Showerthought: My local market sells bouquets for $15 that look a lot like my $65 ones

I was picking up some groceries yesterday and saw these pre-made bouquets at the front of the store. They had roses, carnations, baby's breath, the whole deal, for fifteen bucks. I make a similar design for weddings that starts at sixty-five dollars. It got me thinking hard about our value. On one side, maybe we're pricing ourselves out for everyday buys, and people just want something cheap and cheerful. On the other, my flowers are local, last way longer, and I spend time on each stem. A customer told me once, 'I buy yours because it feels like a gift, not just flowers.' But if the market down the street is their first stop, are we losing the fight before it starts? How do you guys talk about price with customers who compare you to a grocery store?

3 comments

3 Comments

zara5721mo ago

Rowan's point about selling a service is spot on (I read a similar take in a florist trade mag last year).

rowan_roberts491mo ago

Ever read that article about the "Ikea effect"? It's the idea that people value things more when they put some work into them. I wonder if that's part of it. Your customer said your bouquet feels like a gift. The grocery store one is a thing you grab. You're not just selling flowers, you're selling the care and the story. Maybe the talk isn't about matching the price, but making sure people see the difference in what they're actually buying. The grocery store flowers are a product. Yours are a service with a person behind it.

rowan72528d ago

Three people saying this feels like an episode of Mad Men. It's just flowers at the end of the day, not a life-changing experience. People buy grocery store bouquets because they look fine and cost less, not because they missed some deep story behind the stems.