Episode 066: Vonda and Lori share a few sweet Easter memories and discuss where and why there is less demand for flowers this spring holiday and what you might think of doing to bring customer appreciation back. The power might just be in your hands!
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Episode 066: Vonda and Lori share a few sweet Easter memories and discuss where and why there is less demand for flowers this spring holiday and what you might think of doing to bring customer appreciation back. The power might just be in your hands!
Our Sponsors
Flower Prep School
Flower Clique
The Business and Pleasure of Flowers
Sponsored by:
Flower Clique
Flower Clique Prep School
Real Life Retail Florist
[inaudible]
Speaker 2:Labor goes into each one of those and a certain point. You're like, Oh, thank goodness. We don't have all those corsages, but now you look back and you go, wow, that is really
Speaker 1:Went away.[inaudible]
Speaker 2:Welcome to the business and pleasure of flowers. We're your hosts. Fondel a fever and Lori Wilson. And we believe that business and Fen are a perfect combination. Kind of like us Vonda.
Speaker 1:[inaudible]
Speaker 3:Laurie happy Easter week. Happy Easter. You know, all I think about is here guns, Peter gut tale. Did your mama sing you that song as much as my mama did? Probably not. I don't think so. Well again, she was a kindergarten teacher, so usually those weeks leading up to Easter, like every morning, we'd start hearing, hopping down the bunny trail and just made life better. It's like, there is a bunny rabbit hopping to my house soon. We'll get built. The excitement you think of that. It did. It did well. Here's another, here's a memory. Oh man, this is so great in, in my childhood, at least. So Easter mornings, not only would the bunny rabbit hide my eggs, also hide a brand new Easter dress in and a brand new pair of usually white pattern, little Mary Jane. Gosh. And he would leave me some notes that I didn't always, uh, I wasn't always able to interpret because again, like five, five or six, I had older siblings that would help me. And it was almost like a little scavenger hunt. So the Easter bunny worked just as hard as Santa Claus in mind. Yes, he did. Probably harder. Yes. Yes. And I was always amazed how he got my dress size. Just perfect. That's pretty amazing. And I'm going to say nine times out of 10, that dress was a, some shade of pink. As you can imagine, we would go shopping for our Easter dress. The bunny did not bring her dress as I got older. Yeah. The bunny gave up. I was getting pickier one time. I remember an Easter, I got a surprise dress and my dad bought it. It was the craziest thing. And it was the cutest little sailor dress. I'll never forget that. Oh, what's so funny. How old do you think you were? Oh, golly. Hmm. Five or six probably. Okay. So I too had one Easter where my dad took me Easter dress shopping. Oh my gosh. I know where our moms were at this time, because what I do remember is we didn't go to nearly the same amount of stores as we would with my mom, because my mom, wasn't more of a bargain shopper, but we went to like JC Penny's, which we didn't have a mall. And I tried on like two. So it wasn't like a day of it. Like you would do with mom or grandma. It was like, you go in and you try on two. Which one do you like best? Well, I like this one. Yeah, that's fine. Let's go. You remember coming home? And I was all excited. Cause again, it was a flowy pink. It was probably something that had a bit of an older girl look and know it's not like my mom's taste, but it was painful. She wasn't in love with it. And she also was not happy with the price. Dad did not care about any of that. He just wanted to be done and to say, yeah, I took her.
Speaker 2:Did your mom take it back or were you able to
Speaker 3:Wear that dress? I feel like, because I think I really liked it. Okay. Got it. I really liked it. I don't know. I think because I had free reign over which one I wanted. She would usually help narrow them down and say, what do you like out of these dairy as mamas do? Yes they do. But isn't that funny? We both have a dad story. Yeah,
Speaker 2:We do. And does your mom wear a corsage at Easter
Speaker 3:And my mother or a corsage? My grandmother or a corsage I've told you before? I, my memories of a flower shops were going with my grandma because she poured her flowers, a wire out back in the, you know, that was nothing to send to her daughter. Um, my aunt that lived in Pennsylvania and I always thought, how did it get there? Like it flew like the FTD in my mind. I just thought the guy flew it over to Pennsylvania. Um, but I remember going and ordering corsages. Right?
