I received an email from a large on line national floral company. The offer was no service charge on a local flower order. If you bypass the national company, you would never pay a service charge for a local flower delivery. Their offer was not that good. It sounds good but the reality is that every florist charges a local delivery fee and no service charge. The national company hides the delivery fee in the item and doesn't mention the delivery charge. The national companies keep the whole service charge for themselves and do not pass it on to the local delivering florist. This could cause the flower arrangement not to be as large as shown. The national companies typically charge a $13.00 to $15.00 service charge on local florist orders. During the peak Mother's day period FTD.com was charging $17.99 service charge. None of the $17.99 charge was passed on to the local florist to fill and deliver. Most national floral companies are marketing companies and not involved in actually directly working with flowers.
It is true that Central Square Florist charges a $14.99 service fee for out of town orders. However out of the $15.00 we pass on $7.50- $15.00 of this fee so the local filling florist has enough money to fill your order properly.
I appreciate the way you put this information out. I tried to get one of our local tv stations to do a consumer report on this exact issue and received no interest from them whatsoever. I am just learning about blogging and found your information. Once I get mine up and running I know one of my topics before the holidays with be this one.
Thanks for reforcing one of the things I want to get out to floral customers.
Yay, another florist that has blogged about this very topic. This is excellent public information that needs to continue to be put out there. This is also very good information for those seeking florist education. The whole "chain" of fees, costs, etc. must be taken into account in order to remain profitable. Thanks for sharing.