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Christmas 1999
Newsflash- Dateline Wyoming Dec 18- Rudolph the red nosed reindeer feared dead in truck accident.
A 54' semi, loaded with cut fern from Florida met up with a large deer which thought it could outrun the truck. The truck, unfortunately, "won" the race and the deer left its antler poked through the radiator. Truck delayed, fern late, deer dead. If no Christmas presents get delivered this year we will all know the real reason Santa could not make it.
Survey taken Dec 21 1999 of busy florists:
Rose Corner (Nampa ID) reported "sales up a little or maybe down a little. Its hard to tell until everything is counted and its over but nothing unusual has happened so far... just Christmas as usual" indicated Penny Doty.
Vals Flowers (Morgan UT) is down in sales per Dennis Kelley. "We have been scratching our brains trying to figure out why. Maybe it’s the Internet, maybe its tour warm weather in November and early December. We are getting snow now and people are stay8ing home so that seems to be helping. All business is down says our local newspaper but the big malls in the large city near by were sure busy when I visited last week".
Marys Flower Garden (Pendleton OR) has only been open a month and her fresh flowers have moved very well- she is quite pleased. " I did some TV & radio ads for Christmas and my yellow pages ad is just the right size and shape that it got put on the top of the page so that helps too. By Valentines we will have our web page up and we will have postcards out to potential customers soon."
A Unique Flowers (Tigard OR) sold out of Wysocki Teleflora specials even before the newspaper ad came out due to lots of unexpected wire orders. "Poinsettias have done well, we have made over 20 fruit baskets and the mini guides from Teleflora and AFS have gotten customers out early so this was a big help. We find fresh arrangements more popular than silk this year."
Anonymous shop near Boise ID. "Both at our shop and from what I am hearing at my local wholesaler, everywhere in the area, sales are down. People just aren’t buying. The wholesaler said about 50% of his customers are down. Some up to 1/3rd less than last year."
Wild Flowers of Oregon (Bend OR) reports via Barne Thomas that "people seem to have fewer Christmas parties this year judging by the lower number of centerpieces we are making. Maybe they are saving up for a big new years eve bash instead? Overall sales seem the same as last year."
Village Flowers (Prairie City OR) is going through it’s first Christmas and everything is "fantastic" says Denise. She figured things would be busy but was not prepared for the additional work of a series of funerals which made everyone work harder.
Park City Floral (Park City UT) canceled 100 poinsettias and cut back on everything else because it didn’t start to snow until after the first week of December says DeAnna Miller. "Our town is a ski resort and with no snow there are no skiers. No skiers mean no customers for the hotels and restaurants and when they have no customers it means they don’t buy flowers and other decorations and my sales have been terrible! But things are looking better with the new snowfall and hotel bookings are up to 50% so our sales are back up."
Cluff Floral (Boise ID) is having a "wonderful" year reports Scott Weigt. "We have been steadily busy since the 6th of December with 20- 30 orders a day. For our shop that’s great and this last week before Christmas we are running over 50 per day. Sales have been up all over from what I see. The economy is strong here for local sales and wire orders are steady too. I can’t see any cause for the increase, its just up."
Gateway Floral (Portland OR) is also pleased. Dave Turner believes things are holding at a "little over last year". "Its been a scary fall with lots of Y2K concerns in the area. People seemed to be holding back from many purchases, especially credit card buying. But, when we look at the overall picture things are about the same and actually a little over last year."
Lake Grove Garden Center (Lake Oswego OR) sees a similar trend. "Things are running neck and neck with last year and I expect to finish out the week of Christmas with a slight increase so we are pleased", commented Linda Herper.
Hungerford Farms (Colton/Portland OR) is celebrating a new home. The week after Christmas we moved into our new office and warehouse. Closer to commute (John likes that) and bigger (Vicky likes that). We are also happy to report that phone rates have dropped again! Our long distance carrier merged with One Star [(877)269-1862] and we now pay 4.9 cents in state and 6.9 cents nationwide. Wow! |