The Business & Pleasure of Flowers

Floral Industry Predictions and Updates for 2021 with Bill LaFever, President of Bill Doran Company

March 23, 2021 Episode 65
The Business & Pleasure of Flowers
Floral Industry Predictions and Updates for 2021 with Bill LaFever, President of Bill Doran Company
Show Notes Transcript

Episode 065: What does the floral industry look like post Covid? What's causing the shortages in fresh, hard good supplies, and plants? When will the supply chain be back to normal? We don't have a crystal ball, but we do have some an expert with some solid insight. Vonda chats with Bill LaFever, President of Bill Doran Company, a wholesale floral company with 31 locations in the US, to find out the answer to these questions and more.  Stay until the end to listen as Lori takes a deeper dive with questions directly from Flower Shop owners.
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Speaker 1:

Will the source

Speaker 2:

Plants ease up soon. We are having so much trouble getting even the basic peace plants right now

Speaker 1:

That one is going to be a little bit longer to come back,

Speaker 3:

Welcome to the business and pleasure of flowers. We're your hosts, fondle, a fever and

Speaker 1:

Lori Wilson. And we believe that

Speaker 2:

Are a perfect combination.

Speaker 1:

Vonda, Laurie

Speaker 3:

Sunday was the first day of spring and you know, spring is my favorite season ever.

Speaker 2:

Is it? I didn't feel that.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. Love spring. It's, you know, fall is like, you know, it's going to go into winter. Spring is like, whew, we're going to have summer. The weather's getting beautiful. The little flowers start popping their heads up in a slum. It,

Speaker 2:

I love spring. I feel like in the States where I've lived spring in Cleveland, Ohio for 15 years, I just saw a, you know, Facebook pulls up a memory yes. From, and it was like 2014 and it was March 22nd, 2014. And I just wrote happy spring. And there was just a blizzard outside. So that's spring did not, it was still winter till may and here in Texas. I just feel like we get a ton of rain, but it's spring. I do love it. Yes, yes, yes. And I have to tell you I'm a little sad in our world now because nobody gets us fancy on Easter.

Speaker 3:

No, they don't. We'll talk about that in another podcast. There's a lot to say about Easter.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. I don't probably therapy. I need to get,

Speaker 3:

But spring, I mean the, the flowers are starting even here in Northern Florida.

Speaker 2:

Beautiful. Exactly. But

Speaker 3:

We're also one year post COVID and we've had so many people ask us. Okay. So now where do we go from here? As far as with the floral business? Of course we have all the other questions too, but with the floral business, where are we going from here? What's mother's day going to look like? So we brought somebody in who knew a little bit about that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Yeah. We did. We brought in a Mr. Bill Lefevre and we know every time we do a podcast with he's been here before, and it was one of the most listened to podcasts I've had. Um, and then we had him come in and do a flower click webinar for us.

Speaker 3:

Yes, we did. That was last week. And so we just thought we would take the highlights of that and make it into our podcasts this week because it had such great information.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Yeah. It has been the most requested, uh, you know, how people always email me or our members do when they miss a webinar. Yes. I have just been constantly emailed. Do you have the recording? Even people that came to it wanted to listen to it again. So great. Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Information. So it's built a fever. Who's the president of the bill Dorn company. It's a wholesale florist with 31 locations,

Speaker 2:

The United States. So let's take a lesson. Okay.

Speaker 3:

