Thursday is the day, Valentines Day that is and Smith's is fully stocked and ready to deliver your emotions to your Valentine.
The traditional gift of red roses is always in style, and once again this year Smith's has been able to hold our regular everyday price of $50.00 a dozen arranged in a vase both on red roses as well as many other colors.
Also again this year we are offering FREE delivery on Valentines orders delivered February 12th and 13th anywhere in our delivery area. Call now, 631-0470 to take advantage of both of these special offers, and send your Valentine the best flowers available anywhere in the Tri-Cities.
Of course roses are not the only flowers available for Valentines, and no you do not have to purchase a full dozen. Often a nice mixed arrangement with or without a few roses included is just whats needed.
Amazing, some people never realize, that ProFlowers is a direct shipper, using United Parcel and Federal Express to deliver their flowers. Too bad they do not realize that they simply leave the flowers on the porch if no one is home, and in Michigan's winter weather it's not always a pretty thing.
Watch this video to see what that special someone you send to might get for Valentines if you use ProFlowers over a Real Florist.
A new addition this season is the hand made, one-of-a-kind museum quality Santa's by Barbara Buck, from Pearl City IL. Barbara has been making Santa's for friends and family for many years, and for retail for the last ten.
Each Santa is a one-of-a-kind family heirloom, is signed and comes complete with certificate of authenticity.
The Victorian Father Christmas is adorned with White Arctic Fox, embroidered robe, and Tibetan Lambswool beard. Mounted on a wood base he stands 32" tall from the table.
Trapper Santa also stands 32" tall and is dressed ready for the woods, draped in Coyote and Fox pelts, he comes complete with real metal trap, and Moose gut snowshoes made by the Objibawa Indian Tribe in Canada. You can see by the detail in his face that care and love went into making each Santa.
To see the complete collection we have in stock please visit this page of our website for pricing and ordering information. Barbara has other Santa's available on a limited first come, first sold basis.
Smith's would like to welcome Kathy Frost back to our design staff. Kathy has many years in the industry, having worked at Smith's many years ago, and then in various other Tri-City floral operations. Kathy comes to us after several successful years at The Birds Nest in Saginaw where she specialized in permanent botanicals.
Kathy will also focus her skill in permanent botanicals for Smith's as well as do custom creations for customers and be available for in-home design consultations, home decorating as well as work in our fresh flower design area.
The addition of Kathy, brings our design team to 5 full time designers, Mark, Debi, Cindy, Kathy and Don (on call). OK, so it's only 4 full time, and one part time, but Dad still likes to come play when we have a need.
Kathy, Welcome! We know you'll be a great addition.
It's under way again... Smiths annual Pre-Labor Day Sale...
50% OFF "almost" everything in the store. Some new items excluded.
We have tons of new merchandise arriving for the Fall and Christmas season and we need to make some room. Sale runs from Monday August 20th through Friday August 31st.
Well Springs not quite in the air yet, but it is only March, and in Michigan it can change over night as we all know.
Nows a great time to start looking around at corsages for the girls and bouts for the guys. As shown above, bright color combinations are again hot this year, purple, orange, bright greens and more. You can view many selections online at SmithsFlowers.com in our Body Flowers section. It's never too early to start planning.
Enjoy the soothing sounds of moving water with one of these wonderful self contained concrete fountains. Suitable for both indoor (if you have the space) and outdoor use they are designed and built to last a lifetime.
The large square base fountain with bird bath measures 32" square and is deep enough for a few gold fish in the 8" deep base, while the bubbling bird bath is 17.5" across and 27" tall. This is a "quite" fountain making a very subtle dripping noise and would make a wonderful addition to any tranquil garden setting.
The three layer round fountain measures 22" high and bubbles from the top down, bowl into bowl. The top bowl is 14" across and as they get larger they measure 20" for the middle and 30" for the base bowl. This fountain makes a quiet bubbling sound.
The Urn fountain pictured below, is the noisy one of the three, with the base measuring 32" across and a depth of 8" this one too could be home to a few fish for the summer. The urn itself in 19" across and 28" deep and is full of water to the bottom.
Any of our wonderful fountains would make a great addition to, or focal point for your garden this summer. Stop in soon to see these fountains, as well as our new collections of garden pottery in great new colors for Spring.
