Were you planning on ordering flowers online?
Give me a few minutes to clear up a few things up before you do.

FTD, Teleflora, 1800flowers.com… sound familiar?

Here’s the thing with these companies.  They are basically a big headquarters that have individual florists join their association, pay a membership and become a FTD, Teleflora, etc, etc. florist.

These headquarter companies like all other big corporations try to suck the life out of the florists that partake in their association that hope to broaden their business.  How do they do this?

Here’s the break down:

Let’s take FTD for example
(But you can replace FTD with Teleflora, 1800flowers, etc. etc. and it’ll be the same idea, they’re all interchangeable).

FTD spends millions on commercials and advertisement and try to grab your attention with all their pretty catchphrases, amazing deals, what nots. Once they get your attention, they get your orders, as well.   Your orders then are processed through the FTD headquarters and then dispersed to individual florists in those towns in which you wanted the flowers delivered.  So where does FTD get the millions of dollars to spend to grab your attention in the first place?  It doesn’t really make sense to you, right?  I mean, they get the orders from you, and they give the orders out to florists, so where are they making money here, they’re not actual florists!?

Well, here’s how.  First they charge about $200+ for membership each month.  And that’s just membership, then they have a bunch of fees that make no sense, like a “low sending fee” (punishing florists who are unable to send orders through them to other cities/countries).  They also have a “Quality fee” where they claim that that’s how they keep their “quality…” whatever that means.  They also have reciprocity fees and other junk that you could care less about.

And here’s where they get even more money.

SCENARIO

Say you buy some flowers for $40.  That’s a decent price for a nice bunch of flowers.  But you go through FTD and you get charged some service charges and delivery charges and tax, etc. etc.  So it comes up probably $60-ish, probably more?  So you’re thinking, well okay, I spent about $60, I definitely should be getting decent flowers.
But here’s where they get you AND the poor florists out there.  FTD keeps the service charges, and sometimes they charge you extra delivery, they also keep the tax.  So basically the florists get the $40 as listed, BUT they also take another 20% from each order, so when the florists actually get paid, they get about $32.  So in the end, you spend $60+ but you’re going to end up getting flowers that are about $32.  Florists are getting gypped for their work, and these big corporations try all the can to think of ridiculous fees and obligations to suck all the money out of the florists.   Sure they’re nice to YOU guys, the consumers, but in the end you’ll be a little disappointed yourself when you find that your $60 bouquet isn’t as big or pretty or fancy as you had imagined.  And a lot of the time, people have NOT A CLUE as which florist their order had been placed with.

SUGGESTION :

Your best bet? FTD, 1800Flowers, Teleflora all have options on their main website to find florists in the area that you’ll be sending flowers.  Use their search engine to find a trustworthy florist, because most florists that join these associations most certain exist as florists.   When you find one that you like, call them, or if you want to you can google them to see if they have their own website.

When you call florists, they are more than willing to take your order, and it will definitely be nicer than anything you order through FTD, Teleflora, 1800flowers, etc.  They will take your order with their most utmost care and because you’re calling them directly, they know that no one else is getting dibs on the money you’re spending, so you’ll get what you pay for, if not more.

How do I know all of this?  My parents own a florist and I’ve had to deal with the ignorance of these money sucking corporates.  We know plenty florists around the area and more! And they ALL say the same thing about these bloodsucking corporations. Their foremost priority isn’t to satisfy you, the consumer, oh trust me, they’re just trying to get every penny possible FROM you AND from florists.

So if you understood any of the above, you will be searching for a florist near the town you’re sending flowers and calling them up instead of feeding your money to FTD, Teleflora, 1800flowers etc. .

Here are a few sites to begin with

Find Teleflora florists : http://www.findaflorist.com/

Find FTD florists : http://ftdfloristsonline.com/

I’d go with FTD florists just because they’re a lot more responsible and “High class.”  A lot of FTD florists are also Teleflora florists, and vice versa, but I’d still go with the florist that has FTD, both preferably.  1800flowers has a store locator as well, but I wouldn’t suggest those.  They’re probably the cheapest flowers you’ll find, but they’re also the worst quality, so don’t bother.

That’s all. Happy shopping for flowers!