Speaker 2:It's interesting Lori, because if you go to church on Sunday this year, which we will be able to go and goodness, you will see very few people wearing flowers, women wearing flowers. It's just one of those things. And I remember in the flower shop, Oh my gosh. And people who are listening probably do as well. It's like there were so many corsage orders and there would be some that would be all, you'd get an orchid. It'd be a Cymbidium orchid or it'd be a Jaffet orchid. Or you were going to have mixed little flowers, little spring flowers. And it was very time-consuming because those were in the days that we didn't do gluing of corsages. Wow. A lot of labor goes into each one of those and a certain point. You're like, Oh, thank goodness. We don't have all those corsages, but now you look back and you go, wow, that really almost went on.
Speaker 3:Let me ask you this. A couple of questions. When I think about that, number one, would you say back then your getting ready for Easter with corsage wise was similar to prom.
Speaker 2:Now I would say I wasn't that busy. It was super busy. I mean, and many on the Caldwell probably recall that too. Like, wow. We weren't a really big shop, but we had probably 60 to 80 corsages for, for Dixon, Illinois.
Speaker 3:Wow. Okay. And so my second question is you talked about what types of corsages. I really, and again, childhood memory here. So it's not always clear. Right? I feel like they were carnations or something in them. I don't remember like a big Lilly corsage. I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong. I don't think, I mean, I don't know if I would probably
Speaker 2:Wouldn't have been a Lily in a corsage.
Speaker 3:And what did you say an orchid again? I am the typical customer. I just wanted pink hats
Speaker 2:Have had some times I didn't have the flowers on them or
Speaker 3:Flowers on her hats. Yes. It's been awhile too. Or her corsage would compliment her brooch. She has to broach for every holiday, different, lovely or broaches Laila
Speaker 2:Thing. I see people with broaches.
Speaker 3:I don't know if we would bring them back. Maybe we can start.
Speaker 2:Let's bring the flowers back first, Lori. And then that's what we're going to talk about today. Right? Our, yes. We're going to talk about that because there's gotta be a way to bring back some of that. I think that the younger generation, I don't think they appreciate wearing
Speaker 3:Hours. Some of them may not have any memory of ever even knew. That was a thing. Yeah, that's true. You know, I think about my children, who they were raised in a state very far away from both sets of grandparents. So it's not like they even have a big history of knowing about those things. I don't know. I don't know that it's crossed their minds. So how do we bring it back? What do you do?
Speaker 2:My idea. And I was going to try it last year and this year can't do it again is I was gonna take 50 wristbands and put flowers on them and stand outside the church and give them out.
Speaker 3:That's great. I just give him up because then it's like,
Speaker 2:You know, they're not going to want to pin them on their dress. We kind of were past that. I think a little risk massage with a few spring flowers on it. And I think if we give them away and get people, having their appreciation of having something compliment to whatever they're wearing and beauty on their wrist that like next year they maybe would say, or perhaps at mother's day, remember when we got those flowers that we wore for church last time, maybe we should do that again. That's
Speaker 3:Such a good idea. And you know what I love about that. And I also think that's a good idea for mother's day on slowly, because what I know our church, I don't know if they're doing it this year. Um, and then last year we didn't have church on mother's
Speaker 2:Day, but in the past
Speaker 3:They would have like a, a real pretty bucket. And each woman got just one single flower, which is great. But one of those risks, those slap on wristband, things that has a flower carrying just that one flower around is a little bit
Speaker 2:Awkward. Right? I had that little thing on my wrist wear it to brunch. I'd wear
Speaker 3:It out for the whole day. And
Speaker 2:I think that if somebody would give the flowers this year, the next year they could do it for a fundraiser. The church could go, Hey, we're going to sell those flowers this year. Now then the flower shop has the order and somebody is selling them for them. I think we could bring it back. I'm just keep having this whole
Speaker 3:That's the idea. Well, the other thing I was thinking when you did it, use it as a marketing opportunity, take so many pictures of what you're doing, what you're giving away, keep posting that and then offer that same sort of thing for a Sunday. Surprise for mothers, also the plants and the flowers. I mean, all of the stuff you would typically sell from other sales, but use it now and start spreading the word.
