08/12/2026
“ARE YOU AN ACTUAL REAL FLORIST?”
That’s how a woman started a phone call with me yesterday.
Then she asked me another question:
“Are you actually standing there looking at real flowers?”
I knew almost immediately what had happened.
I said, “Ma’am, it sounds like you’ve been dealing with an online order gatherer.”
She had.
Not once. Twice.
Before she ever found us, she had tried TWO different online flower companies that led her to believe they were actual florists in our area.
They appeared local. They had local-looking phone information. They assured her they were real florists.
The first company eventually emailed her and cancelled her order.
So she tried again.
The second time, the man on the phone went even further. She specifically questioned whether he was an actual florist, and he assured her that he was — and that he was standing there looking at the flowers she was requesting.
He wasn’t.
That order was cancelled, too.
By the time this poor woman finally reached us, she had already spent an unbelievable amount of time just trying to send someone flowers.
And frankly, I’m grateful she was willing to try a third time.
Because after that experience, I wouldn’t blame anyone for thinking the entire floral industry was full of crooks.
But here’s what I desperately want consumers to understand:
The people she had been dealing with weren’t the local florists.
And this problem is hurting legitimate flower shops all over the country.
WHAT IS AN ORDER GATHERER?
An order gatherer is essentially a middleman.
They capture flower orders online and then attempt to have an actual florist somewhere else fulfill them.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with being a middleman if you’re honest about being one.
The problem is the deception.
Some of these companies create websites, advertisements and phone listings designed to make you believe you’ve found a florist physically located in the town you’re searching.
But there may be no flower shop there.
No cooler.
No designer.
No buckets of flowers.
No delivery van.
Sometimes there isn’t even a storefront you could walk into.
This isn’t some conspiracy theory invented by angry florists.
The Federal Trade Commission has warned consumers about companies posing as local florists.
And regulators in Australia actually took action against one online flower company that admitted using 156 location-specific websites and 7,462 Google ads that gave consumers the impression they were dealing with local florists. The company was ultimately ordered to pay $1 million in penalties.
Another operation acknowledged using more than 1,500 webpages to create the impression that it was a local florist in more than 1,000 suburbs.
This is a real business practice.
And here’s the part customers don’t see.
YOU SPEND $100. THAT DOESN’T MEAN THE FLORIST GETS $100.
Let’s say you order a $100 arrangement online.
The company that took your money may then contact a real florist and try to get that order filled for substantially less than what you paid.
They may tell us it’s a $65 order.
Meanwhile, you are expecting what you believed you purchased for $100.
We may not see the photograph you saw.
We may not receive the exact description you were given.
We may not have the flowers you were promised.
And we certainly aren’t receiving every dollar you spent.
So now a real florist is being asked to somehow fulfill an expectation that somebody else created — with less money, incomplete information and sometimes flowers that aren’t even available.
Then when the arrangement arrives and doesn’t look like what you thought you bought…
Guess who you blame?
The local florist whose name is attached to the delivery.
And if the customer complains, we may not get paid at all.
THAT is why our shop generally refuses these orders.
It isn’t because local florists don’t want your business.
It’s because we DO want your business — and we want a fair opportunity to take care of you properly.
We cannot meet an expectation when somebody else has promised you something we never agreed to make.
And believe me, these companies call us.
A lot.
We’ve been given misleading order totals.
We’ve been asked if we have certain flowers and gotten the distinct impression the answer doesn’t really matter because the sale has already been made.
We’ve even had callers pretend to be the actual customer.
I’ve gotten pretty good at spotting them.
Sometimes the caller ID even appears to come from a local institution or hospital.
So every once in a while I’ll ask something simple like:
“What’s the restaurant right by the hospital?”
Crickets. 😂
I’ve looked up addresses associated with supposed “local florists” before and found buildings that clearly weren’t flower shops at all.
And that is what makes me angry.
Not competition.
Not online ordering.
Not technology.
DECEPTION.
If you’re a national flower-ordering service, say that.
If you’re a call center coordinating orders with independent florists, say that.
If you’re charging customers for connecting them with another florist, say that.
But don’t pretend you’re standing in a flower shop in our town when you’re not.
Don’t tell a woman you’re physically looking at flowers that aren’t sitting in front of you.
Don’t take $100 from a customer and create a $100 expectation, then call a florist and expect us to magically recreate it with substantially less.
Because ultimately, everybody loses except the middleman.
The customer loses money, time and trust.
The recipient may receive something different from what the sender intended — or, like this woman experienced twice, nothing at all.
The legitimate florist inherits the customer’s disappointment.
And eventually people start thinking:
“Ordering flowers just isn’t worth it anymore.”
THAT is what scares me.
Because there are thousands of wonderful independent florists who genuinely love this profession and care deeply about the people they serve.
SO HOW DO YOU AVOID THIS?
Here’s the easiest advice I can give you:
Start with YOUR local florist.
Even if you’re sending flowers hundreds or thousands of miles away, call the florist you already know and trust and ask:
“Who do you recommend in that area?”
The floral industry is a surprisingly small and connected world.
Many of us know florists across the country personally. We know their work. We belong to professional organizations together. We meet at conventions and educational programs. We have networks where we can ask other florists for recommendations.
I would MUCH rather have one of my customers call me and say,
“Hey Martha, I need to send flowers to my aunt in Tennessee. Do you know somebody good?”
than watch them hand their money to a website pretending to be one.
Ask us.
Seriously.
We would much rather help you find a reputable florist somewhere else than see you get burned.
And if you don’t have a florist you already know, do a little homework.
Look for a real street address.
Look at their Google listing.
Look at photographs of their storefront.
Look at their social media and their actual work.
A real local florist usually leaves a pretty obvious trail — real arrangements, real weddings, real employees, real customers, real events and real involvement in their community.
Then CALL THEM DIRECTLY.
Ask what’s fresh.
Ask what they have in the cooler.
And here’s another little insider tip:
Ask for Designer’s Choice.
Give the florist your budget, the occasion, some colors or a feeling you’re going for, and let the person who is actually standing in front of the flowers make you something beautiful.
That’s when we get to do our best work.
Your money goes toward flowers, design and delivery instead of disappearing through layers of middlemen.
And yesterday’s story?
It has a happy ending.
After two cancelled orders and two experiences with people who led her to believe they were something they weren’t, this woman finally found us.
A real flower shop.
With real designers.
Standing in front of real flowers.
We listened to what she needed.
We told her what we could do.
We made her a beautiful arrangement.
And we delivered it.
We gained a new customer, and I hope we restored a little bit of the trust somebody else took from her.
And I slept just fine last night knowing exactly how we earned her money:
We listened to our customer.
We told her the truth.
We made her something beautiful.
And we did what we said we were going to do.
That’s it. That’s the business model.
I actually appreciate the people who choose to spend their money with us. I care about what leaves our doors. And after all these years, I still absolutely love what I do.
So please share this — not just for our shop, but for every legitimate local florist trying to take care of their customers honestly.
And the next time you want to send flowers, remember:
Don’t just Google “florist near them.”
Call a florist you trust and ask, “Who would YOU call?”
🌸
