Mo’ o’ dem folks:
New Orleans really is a small town. Even before Katrina the interconnections of people became increasingly apparent. Back in this writer’s Laurel Street days, there was a classic guy who lived in the block, Tony Ambrosia. One might think Bunny Matthews had him in mind when he drew Vic. Along with the de rigeur sleeveless t-shirt, a three- wheeler he rode about town was very much a part of his being.
It seemed not at all unusual, therefore, when this writer learned that one of the notable players around 1359 Magazine, Marvene Ambrosia, was his former wife. Marvene had somehow “moved on up,” so to speak, owning a house on Constance Street and cruising the streets in a faded red van of considerable age.
When the Preservation Resource Center folks launched Operation Comeback in the Lower Garden District a decision was made to start with a bang with an extreme makeover of a home in the neighborhood. Someone with a great architectural eye saw beneath the unbelievable jumble of add-ons to Marvene’s house a grand Greek Revival raised cottage. As was expected, people came from near and far to see what the PRC workers had done in a single day. Everyone in the neighborhood was thrilled, with one exception. Marvene was furious! “They done ruined my house,” she moaned. “ I shoulda neva let em on my property.” Needless to say, the Greek Revival didn’t stay pristine for long.
One of the great Marvene stories involved Miss Jenny, her sidekick at the time. Miss Jenny comes rushing into the shop one day, out of breath. “Jawn, ya wouldna believe what me and Marvene just seen!” Queried what could cause such excitement, she quickly explained that she was over by Marvene’s , and they were both minding their own business standing on top of Marvene’s bathtub looking out the window when they saw quite a show. It seems the neighbors next door were skinny dipping in their pool when they took things to another level. Jenny and Marvene were amazed. “Jawn, I was married 40 years, but I never knew a woman would do that to a man!”
Need Flowers Out of Town?
Many of our customers have a need to send flowers out of our local delivery area from time to time. This is never a problem for us, we belong to a standard wire service and we also have a network of our own that we’ve developed over the years, florists whose work we know and trust.
There is another way to send flowers, through the online “florists” such as 1-800 Flowers, Pro Flowers, From You Flowers, Just Flowers, just to name a few. These businesses are not florists; most of these are call centers, and the employees do not know one flower from another. They are what we, in the florist world, call “order gatherers”. At first glance this is not too different from what we do, take your order, and forward it to a real Mom and Pop florist shop in the town of your recipient, to be created and delivered.
The first major difference is the advertising of impossibly low-priced flowers, this is their hook, then there is normally a large service fee that an order gatherer will add, usually $10 or more.
Another major difference is knowledge. We know what is realistic for prices on certain items and which flowers are in season, whereas the girl, in the call center, working for one of these online “florists” has no idea, nor, it seems, any guidelines to follow when it comes to price or types of flowers.
The call centers will contact us with an order, and 9 times out of 10 it will be for an impossible amount. When we reject it, they will continue to try to find someone to take the order, often times ultimately placing the order with a grocery store.
We have also known of customers that have used these online services, paid a realistic figure to the order gatherer (here, better known as a skimmer). who will gladly will take your money, promise you the moon, and call a local Mom and Pop flower shop and then give them $29.95 total. The order gatherer pockets a nice sum and the recipient is left receiving something worth half what it should be.
Be wary also of “florists” that advertise drop shipping of flower arrangements. Often times what is actually delivered is a box of “raw” flowers. No processing has been done, these will be straight from the farm, stems in a box, hopefully a box that hasn’t spent any time in a hot warehouse or loading dock. I’ve seen a couple of snapshots from another florist of these “raw” flowers, still in the box, being delivered straight to a funeral home by FedEx. It’s such a shame the person ordering the flowers had no idea that this would happen, it was advertised as an arrangement.
We hear stories like these all day, every day from customers and we receive calls, all day, every day from these order gatherers, which we reject. These companies give real florists a bad name.
Transferring orders, or wiring orders as we still call it, is a service we provide to our customers. We make no money to speak of, we do charge $5 for a service fee for our time to take and transfer the order. This isn’t about taking orders away from them in order to increase our “take”. These are wrong practices and they need to be stopped. Should you have any out of town orders, please think of us first, we’ll take excellent care of them, and remember as we’ve always heard; “If it seems too good to be true, it usually is.”
Did you know??…..
Did you know that harkins offers several specialty services?
With the holidays around the corner, we’d like to remind you of a couple of these offerings.
We offer gift certificates, in any amount, and never with an expiration date.
We set up automatic orders for birthdays, anniversaries, or holidays. Call us with the initial order and we’ll continue with it year after year, until we hear from you to stop.
We’ll set up standing orders to your home or office, for fresh flowers on a weekly or bi-weekly schedule.
Have your gift last all year! We’ll send an initial bouquet or plant along with a card announcing that flowers, or a plant will arrive weekly, or monthly, for a year.
To help make your gift giving as easy as possible, when you order any of these automatic systems, we'll set up an in-house account for you and you may pay throughout the year.
Care and Handling of.......
Gerbera Daisies
This wraps up this edition. Fall is here by date, not comfort, but enjoy the cooler nights. October and November will be here before you know it. As always, if you're passing through the neighborhood, stop by and take a peek at what's in stock.
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