Speaker 2:Easter used to be a lot of Easter lilies, Easter plants, Easter arrangements. And that has gone down, we've talked to shops who had record numbers of sales last Easter. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah. We had shop talk last week for our liquors. Right? I know we've talked about it before on here, but for people listening that don't know what that is. That is our monthly meeting with our members where we just get on an old zoom meeting. It is not recorded. Uh, we talk about everything in this industry and some things that are in this industry that's right. Shop talks a year old now, right? Uh, right around that same time, right after Valentine's day. And we were talking about last year, this time they were crazy busy. The ones that were able to be open, there were some that weren't used were mentioning earlier, reminded me of the story of one of the shops saying we, we sold out Easter. Like we did not think we would ever sell out for Easter.
Speaker 2:And they went back three times to the greenhouse to pick up more plants because it was just going so crazy. She was like, we couldn't even keep up. This was Teresa. If you're listening. Right. I loved your story because it was like, wow, it makes so much sense. And then we were asking, do you think that's going to happen this year? And she said, probably not. Because now the grocery stores or the big box stores we're selling those last year are now open and people are going out to pick them up. So when you and I were discussing, Hey, pick up the phone and call those customers who were sending flowers last year and say, you know, we are operating and we had loved to deliver some flowers to so-and-so for you again this year. Can we set that up for delivery? Right? It's Tuesday, you guys, you have the rest of the week, pick up the phone, make some phone calls.
Speaker 3:I agree. I also think it's totally fine to call. And again, we always tell people, be ready to leave a voicemail because nobody picks up any more when they don't know what the phone number is. So be prepared to leave the voicemail and just say, Hey, I'm reaching out to you because you ordered Easter flowers last year. Um, so we're contacting all of our people that day because we have limited inventory this year. We, I wanted to make sure if you want them, we'll have them for you. So it's okay to let them know you have limited inventory this year too, but we can do it for you. And then we're, we're kind of doing you a favor, right?
Speaker 2:And it's the same thing for Passover, right? Passover started last weekend. So it's like, go through, you know, what could you send during Passover for somebody? So it's that special occasion look and see what was sent last year. Pick up the phone, make some calls, right?
Speaker 3:No, I agree. Another thing I was talking to one of our members a while back, and she's been in the industry a long time, probably as long as you have give or take a few years anyway. And she was talking about how Easters have changed. And I was like, why don't you do some marketing about like throwback to Easters ago, you know, and throw in some memories and some pictures, maybe of some bonnets or things you can find. And then maybe one day have a, a throwback price to something that you have a little different inventory and keep doing that. Because again, so many people that are on social media, that younger generation, they don't even know that flowers for Easter is a thing
Speaker 2:That's so true. I hadn't even thought of that, Lori. Cause they don't, they don't associate Easter. They associate prom with flowers, right? They associate weddings with flowers.
Speaker 3:So that kind of stuff on Instagram, not just your face, but where, where they're scrolling through, because what happens to you? I know my kids that are all in their twenties, they love, if they see something that they would consider retro or vintage, an old idea made new again, and they're not alone. It's kind of a generational thing. They love to go back to when you know,
Speaker 2:Well, even my granddaughters, you know, they'll go, grandma, you used to do that. And then they would look and they'd like, Oh, well, that's kind of cool. It's like that throwback thing that's even starting. So I mean, this is crazy. They love something that the old bringing it back the vintage. Right,
Speaker 3:Right. The other thing we were talking about too, and I know the love fever, you know, we shared a lot of his information last week about the shortages and such. And that was a, that was a hot topic in our shop talk this week. And it was interesting to me and tell me if you felt the same way, the people that were having issues. Like there was some people that were saying, well, we've already been told there's no tulips, but then maybe someone over on the West coast are like, well, we got a ton of tulips over here and then something else. And well, we have no peace lilies and somebody else is like, Oh my gosh, I have. So did you,
Speaker 2:I notice that I did. Yeah, I really did. It's obviously where you live as far as the plants. Right? Right. But the fresh flowers and there have been so many emails going around talking about the shortage of the flowers and it has to do with the growing season. It has to do with the bad weather that's going on, um, in South America and all of that is causing more anxiety. That's why this session, I was actually going to call where have all the flowers gone because ours in Easter and Passover that are missing, but also the flowers that were really having a difficult time getting right now. Now I did talk to the farms and this is post bill that said that right now is a really difficult time for the flowers getting them. But they really feel that in the next couple of weeks, things should start looking up. It's not going to make the productivity go up like bam, but I should be okay for mother's day. Still going to be a lot of shortages. Just need to make sure that people are ordering flowers early. If you're going to get your flowers, you're going to need to order them ASAP.
