Photo: Shari Small / WBZ NewsRadio
CHELSEA, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — With Valentine's Day fast approaching, bouquets are flying off the shelves nationwide, encouraging retailers to find wholesale sources like the New England Flower Exchange in Chelsea. WBZ's Shari Small caught up with Direct Flowers of Boston to see how sales are blooming this year.
"They may have received some orders online yesterday that are above and beyond what they were already planning on, so they need to get in to pick up all that extra stuff to cover. Things have ramped up each year, and this year was our best year out of the last three— so that's a good sign," said Owner of Direct Flowers of Boston Paula Parziale.
According to Parziale, any sort of price hikes seen in retail flowers isn't actually from the flowers themselves.
"The cost of the flowers is actually the same, believe it or not. It's the freight— the increase in the cargo is insane and that really does affect the final cost," Parziale said.
At the retail level, planning orders ahead of time seemed to be the way to go this year.
"We feel good, we ordered a ton of flowers ahead of time. We ordered ahead of time what we thought we would sell, and then we sold all of those things, so we need to get more," Co-Owner of Rococo Floral in Somerville Julia Conrad said.
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Some florists say there's been a shift in the trend of pieces getting sold.
"I feel like we're seeing more of our special arrangements too, rather than just bouquets which is just interesting. I think people are starting to buy slightly nicer things, or their willing to spend a little more," Conrad said.
In terms of the types of customers that waltz in, Conrad says plenty of men have come in and bought the first thing they see in the shop.
WBZ's Shari Small (@ShariSmallNews) reports.
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