Results Confirm Retail Sector's Expectations

As Bob Dylan sang, “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.” Any trepidation that florists felt in this holiday season has been confirmed by early reports of retail and online sales. While you await the results of the Society of American Florists’ post-holiday sales survey (we'll publish it by the end of January), you can use this retail-sector recap as a benchmark for what you saw in your store and watch for results from SAF’s holiday sales survey to see how retail florists fared. (If you’re a retail florist and haven’t received a sales survey, send your e-mail address to surveys@safnow.org to be counted.)  
 
Oh, and while it’s not scientific research, SAF has heard from at least a few florists who happily said sales were up, as much as 20 percent for one Midwest shop, during their frantically busy (thanks in part to leaner staffs) season.