We are just going to chat a little bit about all things floral and especially looking at what happened a year ago. When did we say what happened a year ago? Um, my slide, which if you can't see it, it's just this one year ago, it's been a long year for a lot of people and the initial reaction was on our side. So the media throwing away flowers and, you know, we had all these pictures coming in from, you know, South America with all this waste. And of course, flower lovers, we just are struck with, Oh my gosh, we could have done something with those. But you know, there was no way.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. You know, it got dumped at every level. And I think part of the key was just not add any more costs to those flowers and transportation ends up being such a huge component. And maybe a little bit later when we talk about mother's day, I'll probably talk a little more about transportation, but so to dump them wherever they were at that point, unfortunately the best financial decision. Um, but there were, there were different issues hanging out there for sure. Uh, with, with the distribution of those flowers and even programs were saved the growers and other some, uh, some promotions out there for, for bouquets and things that were to help save California growers and even South American growers as well.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, definitely. So they weren't necessarily pulling up plants and things at this point, they were just mostly dumping what they couldn't get to it.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. Because what you're seeing there on the pictures are they're already packaged and now there's just no demand, no flights coming out, everyone's canceling their orders. A majority of wholesale locations closed down. So they want to just to throw those away. But what happened more at the forums was, you know, they're, they're densely populated once the workers are on site know, they're walking up and down, even though it's a farming thing, there's a lot open space. There's people walking up and down the narrow aisles of those farms, cutting the roses. And then the packing facilities, it's all very tight and even more. So is the farms a little more remote? So most farms run their own buses around the villages to pick up the employees and bring them in. Well, you can't have all these people crowded together in your bus and then in your, on your farm. And you know, you didn't want to be the cause of a COVID spread. You know, that that happened at your farm. Went throughout the farmer, went back to, you know, 10 to 12 nearby villages. So they stopped having the workers coming. And that was that's where the plants just kind of got out of control, majority of the plants. Um, I shouldn't say majority, but you know, the hydrangeas and roses, um, those type of plants just kept growing and just became a little wild, but the everything was cuttings, the chrysanthemums and just buds and those types, you know, those ones just, just, you know, grew and blossomed and died. Like, like what we'd see in the summertime here in the Midwest. Okay.

Speaker 3:

That, that makes a lot of sense. And then we remembered the picture of mother's day 2020, where they couldn't get enough flowers here, right. The airplanes, and this may be a still what's happening is we're sending back the plane's empty. And then this was, this was a actual passenger part of the plane that was filled with flower boxes everywhere.

Speaker 4:

Yup. Well, what happened there? And I think we've talked a little bit about this, um, is that we didn't realize that, you know, 70% of cargo not, not flowing as service 7% of cargo rides on the belly of the commercial planes with the passenger planes. And so as soon as the commercial plane stopped with the passengers, there was no, there was no Avenue to move the boxes. Um, you know, there weren't enough just cargo only. And so once that, once that came into play, then that's when, you know, pictures like this actually did occur until passenger flights started taking off again. Um, but at that same time demand was pretty low for flowers. So it was kind of double in short that's the picture looking there is purely mother's day. Like when, when, when the demand suddenly came booming back in a lot of States, uh, kind of loss in the restrictions for retail flower shops to be open.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. I mean, because on our side with our flour clip members, we saw record numbers and you probably saw a lot of that too record numbers of flower sales. So it was just crazy.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. All the, all the stats that I've seen basically, you know, were great, not counting the events of the missed events, I guess I should say, you know, even the fall holidays were strong as well, but mother's day, last year was very, very strong, surprisingly strong, I think, caught everyone off guard that's for sure.

Speaker 3:

That was it. I think everybody was caught off guard. We were very fortunate that we had already partnered with bill Doren company where there were bundles. So those bundles were able to get in. People were able to utilize those, which not just helped for flower sourcing, but also for, um, productivity wise, you know, with designers working with that. So that worked out really well. So then the question is what's this year, there's a lot, right. There's a lot to,

Speaker 4:

