You are on a Funeral Home or Newspaper website reading the obituaries. You notice a tab that reads: Send Flowers, Send flowers from a local florist or similar wording. Click, and within seconds, you are looking at an online catalog of beautiful floral tributes.
Now might be the time to stop and consider the price of convenience. 
On those sites, there is most likely a third party involved who created and maintains that site on behalf of the funeral home. Generally, the funeral home will recommend one or two florists to the web developer. The florists enter into a contract with the third party and agree to pay a commission on the sales made on the website. The florist will receive payment of about 70% of the dollar amount you paid. To compensate for that 30% commission the florist will generally price the product offered on these websites about 30% more then what the same product would cost on the florists’ own website or physically at their own store.
A few months ago, a funeral director told me about an article in an industry magazine announcing that FTD and Batesville Casket Company were partnering to provide a website to assist funeral homes in selling flowers to their clients. Recently, 1-800-Flowers and Tributes.com also created an E-Commerce Program for Funeral Homes.
There are countless other commission based relationships that some funeral homes and florists have maintained throughout the decades.
Please consider that a $500.00 floral purchase as part of a funeral package offered by the funeral home or from a website linked to their website, could cost you up to $150.00 more than shopping directly with a local florist. The money you could have saved buying from a traditional florist could have purchased another large tribute for the service!
Gillespie Florists works closely with funeral homes to provide superior products and services, but not on a commission basis. In the present business climate, I predict that margins could shrink even more dramatically. I understand the need for funeral homes and other businesses to consider new income streams.
While there is nothing wrong with industries having partnerships with other industries, or businesses with other businesses to create efficiencies, income streams and conveniences, I feel that in these times especially, a penny saved is a penny earned. It pays to go directly to the source.
Shop with Your Real Local Florist, Gillespie Florist!
yesterday and she asked about the stack of Sunshine cards we have on our counter. I was surprised she didn’t know about it and thought, “Who else doesn’t know?” Do you know what a Sunshine Card is? Well, Don’t worry! I’m here to tell you!
A Sunshine card is a rewards card customers use to earn free flowers! After a customer makes six purchases they earn a free Sunshine bouquet! You can also buy six Sunshines in one visit and get one free!
We are having a big sale on Thanksgiving weekend! We are so excited about Small Business Saturday that we thought we should celebrate by having a sale! So, What all is on sale? 
This sale is for take out items only! If we need to make any changes to your silks, we can not offer you the discount. Restrictions may apply.
As always we will be offering candy and free flowers to anyone coming in dressed up during our Treat or Treat hours!
provided that Rust does have different shades to it. So, when dealing with its darkest version, make sure to pair it up with burgundy and a golden yellow for contrast. If you are working with a lighter shade of Rust, you can pair it with orange, yellow and red.
Our designers are busily designing outstanding set pieces to complete our eye-catching displays. It is our hope that every time you stop by you will see something new and interesting.
As some of you may know, I love watching HGTV in my spare time. I think that flowers relate to interior design quite a bit! You are dealing with color pallets, textures, and patterns and more, I’m sure. I wanted to get a chance to check out an episode of the new show HGTV Great Rooms because I really like the new Design Star Meg Caswell.
Not fresh flowers though. I think she should have had a small vase of flowers to tie everything together instead of a carafe of water with lime slices. Meg used a floral pattern window treatment that was bright and fun. She also used a mid-century chandelier that she repainted and kind of looked like it had a flower feel. But my most favorite part of the design was a wall sculpture of flowers she commissioned a local artist to do! It was amazing and beautiful! I tried to find a picture of it but couldn’t which is too bad because it was the best part of the kitchen. So, I guess you will have to tune into HGTV to see this great design! The picture I did find is just an example of decorative flowers for a wall but this is not nearly as cool as what is seen on the show!
