Angee’s Atelier-Shop LocalSubmitted By Angee LamberthYou may be familiar with the phrases “Shop Local” or “Support Small Business”, but what does that mean for a local flower shop?The pandemic has increased online shopping, offering safe, social-distanced transactions. My goal is to make you aware of deception that directly hurts your local flower shop...your local small business.On a typical day, we receive floral orders for same-day delivery...anniversary flowers for your wife, birthdayflowers for a friend or loved one, a simple thank you, or no special occasion like “just because”.You may decide to order online at angeesflowers.com.Imagine you do a search on Google:“Flowers near me” or “Flowers 88220”. Seems simple enough, but ifyou’re not careful you will end up on a third-party site instead of an actual local florist in Carlsbad.Even if you are good at distinguishing the paid advertisements in the Google search, the options can be very deceiving.There are multiple third-party vendors falsely stating that they are a locally family owned and operated florist. These third-party vendors are nothing more than order gatherers or OG, a call center, sometimes promising free delivery and flowers at rock bottom prices. They happily take your order, charge you exorbitant fees to handle the order, and they keep a hefty portion of YOUR flower budget to forward the order to one of the local florists for a fraction of what you have paid them.Whenever I get a call from order gatherers, I will decline the order 99% of the time because they are making money on my work.The flower shop who receives the order generally loses money to fill that order, sometimes as much as 40%.4 easy steps to verify you are dealing with a REAL FLORIST:1.Callthe florist. Most (but not all) will have a local number to contact them2.Ask where they are located. Ask for specific landmarks i.e. streets and other business names3.Ask if you can come in and look at pictures or see their flower inventory4.Read their “About Us” page on their websiteThe OG are people pretending to be a florist. They are NOT an actual florist, as they never touch a flower or even have flower inventory, sometimes actually operating out of someone’s home or apartment. Some are call centers out of the country.One of the biggest problems comes from the florist not knowing how much the consumer actually spent and they’re usually disappointed.As an example, an order gatherer takes $100 on the credit card for a dozen roses. They want me, the florist, to fulfill the order of 12 roses for $40 including delivery, pocketing money between the consumer and fulfiller.When you call Angee’s Flowers or order online at Angeesflowers.com,you are guaranteed personalized service and realistic expectations. We have an extensive fresh flower inventory every week and we will customize your order to meet your needs. Customer satisfaction is our
goal and we strive to make every order special, offering prompt same-day delivery, delivery confirmation, and a picture of your flowers!Thank you for shopping locally at Angee’s Flowers!We appreciate you supporting our small business!