Yes. Yeah. And you know, I feel like a broken record when you've got me on different different times. I always say, you know, pre-book early, there's going to be a shortage of available, you know, lack of availability and things like that. And I think I've been somewhat accurate in that, you know, when I say that, you know, the flood of product at the end of the holiday that we think of from like 10 years ago, when prices get compressed, that hasn't happened. And so when I've said it before that, that, you know, the, to, to book early in procurator product, it was just to say, there's no advantage to waiting. So you might as well book out until you get one, get the particular farms you want get the particular varieties you want. That's what I've kind of mentioned in the past, when you had me on for different holidays. I won't say pre-booking because I was kind of saying the price wasn't going to drop. So you might as well lock in right this year. I'm saying it's even more so than that. It's, it's not just that the prices aren't going to drop it's at the availability is going to just disappear, um, get the product in, get what you need as, as a retailer, get on phone, book it with your favorite vendor of choice, um, be prepared, you know, that, that what you order there may be substitutions, um, especially with certain varieties. Um, I know what we're, we're telling our sales staff, and we have calls this week, um, amongst with our sales staff saying, you know, don't over promise on specifics, whether it's a certain type of, um, you know, moonstone variety or, or mother of Pearl be a little cautious on saying, yeah, I can get you 1500 stems of that. No problem from the farm you want that we've always prided ourselves on the ability to make that happen. But now we're saying we've got to back off a little bit with that. We'll get that same tone and sets and color tone for you, but no guarantees on specific varieties. Um, I think it's going to be a very tight, tight mother's day. I mentioned once, um, when we were talking offline, before that we have a smaller farm that we deal with that, um, we buy from them weekly. So we get kind of first pass at their, their holiday. And then we take the stems that we need and want and the price and kind of worked out. And, uh, normally that offering is about 400,000 stems of Rhodes is a pretty small Ecuadorian farm. And often we would take half, maybe two thirds of those stems because it's stumbling, then all those varieties and we know kind of what our branches need and what give an early purchase order. And then even pay a little bit on the earlier sites. We had money to buy all the extra boxes for his upcoming overtime, long story to say this year where we got, he offered a spot, a fourth of the number of stems to look through. So from all 400,000 to about a hundred thousand, and I thought maybe it was a pricing thing because our pricing is kind of set with them and how it worked with them. And I said, well, if we were able to pay a little bit more, uh, you know, can this, can, this let's change all. He said, it has nothing to do with pricing where his particular apartments and they've had such cold weather that he's going to miss miss the majority of mother's day, uh, the cuttings won't be ready. And this was two months out before ship out of Ecuador. And I said, you have no idea what the weather is going to be like for the next two months. He's like he said, there's nothing mother nature can do to get these flowers back up on time for mother's day. So in some regions, some areas in Ecuador, they got really, really bad weather. There's been a fair amount of sleep in some areas too, some damaging, some not so damaging, but we, when you think that it's that cold that the, the farms or the plastics can hit with sleep, it affects them the ability for that Rose room. So what this gentleman was telling me, you seen these great big, long stems, thick stems, but the head of the row is still just so tightened. So small, it's going to be beautiful. It just takes that much longer when all the energy has been put into the STEM.

Speaker 3:

So it's not good for the retail florist well, you and the retail stores, but also for them, you feel bad for the farmer.

Speaker 4:

This is yeah. A lot of these farms really rely on Valentine's and mother's day, um, that's they get such a high percentage of their revenue for those two months, those two periods that they're able to skate through the rest, you know, that's, you know, they can break even a lot of the other months old when he was small and the really slow months they're core those two. So yeah, it will be tougher for some of them that's for sure.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. You made that makes you feel really bad for sure. Um, price-wise, mother's day, there's a lot going on there too, right?

Speaker 4:

There's not a lot of negotiating from wholesale back to farms. It's, it's more about getting the product. Um, we've already had some key farms farms that we buy. A lot of product can spend a lot of money already cut us off from other States. We put out a, uh, an early bird for our customers and that's been out for 10 days or so, but our full folder normally has an April 15th ish cutoff. Um, that's when we, we have 10 or 12 pages, uh, we were already planning on moving that up to like an April 8th or ninth cutoff, um, with these folders going out, you know, early next week. Well, now we're thinking that's not even early enough. Um, and so we're just trying to get, get the offerings together. Um, some of the branches are saying we just gotta really, really narrow it down and not over promise with all these varieties and all these custom mix boxes. You know, we almost just seem to go back to like the, um, you know, the, the mid nineties, okay. Here's CDNs, you know, not when we're giving the specifics and specific colors because it's over promising and potentially under delivering, um, demand is that strong and production is that week pricing wise. I think people are seeing the higher prices even right now. Retailers are it's mid-March and pricing is as strong as other. And it's twofold. One is the demand for the product is strong. Supply is average at best and in demand is increasing. And then the other component of all of, all of our costs is the freight to get that product from South America, all the way to Des Moines, Iowa, and onto a customer, somewhere in Texas and on, but there's a tremendous amount of logistics cost there, you know, air freight's more expensive, kind of, we just alluded to, but trucking, if anyone's paying attention to even if they're just, you know, FedEx in a care package to somebody in college or a friend or something, you know, it used to just be 10,$12 is now in some cases, it's about a third more that, you know, 10 to 12 is now 18 to$19 for that same size box. Do you know to go know second day of overnight? Um, just that much product going through e-commerce I guess, and, and the cost of drivers and trucking. And now we're seeing gas prices skyrocket, skyrocket back up after a year ago when we had some of the lowest gas prices we saw.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. Not only the higher prices, which I've seen actually, because I may have a, quite a bit of packaging. A lot of the packages that I send to the same place are like double in price. And then a lot of times they have that, but we can't guarantee it will be there in two days, like we used to, because they always have that, you know, high demand. And so hopefully flowers are getting in there first and then other packages not, but I don't know. I'm just always,