New permanent botanicals have been arriving daily at Smith's, and Spring is a great time to freshen up your home or office with a new permanent design that will bring color and style to your space.
Smith's sells single stems of the highest quality permanents available anywhere. Our floral designers are available throughout the day to consult with you on custom designs that will fit your needs. We are very happy to work with your fabric samples, wallpaper, pillows and anything from your room, even china patterns, and are always looking for a challenge.
Stop in soon to see whats new in permanent botanicals, both in pre-made ready to go designs, single stems and plants and custom work.
From http://realflorists.flowerchat.com/2...ry-valentines/
Word of an FTD
Tech melt-down started brewing on florist message boards on Friday,
February 9, when flower shop owners started reporting orders sent
through FTD's proprietary Mercury Network
as not getting through to their stores. Some of the florists said FTD's
Tech department was initially blaming interfaces with Point Of Sale
systems sold by third party vendors.
Quote:
|
"After umteen phone calls finally a tech told me that all high-speed
intranet members a gadget that is connected to host is down and that is
what they are working on." |
Quote:
|
"We started the holiday on DSL and serious problems for two days, with
FTD telling us it was our fault. We were fortunate enough to still have
the old equipment sitting there so we went back to the good ol
modem--which worked fine the rest of the holiday. We invested a good
amount of time, effort and money in moving our system to dsl and to
have it fail us during the holiday is a joke." |
What ensued in the
days leading up to and including February 14, Valentine's Day, was a
catastrophic failure of the web-based Mercury Direct interface to the
host computer housed in Downers Grove, IL - leaving FTD member florists
to scramble as best they could to retrieve flower orders sold by FTD.com itself, other florists and via their own FTD-hosted websites.
Quote:
|
"February 12 and 13 we had almost no orders sent to us from our web
site to our POS system. We had to go to the web portal and print them
out one by one. Each order we had to log in a second time to view the
credit card information and hand writes the credit card #. Every order
had to be typed into our POS system. The format they print out from the
portal is hard to read." |
Ironically, FTD members with older
technology interfaces - dial-up MIMs and modems, were able to access
the Downers Grove host. But their orders still had severe problems
since the communications never made their way to the filling florists
using web-based Mercury Direct.
Quote:
|
"it's the new MNAPI system that frequently goes offline. Most of the
time it's not noticed by the majority of shops - if it's offline for an
afternoon in July, 80% of shops won't catch it, unless they become
suspicious due to the lack of marketplace ad GEN messages. |
Quote:
By our records, it was down on Feb 12, 13 and 14th. The biggest problem
was that shops on dial-up were sending, but shops on Merc Direct
weren't able to receive. Our orders were being bounced all over God's
green earth, and resulted in many "That's not in our area" rejects." |
FTD's Affiliate Order Gatherers Abandon Ship
Some FTD affiliates who also belonged to competing wire services like
Telefora and 1-800-Flowers' Bloomnet, used those networks to send
outgoing orders, with a number of florists expressed surprise at
receiving Teleflora and Bloomnet orders from FTD's top affiliate
resellers (order gatherers).
How much of an impact?
The numbers of lost, undelivered orders is unknown as of today but
florists have shared their knowledge of the real and potential impact:
Quote:
"From a very reliable source, there are two (flower) shops in one of
the largest states that belong to FTD. One shop got 250 Mercury orders,
the other 200 Mercury orders AT THE END OF THE DAY ON THE 14TH.
There was no way to reject the orders. JUST 2 SHOPS, 450 ORDERS. IF
THERE WERE JUST 1,000 FTD SHOPS WHO HAD THE SAME PROBLEM WITH MERCURY,
THAT WOULD BE 250,000 FLOWER BUYERS WHO MAY DECIDE TO NOT SEND FLOWERS
AGAIN." |
Quote:
|
"To date (I) have spoken to over 70 florists that could not get orders
through to us and several hundred coast to coast that suffered greatly.
|
FTD's Lack of a Back-Up Plan
Information from former FTD insiders shows how such a catastrophic failure could occur:
Quote:
"(The) EFOS (Florist Electronic Order System) or the Real (OLD) Mercury
System was not at fault.... It was the new interface that connects the
internet to EFOS was the issue I have heard different stories, that it
was hard ware, a Firewall that went bad. Too many orders for server to
handle,... What ever...
