Sending online store coupons via e-mail and having plenty of pre-made arrangements on hand are just some of the ways florists prepared for and promoted this week's floral holidays: Boss's Day and Sweetest Day.

Joe Geroux, owner of Honeystone Flowers in Grand Rapids, Mich., says his shop increased the number of offerings in the shop's display cooler by 25 percent to include arrangements with price points of $39, for Boss's Day, yesterday, and the upcoming weekend. "If it's an impulse buy, we're prepared for it," he says of the prep work. He's found that most customers spend between $25 and $45 for Boss's Day. "I guess they're [the gift-givers] kind of cheap with their bosses," he jokes.

Packing the cooler paid off because, according to Geroux, the shop doubled its daily business on Tuesday in both orders and deliveries for Boss's Day gifts. He says that not only does the store push its fresh flowers, but it also promotes non-floral gifts, such as gift baskets, coffee mugs, balloons, and bathrobes, to name a few items.

The somewhat under-the-radar holiday began in 1958 when an Illinois insurance employee, Patricia Bays Haroski, according to Hallmark.com, had the idea to celebrate the working relationship between employees and their bosses. She hoped to designate a day where employees could show appreciation for their employers and help strengthen the bond between the two roles. At the time, she was employed by her father at State Farm Insurance, and the date she chose for the holiday was her father's birthday.

While Boss's Day doubled Honeystone Flowers' business, the shop can't predict sales numbers for this weekend's Sweetest Day, which is "nothing close to Valentine's Day," Geroux says, and adds that the event is recognized more in Detroit as opposed to Grand Rapids.

Sweetest Day is primarily considered a regional holiday, concentrated in the Midwest: According to a 2006 post-holiday poll, 59 percent of regional florists — including only Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin — featured Sweetest Day promotions, compared to about 21 percent nationwide.

Bruce Anderson, owner of Moehring Woods Flowers in Grosse Pointe, Mich., says that he promotes Sweetest Day specifically with the customers who purchased items for the occasion in previous years.

"It's like a mini Valentine's Day," Anderson says of the holiday. And, business for Moehring Woods Flowers on the Saturday event is busy, but he says, "it's [mostly a] kind of grab and go" for the shop's customers.

Big sellers for Sweetest Day include red roses and red gerberas, Geroux says, because customers are "trying to look for items that are red, [items] that breed romance." Honeystone Flowers also pushes other purchases as opposed to flowers, such as candles and a variety of gift items, at this time, too.

This week Phoenix Flower Shops featured holiday promotions as well, in the form of e-mail coupons. The store sent out e-mail notices including the history of Boss's Day, $5 off online order coupons, and photos and descriptions of goods, such as cookie jars, brownie boxes, plants and flower arrangements.

To read more about how florists promote minor fall holidays like Sweetest Day and Boss's Day, read the Oct. 6, 2004 E-Brief.

Did you have a bang-up Boss's Day? Have a great Sweetest Day display to share? Tell us about it, so we can share it with readers. E-mail cfoster@safnow.org.

--Cassandra P. Foster
cfoster@safnow.org

 

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