Speaker 4:

Yeah. So I think that just puts pressure on all shipping costs. You know, if you're a truck driver, doesn't matter if your, if your trailer is filled with flowers or if it's filled with boxes, you know, you're going to go with where the, where they're paying you the most. And so we're now paying more and more so than other. So we were talking

Speaker 3:

Earlier about some of the shortages that are happening now. And why is that? I mean, somebody called me the other day and said they were completely out of white carnations. They couldn't find a white Carnation anywhere. And I'm like white carnations. I mean, usually can find those anywhere. Right.

Speaker 4:

I hear it from our, all of our buyers and our branch managers as well. And he's called product shortage of the basics. Even if they're just not there, you know, best we can tell there's a handful of things happening, but demand is still just so strong. Our customers need more and more flowers and we're putting more when we're buying more from our, from our suppliers and growers, there was, uh, also a tremendous amount of consolidation amongst the growers, the big growers. Um, didn't just go buy a little growers. They've gone out and bought some big farms, um, the lead flower and the sunshine. Okay. Some of these really, really, you know, basically the four big guys used to control probably about maybe, maybe about 50%, maybe even a little bit more of the production in South America, between Ecuador and Colombia, but for, for larger companies, they've all expanded. So that puts a little bit of pressure. Um, they, they run as businesses. If it's not a profitable farm, if it's not a profitable product line, um, you know, th they have, you know, made the decision not to reinvest in those lines, um, after, after making someone's purchase. So supply of some items of is definitely pushed down. Um, those, those farms that were just relying on the holidays and then kind of skating through the remainder of the year, that that philosophy doesn't necessarily work for everyone that I'm just kind of referenced earlier. So the shortage, and then the other part of it is I've referenced the cold weather they've they just haven't had a great growing seagulls, especially as the last four weeks or so. It hasn't been, you know, what it normally is down there.

Speaker 3:

Well, what are we, what are we looking at beyond when I say beyond, you know, it's like, we're getting through there. Um, and pro productivity is coming up. I think we hit that a little bit. And, and then you and I talked a little bit beforehand about what happens when the economy actually opens back up. When we see where people now can embrace, right? They can go see their moms at mother's day. They can go visit. I wish we had crystal ball,

Speaker 4:

Right? I've heard some people chatting about it saying things like, well, you know, the floor on the street rolled this little boom, but, you know, once everyone can do their own thing, they're going to be, you know, we'll see the man come back down. But I think what they're, what they're missing, there is two things. One is hopefully people got in the habit. We, if we pleased the customer with that, if, if they, if they're a satisfied consumer, they're more likely to buy again. So it was a definite benefit for us. But what we're missing is that we haven't had the weddings and the events they're going to come back. Then we're talking to some florists. I've worked closely with one particular wedding venue. Very large venue out East was say that, you know, it used to be that out of a Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday wedding, they're looking at doing Tuesday weddings and Wednesday weddings. And they're already prepping for that. Um, with that can measure, have a ride on a Wednesday and a Thursday and a fragment because the venues don't have enough space. And then there's not enough, um, alters to get married at. So when it opens, yeah, w we may lose some of the gifting, maybe some of what we rolled this boom out on, but I think the events have the potential to come back. Um, another colleague in the industry said, you know, it's going to go back to the roaring twenties. You know, like the 1920s after prohibition was repealed and everything was happening. So they're calling the 2020s, the roaring twenties that, you know, there's a potential for that as well. Um, which, which would be decadence and in a lot of, a lot of floral coming into it as well. So, you know, we have that as something potentially before, too. So it's, I think it's really how the retailers position themselves for these different things.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. I totally agree with that. And the thing that I would say is we finally got the consumer to buy online right now. They're used to doing that the social media, letting them know what's going on and the wedding, and some events, a lot of shops have gone from taking those small events and done by backyard weddings and that, so their name is still out there. And then when that boom, that Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, every day, I mean, there were Monday wedding was going on for heaven sakes, who would ever think about getting married on a Monday, but, you know, there's only, like you said, only so many altars, which I think is just a perfect way to put that. Yeah. So 20, 21, there's a couple things we talked about. Um, one, you said, be open to something new and something new is tinted a died. And I would have to be the one who would say I never was open to that. Right. But now I see it everywhere.

