06/02/2024
Edited to add: THANK YOU all for your sweet support of this announcement. I appreciate it SO much! :)
Hey everyone!
I just wanted to highlight three changes to Fair Parke Floral starting this month (June).
1. Over the last two years I've had the blessing of being able to offer flowers for reasonable prices so more people can enjoy beauty in their homes. I think we ALL need that! However, here's a little known fact about Fair Parke Floral. After all costs/expenses, our profit margins are so low that some might almost consider us a non-profit. After prices soared for so many things in the years following Covid, I determined we would not be joining businesses raising prices at that time but would continue to try to keep flowers affordable allowing more people the chance to encourage others with an arrangement or giving them the opportunity to more frequently bring beauty into their own homes at a time of life that was hard on so many. We have kept prices low for the past two years, but it was not done without effort and some sacrifice. However, my concerns have been growing regarding wear/tear on our vehicle for how many miles I sometimes put on it when I drive out to pick up flowers. Added to that, we now have a child who may be headed off to college next year. With pending expenses adding to the mix, I began to seriously consider closing Fair Parke Floral in order to be able to possibly find a job that would pay more, yet could still be done mostly from home. The idea of shutting things down though was not a pleasant one (I would miss seeing my sweet customers), and I kept revisiting the urging of friends, family, and even some customers to consider raising my prices. After MUCH back and forth on this idea, I have decided to increase prices slightly. I have been quite concerned of what customers might think about this so I have decided to let people know a little bit about Fair Parke Floral's finances and (of equal importance) how much work it takes to keep this business endeavor running smoothly in hopes of helping others understand the situation.
FINANCES:
People sometimes point out how much business I am getting, and while it is true that I do have quite a few customers and sometimes things sell out quickly, I REALLY do not make much profit. After taxes and expenses were covered for this past quarter - three months of work - my profits were about equal to what someone working full time would probably make in 2-3 days or maybe a week of minimum wage. If you doubt the numbers (don't worry - I did too), feel free to reach out and I will break down the costs for you in more detail or I can give you a simple experiment (showing you how to break down and add up the expense involved for flowers you may have recently purchased from us) to illustrate how much it costs to make these arrangements.
LABOR:
I've loved being able to help people who needed flowers for events but had limited budgets, who needed a last minute arrangement and loved the convenience of just swinging by to pick something up, who wanted to purchase wholesale to help with expenses for a DIY wedding, or those who wanted something each week to brighten up their home, etc. HOWEVER, with the increased time commitment (more customers and more custom arrangements requested), I am spending quite a bit of time on this "hobby" so it is becoming considerably more like a part-time or full-time job with hardly any pay.
Some may be under the impression that I only work a couple of hours a week, but I typically put in MANY hours every working week. Driving and selecting flowers (whether in person or online) alone sometimes takes 3-6+ hours each week (this is before even starting work on the actual arrangements). There is also prep work, processing flowers when they arrive, actually designing and building the arrangements, taking photos and posting arrangements online, responding to questions and requests of customers, washing floral buckets and breaking down delivery boxes, cleaning the floral area each week, entering financial information/working on the books, and running to stores for floral-related items, etc. Some weeks there may be more than one custom request which may require additional hours to fulfill. When all is said and done, It is a LOT of work.
With the additional hours, pending expenses, and low profit margins, I have been finding it hard to negotiate a balance without raising prices so as I mentioned before, I think the time has come to do so. I realize this might be an unpleasant prospect for some or many of you, but PLEASE don't worry if you are on a budget and are afraid you might not be able to pay for flowers (feel free to reach out to me if this is the case). I MAY have certain weeks where I offer a sale (I usually do not do this but am contemplating it for the future to make arrangements more accessible to people of varying budgets), or I may decide to occasionally post 1-2 small arrangements that are still pretty but with less expensive flowers which may drop prices back to $16 ($14.78 before tax). Either way, please know I am brainstorming ways to help with costs and to still be able to offer a beautiful product!
The new pricing will be as follows:
$16 will increase to $20
$20 will increase to $24 (although I may price some a bit less depending on floral variables).
Larger custom arrangements will increase a bit as well.
Please note that this price DOES include tax so you are really only paying $18.48 for the smaller arrangement (still easily comparable if not much better than the same thing you would find in a grocery store and definitely a great price for something of florist quality). While I know that any increase in pricing is not welcome news, I truly hope the rather lengthy explanation above will help you all to understand the reasoning behind it!
2. The second change is simply that our guarantee will now include the requirement that water levels be checked and kept up during the week in order to claim a refund or return. Sometimes the flowers may drink up to a quarter or half the water in just 2-3 days so in order to guarantee nice flowers for 5-7 days, I think it is important to emphasize these flowers need water to thrive! :)
3. The third change I wanted you to be aware of is that we now have applied for, paid for, and received a license to be allowed to GROW and sell our own flowers. Some of you know that, ironically, I have a black thumb. Fortunately, I have a husband who has sweetly consented to help me with the "grow' part of the license. I do not plan on growing much at this point but did think we might be able to improve finances a bit if we could grow some items ourselves and that would hopefully mean even fresher stems for you all. :)
I've loved being able to help people who needed flowers for events but had limited budgets, who needed a last minute arrangement and loved the convenience of just swinging by to pick something up, who wanted to purchase wholesale to help with expenses for a DIY wedding, or those who wanted something each week to brighten up their home, etc. With these three changes in place, Fair Parke Floral may be able to continue offering some of these services to our sweet customers in the months to come! Hope you all have a beautiful week ahead! :)
