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The Art of the Middlemen Most floral consumers have heard of FTD and Teleflora. They are the two most recognized wire services in the floral industry. Traditionally, they offered services for real local florists to send and receive orders for a reasonable cost. They still offer these services to florists, but with advances in technology and utilizing the internet, they directly compete for customer orders with their florist members. The wire service network costs have substantially increased over the last few years to a point where it is no longer a viable method of sending or receiving orders for many florists - especially in light of the competition. Fairfield Flowers is one of those florists. 'Order Gatherer' (OG) is another term familiar to many wary floral consumers. 'Order Gatherer' is defined very simply: Pursuing floral orders from areas that you do not serve and for areas that you do not serve for the sole purpose of relaying those orders to real local florists that do serve those areas. The OG then receives a 'rebate' from the wire service for their efforts - on top of the 20% commission from the sale and any 'service fees' charged directly to you - the consumer. Here is an example: A customer in Florida calls to order a $69.95 rose arrangement from an OG in Texas for delivery to Ohio. A delivery fee of $8.95 and a service or handling fee of $12.95 is then added. The total charge to the customer is $91.85. The OG then relays the order to a Real Florist in Ohio that designs the rose arrangement and delivers it to the recipient. For this, the OG receives: The service or handling fee of $12.95, the rebate of $7.00, and a commission of $13.99 for a total of $33.94! Remember, a flower has yet to be touched and the order value has been reduced 37%. As you can see, order gatherers are simply middlemen. Traditionally, real local florists were the middleman and played an important role in getting flowers delivered out of their local area - and we still do. But, with the advent of the internet, more and more customers are purchasing flowers on-line and order gatherers are not the real local florist those customers are likely looking for. Many OG's are telemarketers and online marketers in an office setting. These are the most deceitful of order gatherers. We strongly recommend that these marketing middlemen be avoided when placing your order. Call us and we can help. We keep a growing list of them. Now, how can you tell if you are dealing with a real local florist, an OG, or a florist OG? A simple rule of thumb is always effective: Location, location, location! Where are they physically located? Their physical address should be on the main index page of their website. If it is not, you can check the 'About Us' page of their website. If you are unable to tell where they are located viewing these two pages, then you are almost surely dealing with an OG. What is so bad about these order gatherers? After all, 1800flowers.com, ftd.com and teleflora.com are all OG's. Aren't these names synonymous with quality floral products? Well, let's see: 1800flowers.com - The mother of all order gatherers. 1800flowers.com takes the order and sends it to one of their real local florist members in the recipients town. The real local florist receives only 71% of the money you paid 1800flowers.com. When you order $50.00 worth of flowers from 1800flowers.com, the real local florist gets paid $35.50 for $50.00 worth of flowers. Are you getting your money's worth? ftd.com - The oldest and most widely recognized name in floral delivery. ftd.com takes the order and sends it to one of their real local florist members in the recipients town. The real local florist receives only 73% of the money you paid ftd.com unless the real local florist is also a member of 1800flowers.com. In this case the real local florist receives only 71% of the money you paid ftd.com. When you order $50.00 worth of flowers from ftd.com, the real local florist gets paid $36.50 for $50.00 worth of flowers. If the real local florist is also a member of 1800flowers.com, they only receive $35.50 for $50 worth of flowers. Are you getting your money's worth? teleflora.com - The only privately held company of the three. teleflora.com takes the order and sends it to one of their real local florist members in the recipients town. The real local florist receives only 73% of the money you paid teleflora.com. When you order $50.00 worth of flowers from teleflora.com, the real local florist gets paid $36.50 for $50.00 worth of flowers. Are you getting your money's worth? Keep in mind, that the percentages surrendered by the real local florist are not the only wire service cost to the real local florist. There are membership dues and fees that can be $500 per month. Wire services are expensive for the real local florist and they don't receive all of the money you paid the wire service OG. Are you getting your money's worth? How about a look at some of the deceitful practices used by OG's. Eugene, Oregon has a florist listed in printed and online directories called Guaranteed Florist Inc. Guaranteed Florist Inc. has a local Eugene, OR phone number and a physical address of 907 River Rd. #95A Eugene, OR 97404. In reality, there is no such address and your phone call is rolled over to an office in Mission Viejo, California. A little information on Guaranteed Florist Inc. can be found on the Los Angeles Better Business Bureau (www.labbb.org) under guaranteedflorist.com, flowershopping.com, or 11flowers.com as they are all the same company. Oh, and they all have the same 'F' rating. flora2000.com states they deliver to more than 150 countries using their network of Master Florists. Interesting. By the way, they are located in Gibraltar, Europe. They may have a "master florist" program in Europe, but we've never heard of one in Oregon. albanywebsites.com aka: flowerhand.com out of Albany, New York states right on the 'About Us' page that they are not a florist. So, we advise customers to stay away from them when you need a florist. americas-florists.com brings us an outdated directory and OG combo site out of BC, Canada. localstreets.com is not a real, local florist. They are located in Santa Clara, California and they sell flowers in a box that you must arrange yourself. One dozen roses shipped from who knows where: $59.99. And, you don't get any "frilly fillers or greenery." Wow! We sell them arranged and fresh, like a real local florist should, for less than that. digitalflowers.com appears to be owned by FTD. There is no location information on the site. Customers must not want to go to ftd.com enough. Wonder why? partypop.com is a great site if you are looking for a national company that is nowhere near Eugene. Lots of links to an internet flower broker called flower.com. flowers-nationwide.com is a doorway page into wesleyberryflowers.com. Now this is bad. wesleyberryflowers.com is well known to florists across the country as being very deceitful to consumers by making them believe that wesleyberry.com is a local florist. Actually, Wesley Berry does have a real flower shop - in West Bloomfield, Michigan. New discovery: flowers-nationwide.com now appears as an online directory that helps consumers find a real local florist - wrong! The entire website is an advertisement designed to dupe the customer into calling Wesley Berry's order brokering business. e-florist-inc.com looks like the latest incarnation of the infamous Alif Somani in Vancouver B.C. Alif is the CEO of urbanflorist.com. All you need to do is search the www for "urbanflorist" or "alif somani" to know that it would be wise to stay far, far away from this or any other florist business operated by Mr. Somani. Please check back as we will be adding to this site frequently - much like middlemen continue to add new sites and new gimmicks to entice consumers away from real, local florists. Click for special information about ProFlowers or click to go to the Florist Detective.
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