Speaker 4:

Well, you know, I think initially we, in the floral industry dislike the tint of concept, right? It's not natural, it's not botanically. Correct. Um, but we can't be the bottlenecks. You know, I, I had, uh, wholesale salespeople to say, I'm not selling those things. It was back. Maybe when it first came out was like the crazy Daisy's right. This attentive daisies. But there is a group of buyers out there that really embraces that we are seeing more and more, um, not necessarily just within my company, but as I traveled for them, for the industry and being a touch that tinted and died. And I should, I should alluded. Cause I, I use those terms when you and I talked earlier, ended up on the screen there, but being inside the industry tinted and died, that those, those two words work real well. But I have learned from talking to other retailers that retail out to consumer, obviously not obviously, but the word died is not something we want to be associated with flowers because they're already a perishable product. And people's concern is that they're not going to live long enough on their table. So the dyed component, it word is probably not the best of words. And so the word that I've heard used more and more is enhanced. So they're naturally beautiful flowers and they're just, they just been enhanced with some more color. And, and the, the, the woman that explained that to me at the retail flower shop said, it was like some women wear a little makeup somewhere, a lot of makeup. So these are some of these farmers just need a little makeup, um, and, and some need a lot more makeup. And then that's why they might be multi-colored Carnes and things like that. So there's a trend that I know from the farm perspective, they are tinting a ton and ton of flowers build Warren company. Isn't the one buying that many of them, you know, and I'm, I'm hopeful that we're not the bottleneck to that. And so I just kind of throw it out there that be aware of that people are buying them through what channel. And I know I've had people say, well, that's a mass market item. That's, you know, something like that. But at the end of the day, we've got to provide what the consumer wants. And we shouldn't be the bottleneck to that.

Speaker 3:

Weren't you saying that they're making that multicolor Carnation, like they did the Rose now they're doing this

Speaker 4:

Rose would have like four colors that they basically sliced the bottom into quadrants and then put it into four different test tubes. Uh, yeah, I was on, I was on a zoom call with, uh, Carnation farm and obviously carnations have been dyed often just to get the blues and the different colors, but he was showing me the four colored tinted carne. And the thing the cost of doing that is it's very expensive because of the labor. They have to get the dyes aren't cheap. They got to do the temperatures, right? The rooms that they're in, they're no longer can just use a regular cooler room. They're not using warming rooms to get it up and then put them back in the cooler. It shows a tremendous amount of labor and work versus just cutting the carne and putting it in, um, just one solution and moving on, uh, for, for died. So the fact that they're investing that much money into that Carnation in the new of all things is, um, goes to show that it's out there limonene, Oh, the PDM, the gym, a lot of gyms. And the neat thing about the gym, whether you like it, or you don't is that, uh, as it opens up, not all the buds, um, get dyed so that the next set pop out is white. So then it almost becomes like a two-tone, um, uh, version. Um, and then the painted foliage, the amount of paint we do sell a fair amount of that from trust. Part of rowers in Florida does a tremendously great job with, and it's not just the gold and silver and copper, which we've kind of been selling a lot of those, those tones for a while, because I think the mud, the metallic look for the, for the greens was always something that people appreciated. But now we're seeing every color, hot pink who wants hot pink brotherly, well, popping, gladly is being made. I don't know who's buying it, who's using it, but it's being made. And when we chatted, I said, I fear that we as a company and then potentially other flower clickers are, you know, hesitant to embrace that because it's not our cup of tea, let's say, but we've got to be careful not to, not to steer people away.

