Mother’s Day Shopping Advice From A Local Expert

By VERNON ROBISON

Moapa Valley Progress

This Sunday, May 14, is Mother’s Day in America. It is a time when millions of Americans go out of their way to do something special for their mothers or mother figures.

It is estimated that there are more than 85 million moms in the U.S. That amounts to a lot of Mother’s Day love! And there are various ways of showing that love.

Last year, Americans spent $21.4 billion on special Mother’s Day plans for their moms. Surveys by the National Retail Federation show that number will rise this year to as much as $23.6 billion.

In the same survey, participants were asked what they planned to purchase this year for their mothers. More than 68 percent of those surveyed said they would buy flowers. That keeps the nation’s florist shops busy at this time of year.

But buying flowers can be daunting for people who don’t really know the industry. So last week, the PROGRESS went and spoke to the local expert. Charlene Udall is the owner of The Front Porch Flowers in downtown Overton.

She was happy to offer a little advice to ensure success and satisfaction when ordering flowers for Mother’s Day. Here are five tips she gave.

1. Online Shoppers Beware
About 28 percent of Mother’s Day pruchases are made online, while only 23 percent are bought at local small businesses. While this may work well for many gifts, it poses some unique pitfalls in the world of fresh flowers.
“Many people just Google ‘flower shops’ and the town that they want to send them to,” Charlene said. “It will pull up a lot of listings and some of them may be made up to look like brick and mortar shops somewhere. But that doesn’t always mean that they actually are.”
Most of those listings are third party brokers who don’t even supply the flowers, nor do they arrange them, Charlene said. Rather these online operators make their money by charging a steep fee for placing your order with a local shop that you could have contacted directly yourself.

“You think that you are ordering maybe a $60 arrangement, then they call a local shop in the area where you are ordering them, and ask the local shop to do it for $40,” Charlene said.
Though there might have been a photo on the website you looked at, showing what you thought you ordered, the broker is often vague with the local florist shop about the arrangement giving only a general description.
“So in the end, you might get only a $40 arrangement when you ordered a $60 one,” Charlene said. “People get upset with that and blame the local florist. But it isn’t really their fault. They never really took your order. They are just filling an order from the broker.”
To avoid this problem, Charlene suggests contacting local flower shops directly rather than through an online third party. For flowers in Moapa Valley, The Front Porch has a website at thefrontporchflowers.com where orders can be made directly. Or the shop can be called at 702-397-8334.

But for customers looking to place flower orders in other communities, Charlene said that The Front Porch staff is eager to help.
“We have a service where we can look up reputable florists in whatever community you want to send flowers to,” she said. “We can even call the other florist for you directly if there is a special request, or something that is needed to make the purchase easier. We are happy to do that.”
If you do insist on shopping through an online service for flowers, Charlene recommends that you go to a recognized national wire service like FTD or Teleflora. Then at least you will be certain of honest business practices, she said.

2. Order Early
Don’t procrastinate too long to place an order for Mother’s Day flowers. After all, it is one of the busiest times of year for the flower shops. The more notice that you can give them, the better your service, arrangement and delivery time will be. Given all that is involved in designing and delivering fresh flower arrangements, it’s best to allow a little time. Don’t wait until the last minute if you can help it.

3. Consider a “Designer’s Choice” Arrangement
Many people think they have to click through hundreds of online photos of flower arrangements to find the exact one they like best. They mistakenly feel that they have to decide precisely what they want before ordering. But that is not necessarily so.
Charlene says that one way to keep things simple is to leave the decisions up to the designers at the shop. There are lots of reasons why that is a good idea, she said.

First off, the flowers for Mother’s Day arrangements have to be ordered by the shop more than a week in advance to have them in stock in time for the big event. So it is a bit of a guessing game what flowers, and how much of them, will be needed by the shop.
Shops do their best to supply what they think will be in demand. But the customer has no idea what flowers the shop actually has in stock. The designer, on the other hand, knows exactly the best flowers that are in the shop’s inventory. So, if they are given some freedom, they can utilize the very best that is available to them in designing a beautiful arrangement.

Secondly, floral designers actually get excited about filling “Designer’s Choice” requests.
“Everyone who works for us is so artistic, and talented” Charlene said. “They know what flowers we have and they already have ideas on what would look nice. So they get excited when they are given free reign to make something beautiful. A lot of times, our customers get their best arrangements by just telling us how much they want to spend and letting us run with it.”

4. Think Outside The Box
There is no rule that says you have to only give flowers on Mother’s Day. There are plenty of other gift ideas out there. And sometimes flowers aren’t even on the top of the list for what Mom’s would like to receive.
Charlene points out that her store also stocks plenty of other great options for gifts. These include home decor items, chocolates, exclusive gift items, balloon bouquets, candy bar arrangements and even Pirate paraphernalia. Any of these can be delivered, with or without the obligatory flower arrangements, to arrive in time for Mother’s Day (as long as you also remember Tip #2 above).

5. Make Great Memories
Have a great time celebrating and honoring your mom. After all, the most precious gift you can give her is your time with her.

Happy Mother’s Day to all Moapa Valley Moms! Thanks for all you do.