In this digital age, most consumers are doing their shopping online and can send items all over the country without ever having to set foot in a retail store. Pretty convenient! But with certain items, such as fresh floral arrangements, how do you really know you can trust the vendor you're giving your credit card number to?
There has been a growing number of complaints from customers who are using big flower sites that boast low price tags and delivery to anywhere, any time. You just pick an arrangement, enter the delivery address, and they take care of the rest. Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, unfortunately, it is.
The problem with these services is, although you do get the convenience of not having to worry about finding a local florist, you get charged fees left and right, which are pocketed by the company, leaving little for the actual florist filling the order. So what you're left with is a BIG price tag, and a relatively "petite" arrangement.
In a real-life example (we won't name names), a customer using one of these sites to send Valentine's Day flowers spent almost $70 when ordering online. But the total retail cost of the floral arrangement given to the filling florist was only $33.00 (a couple dollars below most florists' minimum value). Needless to say, the arrangement turned out to be a bit smaller than expected, because although every florist would like to send big gorgeous bouquets to all of our customers, we simply can't give flowers away for free.
Many florists continue to be members of these services and appreciate the opportunity to fill the incoming orders. However, both customer and florist would benefit greatly if they were to form a direct relationship and cut out the middle-man. Yes, it may take a bit more effort on the customer's part to find a florist in the area to which they're sending, but you can probably still order online, and in the end, you get MORE for your MONEY. And isn't that worth a few extra minutes on Google?
