Pushing Petals

Thank you for supporting Pushing Petals through another year. We really appreciate the community and are so happy to be in your neighborhood of Hillhurst Sunnyside!

As most people know, 2009 was not easy due to the economy. In 2008 we were very busy with flowers for office parties and other functions, but due to drastic cut backs, many of the companies that we dealt with, especially those in the oil business, did not have office parties or send seasonal flowers to their special clients or partners. So, at Pushing Petals we had to take up the slack by trying to appeal to walk in trade. I will be honest, it was not easy, and we squeaked through the holiday, but I feel that there is a bigger problem out there.

Small business is gradually being attacked by the big box chains.

The large chains are all now scouting for other business ideas to use in their huge stores - everything from eye wear to pharmacy to grocery to flowers to home improvement, and so on, and so on. To give you an example, we tried to purchase potted rosemary plants for Christmas. We approached a greenhouse in California only to find out that a local grocery store, a big one that we all use, had arranged to buy the entire crop, thus being able to shut out everyone else. This store is doing this with a lot of growers. Because of the volume they are able to purchase at very low prices and undercut everyone else.

Now if that were not bad enough, some of our local wholesalers have jumped on their bandwagon. These particular wholesalers are now undercutting local florists by supplying grocery stores with bouquets and once again, because of volume buying, they are giving those stores cheaper wholesale costs. We cannot even match their retail prices. What most people do not know is that this kind of thing, selling flowers or other items at very low prices, is called a loss leader. The big chains do not make a lot of money on the items but they know that if they get people in the door with some ridiculously low priced item, they get people in the store, and then that customer usually purchases something else while shopping there. People rarely leave with just one item.

So what can you do???

You cannot be blamed for looking for a deal but in doing so you are eliminating all the small, independant creative businesses who, by the way, tend to be more community-minded and employ others in the community, and offer better working conditions for their staff. The money that you spend here is also kept here and not wisked off to our friends south of the border who, by the way, own most of the big box stores.

I will not continue with more of my rant, but here is an option:

Keep supporting the little guys, the mom and pop stores who exist in your trendy city neighborhoods and small-town communities.

I would like to once again, thank you for all the kind words and the support that you gave us the past year. We are unique and different. We try to always be true to our craft and give you the best design work of any flower shop in Calgary. We look forward to 2010 being a good year, so lets all work together to arrive at this goal!

Thank you,

Gary White, Owner of Pushing Petals Inc.

p.s. By the way, we aren't the only type of business that has to deal with this. For a related post see here.