Shops Closing

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LORRIE

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Jan 6, 2004
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flowersforyouhollywood
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Just feeling awful ... got a call from another shop that they are closing and having a liquidation sale this saturday. Now some might think great less compitition but this really bothers me. Just last month Colonial House closed here in Hollywood had been in business for 25 years, and today got a call from Mardy's who is liquidating. Been around since the begining of time..
the whole thing is depressing. Yes these guys were the compitition, the big guys, but to see them fold is really scary. Ann's another big florist closed last year too. While there are still lots of florists here - my guess is about 11 now, the powerhouse florists are dwindling fast.
 
Call me crazy (and some here have), but I think florist closings are a good thing. There is simple too many florists around who can't deal with the changing world, and the sooner they get out of the way the better.

Hopefully many of them will be wire operations and this will force to consumer to either drop ship or call direct, skipping the damaged wire offerings once and for all.
 
12BucksFor2Dozon said:
Call me crazy (and some here have), but I think florist closings are a good thing. There is simple too many florists around who can't deal with the changing world, and the sooner they get out of the way the better.
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No Mark... not carzy....

Lorrie said:
the powerhouse florists are dwindling fast
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I agree with both of you...yes fewer florists is a good thing in any given market. Also in many cases it is the older, once well established florists, the "powerhouse" florists that are leaving the scene.

I can speak from personal experience, being considered the "powerhoouse" florist in my market, that it is often very difficult for larger, well entrenched operations to adjust and change to fit the current economic model.

I know in my case it took some pretty hard hits to make me see what I had to do to adjust, and to change to fit the "new" way of doing things. I think that in many cases, older, established shops have done the same thing for so long that they are either unwilling to look at new ways of doing things, or that they believe that what has worked in the past will continue to work in the future. That is not the case.

To grow again, and to move forward we must look at the old problems with new vision, sort out what works and discard that which no longer fits todays retail floral world. Myself, I was slow to adjust, we made some radical moves right after 9/11 but those moves did not account for the change in the online arena, as well as the changes the wires made to become competitors. We eliminated high priced merchandise, we cut some staff, we changed hours of operation, all helped but none were the silver bullet.

We have since began slowly reintroducing high end merchandise, but not the diamonds and gold we once sold, now days it is furniture, home furnishings, usable items. We have cut more staff to remain lean and aggressive...we have gone to the "We can DO IT!" mentality, that everything is possible if the customer has the bucks to spend.

It is no longer possible to be "just a florist", you have to know marketing, you have to know bookkeeping, you have to work yourself, in design, delivery, the office...everywhere.

We here spend alot of time talking about the web, but for me, this is a miniscule part of my business, but it takes up alot of the available time to work on, and I do because it is a necissity. Today many florists leave this work to the wires, who, as we all know do not have our best interest in mind.

We will continue to see shops folding, yes it is sad, but it is also good for those left, and is in alot of ways nature running its course. One needs to constantly fight, for the right...to survive...the consumer will determine who that is.
 
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What Does This Tell You??....

about florists (not being business people).......
there is more to running a florist business than just being a flower lover!!
 
Those were the days.....

It was easier to run a florist in the old days. WS actually helped florists market. This is the reason why so few designers knew the ins and outs of running a professional business. Other businesses are more in tune with the marketing, management, and constant adjustment necessary to run a successful operation.

Don't beat yourself up on the closing florists. Let it motivate you to do the things that winners do.

Winners do the things that losers won't do. Mostly.... they don't quit. Ever.

It is a little more truthful to think, rather than change with the tides....these florists chose to quit. We also must consider that businesses quit for any myriad of reasons. Could be poor money management, a nasty divorce, a gambling habit, drug habit or anything else you can think of.

Do you think you would ever know the real truth......if it were any of these reasons. Wouldn't a great answer be "The times are getting tough"?

Don't be swayed......be aggressive.

Flower Power
 
Mikey the Flower Guy said:
about florists (not being business people).......
there is more to running a florist business than just being a flower lover!!
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Ain't it the truth! When I open this shop 4 years ago the plan was( and still is) that we would run a theraputic shop coupling my love of flowers with therapy for folks suffering from depression/ manic depression who needed a vehicle to get their lives back and get back to work. I figured it would all flow together easily!!! Well I have had to learn to be a business person again (had a previous business) and really pay attention to the business side of this thing in order to survive. I have had to scale back a bit my dreams of therapy land and of opening a duplex to provide housing to our consumer/employees. There is just to much for me to do everyday to get competitive and plan for the future of this shop. I find I have more and more hours devoted to running the business and less to spending time with theraputic aspects and even less to the designing I love so much. The good news is that we are in the black again , building a customer base and I am doing my best to cope with the website/internet stuff that I believe will be the future if we are to survive.
I don't know the real reason any of these shops closed but there were 4 really big shops in the area when I opened (and a bunch of smaller ones) and now there is only one.
 