Speaker 3:

And as I mentioned, Laurie, in our new sales prep school, that's coming out soon had said, and the training, just because you don't like, it doesn't mean you don't sell it because there are people out there, like this is a perfect example of color, enhanced foliage and baby's breath and, you know, whatever, it's somebody else who's going to love it. You have it right behind you on your table. That greens perfect for St. Patrick's day.

Speaker 4:

But so maybe, maybe a fourth of them are still white as a, as they, as they popped out. It's beautiful.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. So then I think the freight cost, you kind of covered a little bit before,

Speaker 4:

And it's not, it's not just floral. Like we talked about to move any box from point a to point B is going up dramatically. Um, and, and flowers travel a long distance that's for sure. And it leads into your next point there, the, the California product, it's very difficult to get freight from the West coast, um, heading East to the Midwest all the way out to the East coast, that, that, that is skyrocket even at a larger increase them from South Florida back, um, at least on South Florida, there's more product being hauled down there to be exported to South America. So then we have the ability to bring, uh, some of those trucks back to the Midwest. Um, but from California, there's not a lot of product being shipped back from the Midwest back to California or anything like that. So we're seeing things happen there for California product, pretty going to be even higher there. And then you factor in that there's less product for us to buy out of there. So our, our freight, our consolidations are smaller and smaller, more and more of that product. Um, isn't being grown in California. Those farms have now switched to cannabis and a lot of portions, you know, they can take a certain percentage of their farm, but to cannabis they've done that. Um, labor costs are so high water rights are so expensive out there in California, that a lot of that production that even when we think it's California, it's actually now Mexican. And whether it's the Baja grown, or if it's grown in like to be a gray area, you know, more central Mexico, um, more and more of that products being, being roped, Romans health of the border, um, which is unfortunate because that's where a lot of the, um, novelty type flowers, uh, where they were such good specialty growers of that after, um, you know, after they stopped growing mums and roses, um, you know, years ago. So it's not good news that's for sure. But, um, South American growers have become better at a handful of those items. I think you and I were chatting earlier and I said something about, I remember the first time we started bringing in stock from South America, um, the fragrance stock item, and it didn't compare to what we could get out of California. Everyone was used to getting all of that product out of California, but, um, but we didn't have the ability to just get, you know, an extra 100 bunches of white stock. And so we could out of South America because it was how they were growing in the brightest they were using. So we would sell in South American stock, I'm going 10, 12 years ago. And people didn't like now South American stock is on par or in some cases, even better than what we can get out of the West coast. And they got better over time. And now we're also seeing that with like anatomies and miraculous and scapula spots. Um, I guess this'll, isn't super hard to grow, but they know how the right varieties and they're growing a bigger and better. So a lot of that blue, this like it's in the texture that everyone is looking for, you know, all of that's now in South America, employers, not that many years ago was in California, right?

Speaker 3:

Since California can't grow it anymore, or you're less blessed growers and the shipping costs are higher. It's good for the industry that that's taken off because otherwise we'd have a role there. And those specialty products that we normally would get from, from California. For sure. Anything else, bill, that you think is important for us to add?

Speaker 4:

The old last thing I would say is, I think this is what your group of people does best is, you know, sell a concept or a color tone and textures. If you get too caught up between mother's day. And then even though this flusher party works, that could be coming back. I mean, there's only going to be so many quick sand available period. They can't plant enough and grow enough. And when Pinterest has a volley quicksand or moonstone or mother or Pearl or whatever it's going to be, I don't know what a candle like. That is a great new white, when that takes off on Pinterest, that's all anyone's going to want. And I told this story to a group of retailers the other day, I said it was a lot different a number of years ago before social media and the internet really had a plan that I said, because you know, what was popular for weddings in Iowa was different than Ohio, which is different than Texas, which was different than New York and Wisconsin. So each other on pockets of what was regionally in fashion and that even included varieties of roses and as well as, you know, no particulars once Pinterest had now, it's kind of across the board. It, it, it hits and that's what everybody wants and there's not going to be enough of these. I just, I know it's going to be disappointing. Bright. If you say, I know there's going to be 500 moonstone available, they may or may not too early to give the order to whoever your supplier is, the better chance you're going to get it, because they're going to place you at that farm two weeks out, three weeks out, four weeks out, um, trying to put certain things on standing order. If you know, you're a regular wedding house, put them on a standing order. And then if you don't need them, let your wholesaler know that you don't meet them that week. Maybe they'll sell them for you because odds are, they probably can. But I caution where we're headed, even not only with mother's day with needing to use your second or third variety. But man, if it, if everything opens up the events, come back, it's going to put some real price, pressure and availability even more. So it won't matter what you're willing to spend. It may just not be enough steps.