The issue is equipment goes bad, telephone lines or cables get cut, but
there needs to be some type of Redundancy which is missing... But let
me let you they have redundancy for FTD.COM's 3 call centers" |
Quote:
|
"It's going to cost FTD a bundle now but they are going to have to set
up a different system with pods in several areas so that if a problem
occurs in one area orders can be automatically be rerouted through
another pod and continue on it's merry way to the final destination
(the recipient).
Phone companies have systems like that in place.......when a major
phone line goes down all long distance calls are redirected, it may
slow things down a little but it usually doesn't kill the system and if
enough pods are used it would only effect a small section of the
landscape. |
Quote:
It only makes common sense, when we order flowers for a major holiday
most of us don't order everything from one supplier to all come in on
the day before (I sure don't). FTD did and now it's really going to
cost them big $$$ to fix along with a loss in unhappy members that will
likely resign after this episode......not to mention the ton of
customers that will not trust the floral industry any more.....Not just FTD but all flower vendors will suffer because all FTD's eggs were in one basket."
|
A Failure to Communicate
Frustration from florists abounds at FTD's inability to inform them the system was non-functioning.
Quote:
|
"What I am finding appalling is the lack of them letting us know
somehow there was a problem - but then again - how are they going to do
that? By Mercury?" |
Blame and Apologies
Most disturbing to FTD florists are reports of consumers being told far-too-late that their
Valentine's Day flower orders would not be delivered, and an
FTD spokeswoman even blaming non-deliveries on lack of 'product availability'.
Sadly, many florists reported having the flowers and staffs in place to fill those orders - it's just that FTD technology
Failed
To
Deliver consumer's purchase requests.
Quote:
|
"Sorry does not cover the losses the shops incurred and we feel for the smaller shops that took a severe beating."
|
Quote:
|
"Who was hurt in this whole mess up was any CONSUMER that made a
purchase from FTD.com, OGs (order gatherers), or FTD florists. |
FTD's technology failure and lack of
communication with consumers and florists looks to make this the most
complaint-filled and costliest Valentine's Day in the ninety-seven year
history of the company.
__________________
Thankfully Smith's has back up technology of their own, and belongs to the Bloomlink Network, as well as using MAS-Direct for our order transfer. We did not lose one out going order this Valentines.
We know it will happen, it does every Valentine's Day, roses arrive frozen. The usual reason, consumers are fooled into ordering from companies like ProFlowers who drop ship their products in a box via UPS and FedEx in unheated, uninsulated delivery trucks. Not only that, when these third party delivery companies arrive at the delivery location, if no one is home, they simply leave the delivery on the front porch, no matter the weather.
While this method of delivery is efficient for them, it can result in a huge disappointment for the recipient. We have seen boxes left behind bushes near the porch, not to be found for days. We have seen what were once possibly decent roses turn to mush, blacken and be a total waste of money for the consumer. Yes they may have saved themselves a few dollars on the purchase, but in reality often they have been disappointed with what they received and the service they got. Not to mention the untold number of deliveries that do not get made, simply because of volume on the given day.
A recent test locally, done with a calibrated digital thermometer showed that a UPS truck had an inside temperature of 13 degrees, and a FedEx truck 11 degrees on a day when the local temperature was roughly 10 at the time of testing. Roses really do not like, nor tolerate temps below 33-34 degrees well for extended periods of time. They simply die.
The solution is simple, CALL YOUR LOCAL FLORIST, or shop them online. Local florists are concerned with your floral experience. They want you to enjoy the purchase and they want you to come back again and again. They would never think to deliver your gift in an unheated truck, nor would they leave your gift at the door in inclement weather taking a chance of your disappointment.
Call your local PROFESSIONAL Real FLORIST, don't be fooled by a name like ProFlowers.
What one recipient had to say
More Information
With Valentines fast approaching it's time to get in gear and place your orders. Smith's Flowers only uses Freedom Roses for all their red rose needs. The Freedom Rose offers exceptional vase life, often attaining 14 days once in the recipients home. Freedom Roses are a wonderful hue of red, and have lush dark green foliage.
