Well, 12 buicks for a dozatron....
I think your post went a bit awry.
If your premise is that florists are pricing themselves out of the market due to behavioral conditioning from the wire services, I think you are correct.
For years, we would price our WS product below the WS's SRP, because we wanted to provide our customers with value. However, during the Bob Norton rein at FTD, he made it crystal clear that he was going to lop off florists' heads if they did not provide the customer with the exact floral bouquet shown in the selection guides or online. There was a year or two, where he would show florists' failing design and product tests. His mantra was "we don't want the most florists, we want the best florists" (that is a paraphrase). It caught my attention, so from then on, even if I could have filled the product with additional flowers, I didn't.
Well, two things happened. One this tactic made florists say if that is the way FTD wants to conduct themselves, then I, as a florist, will abide by FTD's pricing structure. (Remember, this is before this recent trend towards "value" pricing and before the higher membership fees as well as the ancillary fees) Two, FTD lost alot of members. (Norton thought FTD could survive with 8-9,000 FTD members).
Value, Quality-fresh flowers, and good design does work.
Joe
