Retail florists are aware that consumers have a variety of choices and can buy flowers from many places. Then brick and mortar florist has lost business and made lower profits as a result of orders being taken by companies that get commission or people simply shopping elsewhere. Rising fuel costs have also added to the misery and despite the downward pressure on retail price points the floral wholesalers have raised prices to retail florists. Companies like FTD that FedEx flowers to retailers are not doing florists any favors as their costs are high also. Flowers are not a staple and discretionary products in these economic times become more of a luxury.

That is it for the bad news. The good news is that florists have been paying roughly twice as much for fresh cut flowers because they buy them from floral wholesalers. How is this good news? Well, you can join or create a coop of retail florists and dramatically cut your fresh cut flower costs by more then half. Local florists can then offer customers much more product for the same price while at the same time reduce costs and become more profitable by attracting additional customers. A retail flower coop is very effective.

Buying flowers direct is very easy to do, the issue is that when you buy the flowers direct they are consolidated (dropped off) in Miami Fl and the flowers need to get to the the local flower shop. Wholesalers do buy direct, consolidate in Miami and truck the flowers in bulk to their wholesale store and then distribute it to the retail florist. The key for a local florist is to get the product trucked to their location.

By forming retail florist coops with a group of several local florists you are able to buy flowers in bulk and get them trucked to one of the shops. Some of the large flower trucking companies try to stop this by protecting the wholesalers but you can usually find plenty of trucking options or in the alternative simply create a wholesale florist company for the coop.

The first reaction from a florist when they hear this is no way, it is too hard to do, it cant be true that I can pay half as much and it must be another sales pitch. When florists try it out they then say I cant believe how much money I have saved and how much money I have wasted in the past. The retail florist coop is gaining in popularity and the wholesalers are not happy.

Start or join a retail florist coop in your area today and start saving.