Speaker 3:

That's what we always say anyway, right? I mean, you work with your salespeople all the time. It's like don't sell the certain variety and you know, which varieties are good substitutes for other, I mean, you got quick sand, but you got two or three others that are same color. The bride's not going to know that it's not that exact Rose. You will, as the flower shop owners, but most of the time, they're not. So you have to trust that you, as a professional are selling the color palette rather than this certain variety of roles.

Speaker 4:

And, and you see that with variety of already, you know, if you buy it from a certain part of Ecuador and the Northern versus the Southern parts of Ecuador, that same writing might have a slight different view. If they're, side-by-side totally recognizable for what they are apart from each other for the next to go, wow, there's some nuances to them, for sure. So you have that as mother nature, um, backup as well from, from what's going on as a retailer to them consumer. Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2:

Vonda as usual, it was great information. Um, it is hard to wrap our head around the fact that it has been an entire year, this pandemic set in, and I'm always amazed at how calm bill is in his conversation. It's just very low key, you know? So I love that. Um, we, we, at the end of that webinar, we ended up doing an extended Q and a time. And it was so good with so many questions you and I thought it was important enough to, to bring that onto the podcast too. So let's listen to that. Okay. This is from Caroline and Clara from razzle-dazzle some more flour clip members. And they're saying with us, finding different products and available during this time, what is the best way to keep the customers informed and satisfied?

Speaker 3:

Communication is key, right? You just have to let them know, you know, that this was not available, but this is your suitable substitute. As bill talked about, you know, we can stay with the integrity of the look. So, you know, you might have not had this color Rose, but you have this color or something else, and you're going to stick with the same color combination.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. You can still give good value. And ultimately, you know, hopefully that's what you're selling, whether it's a design technique plus the color, um, and following through on that.

Speaker 2:

And I add, because you know, we've gone down. I'm like, it is all in the delivery. It is all in how you deliver the message. If you don't have that flour, how you respond to you are still positive. And you know what we do have though, we have this and it is amazing. And it's all in how you sell it. They're listening to you and looking at you for the confidence. So I just think if you, if you go at it and go, Oh, I'm sorry, we don't have that. I mean, we do have some orange roses, but I don't want that. You don't sound excited about it. Why would I feel excited

Speaker 4:

And, and not to defend anything, but if you blame it on your supplier, it looks poorly on you. Right? I tell our salespeople all the time, even if it is a grower's fault, they mislabeled the box, they put the wrong items in there, or they just didn't ship. If you're just going to say, I ordered them for you, but grow our family. It looks bad on the sales person. We just have to say, they're not available. They didn't get here, but here's, here's a solution we need to move on. Here's what I can do for you. Don't just sit there and beat up the grower that didn't do anything. So likewise, I would recommend just don't blame it back on your supplier. It doesn't make you look any better. It actually makes you look as made a poor choice and suppliers.

