Should and Could Florists use "Shrink Rays"?

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LJVF

LJVF

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(posted in this forum because image posting is not a feature in "shop talk")

"Shrink Rays" is a tactic used by many retailers, grocery stores in particular, which allow them to offset the impact of inflation during a sagging economy.

For example: rather than raising the price, a manufacturer will put less soap in the same exact bottle and keep the price the same. The consumer will have no idea that there is less because the packaging remains the same.

These "Shrink Rays" are currently strong in force right now.

Here is a list of: 34 current examples

Here is one example, look at the difference in ounces:

miniwheats.jpg
 
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Interesting.....
 
Yeah! Why not. Can't do it with something like a dozen roses but mixed arrg., isn't it all about the "perceived" value? It could be the reverse of that horror story you hear at shows about "what if your designer put one extra carnation in one arrangement per day..." you could put in one less flower in one arrangement per day. Or something like that.
 
I disagree customers will notice.Flowers are a little more personal than some other retail items and the last thing I would ever want to do is loose a customer.However with that said we need to make sure we are not under or over stuffing and that we are charging proper for our labor some styles of design require more time we have one at the shop I work for called casket roses and the shop must loose a ton of money on these they are way too labor intensive and not properly priced just an example and just my opinion.
 
I thought the same as robin, one stem less just to get us through and then when the economy improves then we can resume normal service. Dont reinvent the wheel i say, if the big boys do it then???
 
Another way to do it is buy better, get stuff on sale but don't reflect the sale price in your price. So you got a good deal, yay. No one has to know. :cool:
 
smart lady, Paula. Me too, just thought I'd throw it out there. I worked for someone who didn't. :spintongu
 
well robin they are just silly sausages as my daughter would say lol. Bottom line, its all about it.....
 
Anyone for Metric "dozens" :>
 
LJVF said:
rather than raising the price, a manufacturer will put less soap in the same exact bottle and keep the price the same. The consumer will have no idea that there is less because the packaging remains the same.
Click to expand...
Hey, this sounds like a tried and true marketing practice in this biz. Look at most WS photos and then read the recipes. They show all the flowers in an all-around on one side of the arrangement. They tell us florists each stem of spray roses and mini carns has 5 flowers. Yada, Yada, Yada...

They frame small designs to fill a photo and make $40 look the same size as $100 (except for TF which scales it's arrangements.)

The web has been "Shrink Raying" flower arrangements for years. :> ;)
 
Cathy, good point, a lot of those images are beyond deceiving. Not sure it pertains to "shrink rays" though.

I'm having doubts that "shrink rays" are a viable option in our industry.

However, I am fascinated by the way that most of us consumers have no clue that we are being deceived by the manufacturers. Maybe it's for the better, I'm thinking I'd rather have a few less M&M's in a pack and pay the same price than have the same amount and pay more.

Master J, your TP comment cracks me up! lol
 
"Shrink Rays" is not a tactics to cut the costs. As I see it, it's really a clever tactics to increase the sales.

Here's how it works, I think.

As they "shrink" the content without changing the package and price, consumers use them up more quickly. As the result, they end up buying the product more often.

For example, let's say a toilet-paper manufacturer shrank their roll from 500 ft to 400 ft without changing the price. Assuming that your family of five butts need 10,000 ft a month to wipe their rear ends, you would have to buy 25 rolls (of 400 ft roll), instead of 20 rolls (of 500 ft roll).

That's a whopping 25% increase in sales! If the sales stays the same, however, I would venture to guess that benefit from cost cutting (500->400 ft) is practically nothing, because the material cost is usually not a big part of the final price of these products.

So, this tactics works best, if the product is some kind of consumables (i.e., toilet papers) or everyday food (i.e., butter).

As for flowers, here's what we "could" do if you want to adapt this tactics.

Make an arrangement using old crappy flowers, so that they all die within a few days instead of normal 7 days. ...and hope that our customers buy more often from us, because our flowers now die more quickly. Not sure this tactics really works though. :)
 
All very interesting. I wish RC were still here. I'd love to read his take on this.
 
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I think we already have shrink rays - from the grower end.

Does anyone else remember when leatherleaf was 25 stems per bunch? Now it's 20.

Or solidago 10 stems? Now it's sold by weight (I was told this from my main supplier when I called because there were only 9 stems in each bunch of a box purchased - it was the old fashioned, not MardiGras).
I have other weight/flower questions, but that's for another thread when I can organize my thoughts ...

Lilies 3-5 blooms meant 3 viable blooms, +1 or 2 that were possibly viable ... now we're forunate to get 3 viable blooms for the same grade lily stem.

It's already here, the question is do we use the same practices on our customers ....
 
Tracy is right. We are getting shrunk from the wolesalers on flowers and hard goods as well. I'm not sure how to apply the downsizing of the product without my customers noticing though. I've tried using more greens but the cost for greens has gotten pretty high and filler (not BB) is sometimes more expensive than flowers because filler rarely goes on sale here. I admit that I am an overstuffer and really need to buy-into the less is more design concept during these lean times.
Too funny the idea of selling dying flowers; wouldn't it be great if all consumable marketing practices worked for our niche?
 
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