LORRIE said:
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I don't know the real reason any of these shops closed but there were 4 really big shops in the area when I opened (and a bunch of smaller ones) and now there is only one.
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That's easy, the same reason why so many other large shops have closed, it's the drying up of that easy easy wire money that so many shops abused for so long. The bad karma of charging 100% and filling 70% finally came around and bit them where it hurts...
 
Maybe this is why some older shops have to close

Businesses evolve. We were successful at what we were doing and was told over and over that if you are not growing your business, you are in fact dying [stagnant].

So new lines were added. Facilities were enlarged. 2nd and 3rd locations were opened. Like I would have added a coffee shop in my greenhouse with local, regional and national newspapers to read, hanging baskets, fountains, statuary and everything would be for sale. But the city would not give me a license to serve food in a "glass roofed facility". I even envisioned patio sets [for sale] and a restaurant with Weber Grills to pull up to the table and do steaks right on the spot. With the greenhouse ventilators and fans, smoke would not be a problem. Yes, I even envisioned tearing all the benches out of a greenhouse and put in a pool with sand around for sun bathing during our long winters in Wisconsin. Why not a golf putting green? Why not an indoor driving range?

GET THE POINT? It was EVOLUTION. And before long one would no longer focus on the flower shop which then would suffer from mismanagement or the lack there of.

Then along comes a new florist, hands on, minimal overhead and he thrives because of focus.

NO, THAT WAS NOT REAL, IT WAS ALL A DREAM. But many old-line shops have an albatross for a facility and it just can't be run lean and mean in an era when heating costs are killing greenhouses off. Scaling back, down sizing is often interpreted as failure by the consumer. It is not easy.

But Boss said it well. And I likewise am in the process of re-inventing my operation. Going to be easy? NO! Going to be fun? NO! But we just can't run our business the way we used to.
 
one main factor....

is just plain stubborness!!
Failure to recognize that change IS the new common thread, and that the "old way" of doing business is just not good enough any more!!
I CAN tell you this.....in multi generational shops, that HAVE predisposed ideas based on past history, are gonna be dead in the water, and others, like Ryan's (Lynn's) shop, that is moving to younger, and more progressive thinking will evolve to new plateaus.
What I DO fear for most, is when NO family members, or NO sense of transitioning of ownership, is in place for an orderly "exit" of old and decaying business models will certainly spell death for many "old" florist shop operations.
This industry has a very exciting and dynamic future for those that grasp what is happening RIGHT NOW, and EVEN IF, you cannot cope with all the changes...at the VERY LEAST, you can facilitate transition more easily of you KNOW what is necessary to continue growth in this biz.
As predicted, by a small group of think tank members, many florists are on the verge of complete failure, and this year and next, are threshold periods...almost like a last chance to dot your i's.
 
12BucksFor2Dozon said:
That's easy, the same reason why so many other large shops have closed, it's the drying up of that easy easy wire money that so many shops abused for so long. The bad karma of charging 100% and filling 70% finally came around and bit them where it hurts...
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Not the only reason...the economy down here is revolved around roofers, fence repairs, electicians, landscaping etc...we still have hundreds of neighborhoods that have dozens of houses with tarps on their roofs. Folks are spending but not necessarily on flowers. Went to Home do pot last night and was stunned by the number of Easter lillies on the floor for sale ( at the full price) Usually they are sold out days before the holiday so IMHO , even they are not making the slaes they use to in the garden dept....now lumber, shingles, tar paper are rolling out by the truck loads. So in different areas different factors can cause closing. Also, our liability rates have gone up ( 30% with Hortica alone) , WC continues to climb, unemployment costs are higher and gas is over 3.10 as of yesterday. Sometimes you look at your numbers, measure how hard you have to work to eek out a living and decide whether you want to continue...we reevaluate every month...and we often pray for lighting. lol
 
Our accountant is a specialist in florist businesses (that's why we hired him). He once told me that he once had 60 florist accounts in 90's. Now he has only 20+. His view is that most of the "weak" florists were already gone.

Some small business owners are just too "confident" in their business model, have too much ego to admit their ongoing mismanagement, and won't listen to anyone who has other opinions. There is so much truth in "Only the Paranoid Survive (by Andrew Grove)."
 
goldfish said:
Our accountant is a specialist in florist businesses (that's why we hired him). He once told me that he once had 60 florist accounts in 90's. Now he has only 20+.
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I'd be curious as to why they closed if they did...maybe they just found (or could not afford) a new accountant?
 
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