We’re well past the days of scrolling to page 2 of Google, even if there’s millions of results for a search. Most of us will hardly scroll to the end of page 1. In fact, it’s likely that we’ll only look at the first couple results.
Unfortunately, the first results tend to be - cue dramatic music - ads.
Now, without being obvious, if you google “order banff flowers” there’s 1-4 advertisements that show up and many of their websites look exactly the same. They are aggressively colourful and have hundreds of vase arrangements that are suspiciously full of flowers, and all perfectly round in shape. Oh, and they might all be on “sale,” all the time. Reminds you of a certain travel booking site!
These are sites that call themselves florists, but they’re not. They’re middlemen. They call the local shops and place an order as if they’re a regular customer, except we know they aren’t because of the strange way in which they order - they usually have to “check” something, meaning they have to get a hold of their customer and then get back to us, often more than once.
So without further adieu, here’s a list of 10 reasons to order directly from your local florist instead!
1. Personalized Experience
This is a gimme, but it’s a big one. When you call the shop, you can ask us exactly what’s in the fridge, what we think looks best, and what seems appropriate for the occasion. We can advise you on when our deliveries go out, and you can even give us notes about style, favourite flowers and colours, etcetera. If you don’t feel like ordering over the phone, our online ordering system provides a spot to make mention of specific flowers or colours you want!
2. Flower Accuracy
The middlemen sites will show you a picture - say it has orange gerberas, yellow daisies, and pink alstros - that we may not have available here at the shop. In an effort to make it as similar as possible, we might do pink gerberas, orange daisies, and yellow alstros. If you ordered that specific bouquet because the recipient loves orange gerberas, that special touch is going to fall flat. Also, most middlemen sites make the bouquets look far larger than they really are - think fast food burger advertisements - and have every single bloom faced forward, meaning they’re deceiving you on how full the arrangement will look. The other one is the container; if you’re excited that your recipient is going to get a cute mug full of flowers, or a tall crystal pink vase, you’re in for a surprise. (Of course, if we have those things, we use ‘em!)
3. Accountability
If anything goes wrong with the flowers, like they’re sent on the wrong day or it’s the wrong bouquet, it’s usually not going to be on our side, which means you have to call some 1-800 number and try to sort it out with customer service, not the person that actually made your flowers. Case in point: we had an order placed a couple weeks ago for the following day, to be taken to a local hotel. Upon delivery, the guest had already checked out. When we got a hold of him, he told us that he had paid for “express delivery,” a service we don’t offer… and had asked for it to be delivered the day before. None of this was communicated to us by the people that actually placed his order, and if he wants any compensation, he’ll have to get a hold of them and not us.
4. Supporting Local
Do I have to say more? We’re shop run by locals and employing locals, and always will be, rather than an office in the states simply calling shops over and over to place orders. Your money is going back into this community rather than somewhere else.
5. No Playing Telephone
We all played this game as a kid, right - one person starts with a phrase and says it to the next, and so on, until it reaches the end and is usually decently far off from where you started. When you place an order through a middleman, you are literally playing a game of telephone. They have to take your information down correctly and then relay it to us, meaning there’s a higher chance that important details will go missing.
6. Lower Cost
Delivery fees on most sites are far and above what we charge for within Banff, and from my poking around a few of the biggest third-party offenders, the costs of the flowers is either way too high or way too low. A $50 arrangement on most of those sites is something we would sell for $70…. but often, their $150 arrangements are something we would also sell for $70. This is likely in hopes that with a range of prices offered, the profit margins balance out - at the cost of the customer and the florist putting your order together.
8. Get What You Order
Beyond the accuracy of the flowers included, we often get orders that ask for balloons or teddy bears, neither of which we offer. (It’s actually a question we get asked a lot, and I feel the explanation as to why we don’t carry balloons should be obvious given we are within a national park. Actually, scratch that; balloons, like glitter, are incredibly wasteful no matter where you are in the world.) Of course we simply cannot provide these, so the cost of the balloons and teddy bear goes into the flower arrangement instead… but if you were really hoping for that balloon and plush toy, it’s not going to be there, and you might not know until you ask the recipient how they liked it. Yikes!
9. Convenience
When you order from us you either order online and never hear from us again until the ‘confirmed’ email comes in after delivery, or you call us once. That’s it! But if you order from a middleman, they have to call us, ask if we have the right flowers, then call you back if we don’t, find out what’s okay, call us back, see if the money provided can afford it, and potentially call you back again. All of these are steps that could have been easily skipped, saving you time!
9. Care
There’s some massive “florists” that actually do have a shop where they produce flowers, but deliver far from their range. For example, a shop in Calgary might try to deliver flowers here to Banff or further. Never mind their needing a license to operate a business in Banff, and the logistics of them working where they likely don’t have one… but add in the issue of sending flowers hours away, either wrapped or in a vase, in cold weather and through mountain roads often closed or suffering poor travel conditions. They don’t have the option of bringing the flowers back to a safe shop if the recipient isn’t home, so the flowers might be left on a doorstep or porch to freeze or bake in the sun.
10. Special Requests
Lastly, special requests are something only local florists can do. We’ve added feathers into bouquets, dice, or dog treats. We’ve even put together planter baskets of succulents or tropical plants based on light conditions in the recipient’s home! In a small town like this, we also remember many of the people we’ve delivered to before and know what they like best or what they’ve received before.
These are just the reasons I could come up with, though I’m sure there’s more! This is something we’ve noticed time and time again with these third party orders. The next time you’re ordering flowers, or if you know a family member is going to order flowers for you, remind them of your favourite shop in town and make sure they give us a call or order online for the best experience.