Once again this year, unlike most other florists Smith's Flowers will be holding the cost of a dozen vased roses at their regular $50.00 price, plus delivery and tax. This price applies to all colors not just red. While our cost for roses is much higher at Valentines, we feel that we owe it to our loyal customers to continue to offer value and un-matched quality. While other florists raise their prices at Valentines, we absorb the additional cost attempting to make roses available to every budget.
Also, again this year we will be offering FREE DELIVERY for Valentines orders delivered Monday February 12th and Tuesday February 13th. Just think how surprised she will be not only when you send her roses, but when you remember to send them early when she least expects them. Be the hero in her office, order today!
Just in time for Valentines, Lampe Berger released this years two Limited Edition collectible lamps.
The Red Heart is perfect to show her that your heart is always with her. This lamp is a Limited Edition, and will no longer be available once sold out. We have 3 left in stock. The Red Heart Lamp measures 6.25" tall, 4" wide and 2" thick and retails for $127.00 including a fragrance starter bottle.
The T-shirt with Red Heart Lamp is perfect for him. Yes, even guys like their homes to smell good and be germ free. This too is a Limited Edition Lamp, and will no longer be available once sold out, we have 1 remaining in stock. The Red Heart Lamp measures 6" tall, 4.5" wide and nearly 3" thick and retails for $114.50.
Also included in the photo above, is the Red Gem Lamp, and while this is not a limited edition it is still a nice lamp for the Lampe Berger Collector on your Valentines list.
You can read more about Lampe Berger HERE
Also arrived recently are several new fragrances in larger bottles, and in February Lampe Berger will release their new catalytic burner with all new lamps. It will also be available for replacing old worn out burners.
The Esperance Rose is a new addition to the coolers at Smith's Flowers just this past summer and has already created a stir with both customers and our staff. The bloom pictured above is a full 5.5" across, basically an average Esperance as we have seen the grow to nearly 7" once out and open. They ahve a high 40-50 petal count as well. Esperance also have an extremely long vase life. We have had them out of the cooler on display in the store for 26 days before they showed much wear and tear and have heard from customers that they achieve the same results at home quite often.
The Esperance Rose is by no means a "pink rose" in the true sense of the word. Is "guard petals" are green with a bright pink edge and a creamy center. The rose itself has a varied color. The wavey petals are a creamy pink on top, changing to a true clear pink towards the cetner of the bloom. The only thing missing from an Esperance is fragrance. To achieve a long vase life fragrance was sacraficed through breeding, but still the beauty of this rose makes up for the lack of fragrance.
Esperance Roses are available year around, but tend to go quickly in the store early in the week, so we would suggest ordering ahead of time should you choose to send someone (even yourself) a stem or two or even a dozen.
Colonial Candle's fragrance of the month, Apple Orchard. A crisp fresh scent for fall, Apple Orchard gives the aroma of fresh cut apples, and fills any room with a crisp clean scent.
Available in votives, 3" and 9" pillars, and 8oz and 22oz jar candles.
The fragrance of the month special is 20% off any size or style of Apple Orchard. Stop in soon, supply is limited.
As the Christmas season approaches, we're working on getting all the new items on display. This past July, Cherie, Dad and I went to Chicgao for a week and attended the Home and Gift Show bringing back many new wonderful things for the season.
The Gossiping Grannies, aren't they adorable, all decked out in their Holiday best, sitting on a park bench catching up on all the latest gossip. Measuring 14" by 16" these Gals have it all. The bench is cast iron and wood, their outfits are authentic down to their bloomers, rich Velvet, cotton and more. Retail $199.99.
Santa and Mrs Claus. Santa's resting his toes, as he goes through his bag of mail. Each one measures 18" tall by 10" wide and comes with their own dark green Velvet chair. Attention to detail is impecable, and these will make a fine gift or addition to any Christmas scene. Retail $169.95 each.
A wonderful collection of Carollers, a complete collection or perfect for addition to an existing collection. Ranging from 8" to 22" tall, children, to adults to a drunk with his own light pole. Fine Velvet clothing, and again impecable detail. Retail from $54.00 to $139.95 each.
Stop in soon, we at Smith's Flowers are working to get more and more items unpacked and on display daily. Many of this years items are one of a kind for us as we wanted to offer a wider variety, and make many items exclusives...we hope to see you in the store soon.