Cart History Lesson: the Junkfood Junkie

Once upon a time in the mid 1980's, the owner of the Flower Cart, Mr. Fred Koletar, hired a local Hamilton graphic designer to take his idea for a snack container to the next level. He had already designed the box, but really wanted a professional to perfect the look. The design that Mr. Doyle came up with would become one of the best-selling items in the history of The Flower Cart and throughout the floral industry.

You've probably seen it and have most likely purchased it for someone (or yourself ). Here it is today:

The original design looked a little different, but hit all the right points. It even had a hole in the front where the candy and snacks would actually spill out.

(I think it was decided that this guy looks a little bit too manic for the general public. I kinda like it. It makes me feel super excited about candy.)

After the new design was completed, The Flower Cart began its largest ad campaign in all of its now 50 years in business. We pushed the Junkfood Junkie, and we pushed it hard.

Fred Koletar had a knack for advertisement. He wasn't afraid to push the envelope and had a way of getting consumers' attention with unique ads that bordered on the uncomfortable. I've pulled a few from the "archives" to give you a glimpse into our 1980's style product advertisement.

After the Junkfood Junkie became wildly popular, the number of ads promoting it reduced to almost nothing and most of the sales came simply by word-of-mouth. People who had received it from friends and loved ones, called us up the next occasion they had to send a gift and requested it. And so on and so forth for years.

Then some time in the 90's, the decision was made to sell the design to a gift box company who would distribute it to shops like our across the United States.  Today, gift basket companies and florists like us around the country can purchase the box and sell Junkfood Junkie arrangements in their own towns.

Mike Koletar still feels a strong sense of pride every time he opens a fresh case of Junkfood Junkie boxes, knowing that his father designed one of the most successful products sold in the floral industry in the last 20 years.

Too bad he botched that deal on the royalties...

Gearing Up for Engagement Season

It seems that a lot of people tend to get engaged around the holidays. Go figure. So that's why why are planning to attend some wedding shows in the early months of the new year.

Right now, we are trying to find inspiration for displays and arrangements to showcase at these events.
It's really great for us to be able to show off our creativity and maybe show some brides-to-be something they've never seen before. 

So as we finish up the work for the final 2011 weddings, we try to take time to stop and look at what really gets us pumped up, what gets our creative juices flowing.

Stuff like this:

CLASSY!


and THIS:

RAINBOWS!

November news

This month is when we have to really get our act together, since Christmas is one of our biggest holidays, and we're coming up on engagement season.

So we had a company meeting last night, catered by Chick-fil-A. It's so much easier to think when you have a stomach full of yummy chicken. So we were able to get the ball rolling on a lot of good ideas for improving our websites, customer service, and some other technical things that will help us out. There is a lot of new technology that we want to start taking advantage of in the near future.

Speaking of which, check out these gems from the Flower Cart Museum of Ancient and Obsolete Technology:

TELEVIDEO MONITOR

CONTINUOUS FEED PRINTER

ENORMOUS COPIER MACHINE (with storage?)

SOME KIND OF SAFE?

????????????????????? with a hand crank

 

ANTIQUE PORCELAIN STAMP ROLLER!

This last one was a complete mystery to me for quite some time. Finally, I approached Miss Bev with the object and she identified it for me immediately. Apparently one would fill the basin with water and roll the cylinder to wet it, then wipe a postage stamp on the wet surface. Then one would apply the stamp to an envelope containing a piece of paper with words on it. Then someone picks up the envelope in a truck and delivers it to the intended recipient's home within a few days.

It's so.....primitive.

More new products

Our new camera got here quickly, so we are already busy creating custom products for the website. One of the other new plant items we got in is Lucky Bamboo. These have always been in high demand, but up until recently, we could not find a reliable supplier. Now we will be getting new shipments in every 2 weeks or so. They are really cute.

And the Blue Orchids are now online! The Flower Cart - Blue Orchid Plant

New products on the way

We are currently working on a few new custom products for the website, including some interesting glass terrariums. Some are some designed specifically for sympathy gifts, which are quite pretty. They have etching on the glass and little white cherubs seated inside. These may become available online.

There are some other interesting plants coming in as well. We had a shipment of dyed blue phalaenopsis orchids in last week. They are very cool. I'll be posting a pic of them later. We are 99.9% sure they will be available online within the next two weeks.

We are in the process of ordering a new camera for the main store, for things like this. And for photographing our wedding work, which has always been exceptional, but never consistently recorded.

We had an awesome wedding two weeks ago, where the bridesmaids, all dressed in black, each carried a different colored mono-chromatic bouquet. The different colors were yellow, hot pink, green, purple, orange, and blue. Some of the flowers that were used were mini-callas, alstromeria, mini-carnations, and mokara orchids. It all turned out fantastic!

Unfortunately, this is the best (read:only) photo we have of the work:

It's a hot mess. But our new camera is on its way, and the photo area is being set up as we speak. So from now on, we will be able to take photographs that do justice to the work. And we'll be able to add more and more custom Flower Cart products to the website, so our customers will be able to see all the neat stuff we get in without having to pay us a visit. Although we do enjoy the company.