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 Retail
florists are aware that consumers have a variety of choices and can
buy flowers from many places. Then brick and mortar florist has lost
business and made lower profits as a result of orders being taken by
companies that get commission or people simply shopping elsewhere.
Rising fuel costs have also added to the misery and despite the
downward pressure on retail price points the floral wholesalers have
raised prices to retail florists. Companies like FTD that FedEx
flowers to retailers are not doing florists any favors as their
costs are high also. Flowers are not a staple and discretionary
products in these economic times become more of a luxury.
That is it for the bad news. The good news is that florists have
been paying roughly twice as much for fresh cut flowers because they
buy them from floral wholesalers. How is this good news? Well, you
can join or create a coop of retail florists and dramatically cut
your fresh cut flower costs by more then half. Local florists can
then offer customers much more product for the same price while at
the same time reduce costs and become more profitable by attracting
additional customers. A retail flower coop is very effective.
Buying flowers direct is very easy to do, the issue is that when you
buy the flowers direct they are consolidated (dropped off) in Miami
Fl and the flowers need to get to the the local flower shop.
Wholesalers do buy direct, consolidate in Miami and truck the
flowers in bulk to their wholesale store and then distribute it to
the retail florist. The key for a local florist is to get the
product trucked to their location.
By forming retail florist coops with a group of several local
florists you are able to buy flowers in bulk and get them trucked to
one of the shops. Some of the large flower trucking companies try to
stop this by protecting the wholesalers but you can usually find
plenty of trucking options or in the alternative simply create a
wholesale florist company for the coop.
The first reaction from a florist when they hear this is no way, it
is too hard to do, it cant be true that I can pay half as much and
it must be another sales pitch. When florists try it out they then
say I cant believe how much money I have saved and how much money I
have wasted in the past. The retail florist coop is gaining in
popularity and the wholesalers are not happy.
Start or join a retail florist coop in your area today and start
saving.
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