Speaker 3:Right. So again, Vonda, I'm going to kind of put you on the spot a minute, because as you were saying that I was thinking, I wonder if some people listening are wondering, why is she talking to the farms? Talk a little bit about why do you have to spend so much time talking with the farms and bill Doren company. Talk about what we do for our flower click members. I'm not trying to sell people, but I think it's important. As you know, we keep getting emails from our members. They're like, this has been such a saving grace for me right now, this, these bundles. Right? So talk just a minute about what that is.
Speaker 2:Okay, Lori, thank you. What it is is that I work with the farms in South America to put bundles of flowers together. That obviously look good. But those bundles in are used to create flowers that go on the flower click members' website. So it's what we've always wanted to do at a flower shop is have what you sell, sell what you have. So if the flowers are coming fresh from the farm into your shop, then you get the order off your website because we know that 70 to 80% of the people either order from your website, I've looked at your website before they place an order. So they know what you have. And so those flowers that are on your website, you actually have in your store. So at the holidays, it's super important because some of those flowers are really difficult to get on last minute. Notice ordering them now into your shop. They'll be there for the orders when they come in.
Speaker 3:Right? Well, and so because of the industry right now with the shortages, you've been having even more meetings with the grower, going back to the drawing board on, okay, well we've created this design using this rows. Well, we can't find those roses, which again, our members know that they're cool with it. It's fine. So you're having to go back and I mean, I'm just so grateful, you know, your stuff to be able to go and replace this one with this one, and it's the same color. It might have a different this, but I'm thinking I would just cry. I would not even know where to start. I wouldn't want to be
Speaker 2:Doing it without Amy. That's what I would say, who is my rep of the farm? And she is an expert. And that's what you have to do whenever you're working with anything, whether it's with flower click or you're working with anybody else, right. You just need to work with the people who are experts in that field.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I don't think I've shared this with you. We had one of our new members that joined a week ago, so she ordered a couple boxes to start out. She was like, Oh, it's kind, kinda like this concept. This I'll play around with it. You know, she wasn't really sure. Anyway, so she, Facebook messages me yesterday. She must've got a box that had a mix box, which was a couple of different styles of bouquet. And so she's green. She took a picture of one of the yellow things anyway and was like, what, what recipes go with this? You know, like I'm a little confused. And so I might, I don't know, cause I don't do that. That's the one you texted me the picture, the picture. And I'm like, where do these go? And then, then I finally, my brain kicks in and was like, Oh, just look on the website. So we got it figured out. Right. So I emailed her back and told her what they were and said, you know, your, your new mics will come out like next week you'll have those on there. They're not on there right now, but we can put them on. She emails me back that night. And she was like, well, thanks for offering. But before I go, I could even get them on the website. They were out the door, people came in and they were like, Oh, I just want that. And she goes, yeah, that's my favorite part. She said, this whole bundle thing is stinking genius. Well, thank you. That's good to hear. That's what we keep hearing that. But I thought it was cute because she was like, I couldn't even put them on my website because they didn't last that long. So anyway, I love that. I love that it was successful.
Speaker 2:Exactly. It is. It's been very successful. I will have to say, and even more in demand right now because of the flower situation. Right,
Speaker 3:Right. The other thing, I love that. And I, I know we weren't even going to be talking about bundles, but one thing I've seen just in conversation with our members and like our Facebook group and even our zoom call was, it's not even just for your website, like they're even using these bundles and making their own little design of the day or special of the week or those kinds of things. So there's, again, they're all creative because absolutely. But I just love how they take it and make it their own too.
