Shop local

Local florist vs big brands – a florist’s perspective

Why do you buy flowers? Are they to put in your own home? Maybe as a gift? Maybe life has taken you in the direction of wedding or funeral flowers recently?

In a world where convenience often means clicking a button and waiting for a delivery van, with everywhere from M&S, Next and Interflora offering online flowers, it’s easy to forget the power of shopping local. In fact, most villages and towns have seen florist shops close completely, so their only option maybe feels like going online, or calling at a supermarket. But for small businesses like ours, every bouquet, every bunch of foliage and every quick stop at the honesty box makes a real difference. It’s helping us to grow Flourish from being a sideline, to being a real business within the local community.

Why does it matter where I spend my money?

When you buy anything from a large, often multinational businesses, you are injecting your income into their business. Your income and custom are boosting their turnover and profit. And quite frankly, who can blame you? Its easy. You don’t need to leave the house as everything is online, with next day, even same day delivery available. If you have entered into the shop of a bigger retailer, like a supermarket, you can grab other items whilst you are there, saving you time. And let’s face it, it’s cheaper.  A bouquet from Asda is certainly going to cost you less than a Flourish bouquet.

But when you choose to buy from a local florist, you’re helping to keep money circulating within your community.

Let’s say it how it is shall we? If you buy from Flourish, and my business starts to do well…. I’ll have more money coming into my household and for my family. So, I will spend more (I’m not a saver… I don’t possess the skills!). I might go to Whitmore & White to buy a bottle of wine. I might order that clutch kit for the Flourish truck from DDC, so that Mr Flourish can fit it for me (lucky bugger he is). I could treat my mum to a meal at The Norton Arms or meet a friend for a coffee at Chaii & Moor.  Hell… if things are going really well… I might even have the old conservatory ripped down and rebuilt by Denny & Mick, my local duo who been doing plastering jobs around the house since we moved in.

You’re spending your money locally, so am I, so are they. Doesn’t mean to say I won’t still do my weekly shop in Aldi, or order those boots I had my eye on at Holland Cooper. But even shopping local once or twice a year creates a ripple effect – supporting local jobs, local businesses, local experts and craftspeople. It’s a small act with a surprisingly big impact.

Value for money?

As in anything… you get what you pay for. Supermarket flowers are often smaller in general (not always, I have had some lovely lilies from M&S over the years), they have shorter stems (which doesn’t always matter if you don’t have a huge vase to fill). Variety will always be limited, you can’t ask a supermarket for specific flowers for example, and you certainly can’t ask them to make up a bouquet of a specific combination of flowers.

But… they won’t break the bank, and they are ideal for a little ‘something’ on the way to the mother in laws for Sunday dinner.

I suppose our definition of value for money differs from person to person, occasion to occasion. It just depends on how you look at it.

If everyone who ever bought flowers in Murdishaw Aldi suddenly turned up at our honesty box… I’d have a panic attack. So, those £2.99 rose bunches are actually doing me a favour!

Travel sickness

Still picking on the supermarkets… their flowers will also have travelled between more destinations and for more days, before they reach the shelves. They’ve already lived a good portion of their vase life.

Don’t get me wrong…we import flowers. The stunning Playa Blanc roses we buy are from Ecuador. Those huge hydrangea are grown in Holland.  But we also try our best to offset this by buying locally, as soon as the season starts… right until it finishes.

Our wholesale suppliers sell UK (if I can get UK stems of what I need, I do) and imported flowers, which I can order up to 11pm and they deliver to our door by around 4am the next morning. They are conditioned by us correctly (this means they are unpacked, stripped, cut and hydrated), and are often out the door as soon as they are ready to use.

Local flowers are on another level again; literally picked and delivered to me the same day (I even have a Kingsley based tulip and dahlia grower who lets me go and pick my own as I need them; the fantastic MyPatchworkFlowers).

Freshness and quality are THE most important things to me, and its only possible because of our suppliers, with whom we have built relationships, and trust. Choosing their business, helps my business deliver exceptional standards to my customers.

I’m not saying the big brands don’t have good supplier relationships. And I appreciate that imported flowers have been travelling for days before they get to me.  But the difference is, once they get to me, they come straight to you.  Not then to another distribution warehouse (after the wholesale warehouse they would have already been to), then onto multiple stores around the country. It might only be a couple of days difference if all the stars align …but it’s often longer.

Skills on our doorsteps

Theres nothing mass produced about the work that goes out the door at Flourish.  Every bouquet is different. Every arrangement has been made by hand. Every piece of paper, every piece of twine has been cut by us. Gift messages are hand-written. Meetings to discuss funeral and wedding flowers, are face to face.

I have customers who subscribe to our honesty box (not using Freddie’s flowers… using us!!) …I know they don’t have lilies because they cant stand the smell… they prefer me to leave off the water bag so that they don’t spill in the car…they love peonies and tulips, and to include them as soon as they are in season…..we have 2 vases on rotation between us, ready for me to refill each month.

When people collect their flowers, they also drop a book off for me to borrow, because we talked about it on a social media post last week. We talk about how Christmas was this year, as I know they recently lost someone, and it’s their first Christmas without her.  I tell them that the Flourish truck slid down the driveway last week because it was icy and I didn’t put the handbrake on enough (Mr Flourish had to see that one before I had chance to get it back on the driveway didn’t he!!).

We are using our skills to create something beautiful, our customer knowledge to make something fitting, and our friendships to be human.

I’m never going to ‘diss’ anyone for picking up a 50p bunch of daffs in Morrisons, and putting them in a jug on the kitchen windowsill ….I know people don’t always have £20 for an honesty box bouquet, let alone £50 for a bespoke vase arrangement! But the supermarkets can’t offer what we do.  Same as I can’t offer the convenience of picking up a bag of dog food whilst you’re here, or sell you those baking ingredients your son told you 10 minutes ago that he needs for school at 8am tomorrow.

Part of your world

When discussing farewell flowers, a local florist will ask about the person you’ve lost.  We want to know which football team they supported, and what they did for a living.  We ask about favourite colours and were there any flowers they disliked. At Flourish, we use the fantastic Etched Primrose who create wooden plaques for everything from National Rail signs to bingo tickets, which we include in the flowers.

Interflora also provide tribute flowers which you can choose online.  They claim to use local florists for some work too….and sometimes they do…but sometimes ‘local’ is 20 miles away.  They don’t, however, want to know anything about your loved one.

And to be fair…that might be the service you need.  And I get that.

From a simple single stem rose placed on a breakfast tray for Mum on Mother’s Day, to a fully bespoke wedding order, everything we do is created with love and care, with a desire to achieve the best reputation we can. You let us in to your life, just for a second….and it’s the best part of the job!

Convenience, we do try!

The drive by honesty box was something I added in lieu of a shop front.  It was a way to get the attention of people driving by, whilst offering convenience.  We can’t match the supermarkets for this… of course.  But we do make it easier…pull up…scan the QR code or leave cash…grab your flowers.

Our subscriptions make it easier still…pay by direct debit… grab your flowers (or have them delivered) each month.  We couldn’t do more without chucking the dead flowers out, washing the vase and putting it back in the cupboard for you!

Big hearts

Shopping local isn’t about spending more – it’s about choosing to support the people around you. If you’re a Flourish customer …great…if you use one of the other fabulous florists we have in our local area….great! But just every so often…use one of us.  Give us a try…spend a bit with us…consider us instead of using a venue’s florist who might not live anywhere near here…speak to us about funeral flowers instead of just picking from flowers in a book at the funeral directors… use one of us.

And if you already do, we’re truly grateful.