Speaker 2:

That's, that's a very good point. Um, here's another one by another member, Carla, and she is asking will the sourcing of plants ease up soon. We are having so much trouble getting even the basic peace plants right now,

Speaker 4:

That one is going to be a little bit longer to come back then a couple hours, um, partially because they take longer to grow. Um, and it wasn't. The investments made, you know, last spring, you know, to a grower torrent, plowing hundreds of thousands of dollars into cuttings and small plants so that the outlook really got tight. Then factor in that plant consumption is even skyrocket a lot more than cut flower consumption. So the supply and demand is Jiff off just off kilter. Um, our plant buyers have gone down to Florida and then met with the growers more this time than they normally do in a couple year period. Um, just to, just to try to keep those relationships strong. There's just not enough plants and there's nothing that's going to be done except a little bit of time. The millennials love their green babies, your hashtag green babies. You see that on all those items. And you know, what I thought was a great thing was that they didn't take care of them. So every 30 days then you did get a new. Now we kind of want him to take care of them for a little bit longer. We're bringing it back to you. Maybe you could train them and get their old plants and give them some, give them a little fertilizer, some sun and some water. You might be able to recycle your old plans if you're a retail. And I don't know, but, uh, I can just imagine that there's gotta be something that can be done, but unfortunately it's going to be a bit longer before the cycle of war plants catch up.

Speaker 2:

It just is what it is. It's the truth. And it's across the board. They can call every flower shop in their area. They're all gonna probably have the same conversation, you know? So again, offer maybe something else that you do have. Um, I think you guys spoken to this, but I'm going to give you a chance to add anything that you might have. This is from Greg and Laura from floor Finos and they say them, the supply chain has been in trouble since last March. When will things improve? Supply is inconsistent. That quality had seemed to have taken a hit as well.

Speaker 4:

The hardware manufacturers, they cut everything last March haven't they canceled every purchase order they could possibly cancel immediately and shut down factories. And you don't just flip a switch, um, things that are supposed to be put on boats, you know, last summer, you know, it's, it can be a close to nine month turnaround on some of that. And it's not like, then they just immediately in June said, okay, your world's going to be better. They didn't just, they canceled all their appeals and March and didn't place new POS. We're looking at suppliers that are saying they hope to have product in, in July. They should finally have it into their, into their warehouses from overseas. That definitely has had a huge factor on containers, especially now with the containers. It's put a lot of price pressure on a traditional basis as well, but three price increases in nine months. Um, and I don't believe that any of these manufacturers are gouging. Anybody, their costs are rising. The demand is there. Trucking is increasing. Um, so it's, it's very difficult. That's for sure. So hard goods is going to be for a little bit longer, but that one will come back faster than plants. The demand on plants is just so strong and you can't speed up the production of plants, right? They only grow so much each each week, each month, right? Quality of product for fresh product. I think the gentlemen that you referenced, if they're not getting the quality they want, they should really talk to them. Their salesperson, because product is moving faster through the chain than it ever has. It's not sitting in many places at all. It could be people just trying to rush the growing process and cutting too fast. So I'm not saying that there's not, but I wouldn't accept quality. A poor quality that's for sure. Right?

Speaker 3:

No, we we've had nothing but rave reviews about our bouquets that we began to flowers by Michelle in Las Vegas. She just said the bouquets were amazing quality. And she said, if you're not getting in, there's something wrong with you, is that what you said?

Speaker 2:

You're missing. She's like, you're not getting any you're missing out. And we have one more question that from Carla saying she's having trouble getting the small clear cylinder, um, that we use a lot in our designs, any suggestions for that one?

Speaker 3:

And you've checked all the syndicate sales opportunities there. Carla, check that out dollar tree check there. And I'm sure that was one that some people were finding some glass and people found some at Walmart bill. We had a lot of problems with syndicate, not having the certain send sizes. And so we've just been telling people, go wherever you can and get what you can

Speaker 4:

Understandable. You got to

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, looking for a phone number for flower click. Goodness. What is my phone number one 800. I click C L I Q U. I don't even know my own phone number.

Speaker 3:

Well, bill, I really appreciate your time today. I know everybody just kind of wealth of information about what to expect for the holidays and where we're going and some great tips on being prepared when it all opens back up,

Speaker 4:

Do the best we can. Right? That's all we can hope for.

Speaker 2:

That's right. Thank you so much for listening to our podcast. We hope you enjoyed spending time with us because we enjoy spending time with you. If you did make sure you hit that subscribe button or add the business and pleasure of flowers to your Google morning routine or your flash briefing on Alexa, we look forward to seeing you next week. So please come back and join us and discover how a bit of knowledge and one small change in your mindset can take you to new levels in your life and business.[inaudible]

Speaker 1:

[inaudible].