processing, storing. These are all labour driven and cost you. By ownership of the flowers in the first place, you also need to allow for breakage, perhaps an unforseen quality issue etc. These all become very risky if you sell the flowers at less than your usual retail.

 

[rsef]

I do about the same as Secretgarden, but use a 2x markup.

 

[Lizi]

Really ticked off with this couple. They want Charlie Brown orchids, Juliet roses, ranunculus. At first they were fine with the wedding party flowers, I priced the bulk flowers at 2x wholesale. Now they are complaining about both prices. The wedding is July 24, said they were going to Costco, I actually laughed. Told them to go ahead, Costco doesn't special order flowers. Gave them a deadline of this afternoon to let me know whether to place the order or not, of course it has to be paid in full along with the go ahead.