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Once upon a time, a stigma was attached to supermarket floral departments.
"Flowers in supermarkets used to have a reputation for 'supermarket quality' just because they had a cheaper price," says a floral executive for an East Coast chain. But supermarkets have managed to shed that negative image during the past decade, she says. Shoppers today recognize that flowers in supermarkets often are of comparable quality to those sold by traditional florists.
As that recognition has grown, supermarkets have carved out a larger share of floral industry sales. Floral Index, a marketing company based in Chicago, says supermarkets, discounters and other outlets ring up 45% of floral industry sales. That's up three percentage points since 1991. Supermarket floral sales have averaged 3.7% compounded annual growth for the past five years, according to Progressive Grocer's 1994 Supermarket Sales Manual.
Chuck Victoria, floral products manager for the Supervalu division based in New Stanton, Pa., knows firsthand about the growth of supermarket floral departments. He says that when he started working at what was then Charley Bros. six years ago, only four stores on the wholesaler's roster of retailers had floral departments. The majority of retailers then "didn't know anything about [florals]," he says. "They didn't know how to get into it."
Today the wholesaler counts 40 full-service floral departments and 40 self-service departments among the 285 stores it supplies.
Loose, fresh flowers, single stems and pre-made bouquets are typically the major movers in supermarket floral departments. Supermarket operators say one of their strengths is sharp pricing. "We try to offer variety and we maintain a price range of $1.99 to $9.99 on fresh flowers," says the East Coast executive. "Our hottest price point is about $5."
Bob Homrich, director of produce and floral merchandising for 10-store Seessel's in Memphis, Tenn., says, "Supermarkets make [the floral industry] a lot more competitive." Prices aren't the sole attraction, however. Supermarkets have been able to draw increasing numbers of floral purchasers "because of the convenience aspect," says Homrich. "Supermarkets get a lot more traffic than a florist does, and [florals are] such an impulse buy."
The executive for the East Coast chain agrees. "Flowers are purely an impulse buy within a supermarket. They're not something that people come in with...