Speaker 2:That's what we encourage them to do.
Speaker 3:And it's really fun. I don't know if you've noticed when they'll post a picture of, I took this bundle, but I made this and you're like, Oh, that's cool. Which one is that?
Speaker 2:And we love it because it's successful for them. You know, that's, that's continuing to work on making it easy. It's hard to be.
Speaker 3:Right, right. No, it is. So I do want to be very clear because I don't want people emailing me, um, asking to purchase the bundles because it is a service that we offer for flower clip members. It's an exclusive flowers with members part of our membership. Yes. I know like bill Doren, wholesale, they do have kind of their own version of those. Right. They do. For sure. They do have that. Yeah.
Speaker 2:The link that they're missing is the website. Right. But that's okay. You know, it does make it easier for designers, especially during the holiday time. So if you can get those, that would be helpful.
Speaker 3:Yup. Yup. All right. Any other Easter advice?
Speaker 2:The takeaways for Easter, remember you have influence, you guys are all influencers. You have the influence to call somebody and say, Hey, you know the flowers for mom last year or France, Suzy, they were such a success. Can we do it again? Put them on social media. Like you said, you know, throw back, we'll make promotions, have certain promotions. So you do have the influence to make it a really great holiday.
Speaker 3:Right. Right. And, and my takeaway would be find some fun marketing opportunities. All social media stuff is free. One other thing I was thinking is ask your employees, if you have older employees, if they have any old pictures, like I have pictures of me sitting on a bunny rabbit or, you know, it doesn't even have to be actual something with flowers, but gesture posting those kind of throwback pictures to get everybody in that mode of, Oh, remember when grandma? I mean, I know I have pictures of my grandma wearing those corsages.
Speaker 2:All right. I'm challenging you to post those on our podcast page.
Speaker 3:We'll try to find them. I know there are some just great pictures of that. And so I can't be the only one that has that.
Speaker 2:Right? No, for sure. Find
Speaker 3:It, post it. And with like an arrow pointing, see, I'm not lying. People used to wear flowers to church on Sundays.
Speaker 2:There you go. Love it. I love it. Lori
Speaker 3:Vonda. Here's my question. What is inspiring you this week?
Speaker 2:Can it just be, what's giving me a little joy right now.
Speaker 3:Well, I think joy inspires me, so yes. Yes. I think that,
Speaker 2:Well, I have a beautiful hyacinth plant here in my office and it is just heavenly. You know, they're not the prettiest plants. I don't think. I mean, they're pretty, but it's the fragrance and they're my absolute favorite. And so I just have it in my office when they start to bloom and it's less like take it in and just enjoy it. So that's the beauty of the little things that, yes. Yeah. So what about you Laurie? Huh?
Speaker 3:Um, I would say, and again, I'm like you, I don't know that inspired. What's inspiring me this week, but what is bringing me some joy is I have my daddy here. Oh, Tim from Oklahoma, we went down to visit my mother-in-law and my dad. And we convinced my dad to come back with us for a week or well, two weeks, but we were right at one week and he's ready to go back home sleep. So we're gonna, we're going to meet my sister halfway here in a couple of days, but it's bringing me joy and it's those little things, just those little moments. And we're going to take him to Galveston to go see the
Speaker 2:Ocean. Ooh. That'll be fun
Speaker 3:For the day. Yeah. So, um, I mean, he's seen the ocean many times, but we're like, you know what? That's a good Drake day trip, a good weekend trip. We're going to just go do that. Right.
Speaker 2:Good. Well, you enjoy that. That'll bring you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly. So, all right. It is time to go back to the real world to work, but this was fun. We hope you guys learned something or we're at least entertained, right?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. All right. You guys have a wonderful Easter or Passover, whichever it is for you. And we'll talk to you next week. All right.
Speaker 3: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, we
Speaker 1:Look forward to seeing you next week. So please come back and join us and discover how a bit of knowledge in one small change in your mindset can take you to new levels in your life in business.[inaudible].