If a few weeks Valentine’s Day will be upon us, and a good portion of the country will be doing something for their special someone.

Today we’ll look at two types of situations, one where the public thinks something is wrong and others where something is actually wrong.

Spike in prices: are they gouging?
Roses and chocolate covered strawberries are perishable; they cannot sit in a warehouse for months, or even a few days, and still be any good.  (last year we stopped someone from ordering a Valentine’s Day Chocolate Covered Strawberry gift box that he planned to put in the closet for a few weeks.. it would have been an ugly surprise)

From the growers perspective:

Everybody wants the same thing on the same day, plants (strawberry and rose) have to be planted and prepped so that on this one day of the year they have the most product available, that is not an easy thing to do. It’s extra work (and fertilizer) to make all those flowers and strawberries ripen at the same time. Cold weather can quickly ruin all those roses and create shortages (like we are expecting this year).

Those same strawberries and roses need to be harvested by hand, that means bringing in a lot of extra people, training them to harvest correctly, and then the labor for the actual peak days of harvest. All those extra people are more expensive than normal because all the other growers in the area also need extra staff.

Logistics: Trucks, trains and plains:
It’s the middle of winter, if you think about it: Where are flowers being grown this time of year? Certainly not New York, Vermont, Colorado or Utah, it is ski season after all, snow and flowers don’t mix. That means the roses have to brought in: trains are to slow, and trucks are only used for the final part of the trip from the airport to the refrigerated warehouses. That means tons of are being flown into the country & even if you fill a cargo plane with flowers: it really adds to the cost.

Strawberries are only grown in a few places this time of year, California, Florida, Mexico as well as a few other places that are far outside the country. There are no ‘special’ large long stem strawberry plants, these are the biggest strawberries that are available on the existing plants, but the extra size and different of methods of harvesting and packaging (to prevent bruising) all add to the price.  All it takes is one cold weather event (freezing) in any of these areas and a significant amount of product will be lost. January freezing happens in Florida or California every few years, ruining the product that would ripen into the fruit or blooms that become the fruit that would be used at Valentine’s Day.  The growers try to limit the damage from the cold weather through various methods: helicopters to circulate air over the fields work in some situations, in others they have to encase the plants in ice and hope for the best. I’ve been hearing about really cold weather in Miami, so the chances are that the Florida strawberry crop is not going to be that useful during the peak time of year.

Grower summary:
The prices are higher because everybody wants the exact same thing on the exact same day during a time of year that it’s risky to grow.  That peak effort has a lot of higher costs in all segments from forced ripening, picking, and delivery.

Florist and strawberry manufacturers, we’ll take these two separately.

Florists:  local florist are in a rough spot, they have generally smaller locations and there often is not enough room to properly handle the huge volume of flowers that have to be stored and prepped for delivery, they also don’t have the delivery staff needed for all those deliveries. This means they need to get extra storage space and a lot of extra staff for deliveries. Even the sites that ship from warehouses need extra space for the big day. That extra space and staff costs a lot of money.

Strawberries are even more perishable than flowers, they have to be dipped the same day they are shipped to preserve freshness. Volume for the peak day will be over 100 times higher than other days of the year. All that extra production means extra staff, and that staff needs days of training. Extra shifts are a given: regular employees will probably be working 18-20 hours a day for three days straight. That is a lot of expensive overtime.  We also have to get extra storage space for supplies (boxes, gel packs, insulated containers and the rest), perishables (fruit) and finished/boxed product.  For the fresh fruit and the finished product ready for the FedEx/UPS pickup, refrigerated trucks solve part of the problem, but they are not cheap. Plus there is a lot of hardware,  such as all the extra melters, dipping stations, tempering.. even tape guns that are needed for all those extra people.

That box of machine made chocolates you saw in the drug store was probably made several months ago, it’s not the same type of product as something perishable like chocolate covered strawberries.

Summary: At least some of the price rises you see in the gift industry are market and conditions driven, the costs are a lot higher but so is the volume.

But what about the other unethical companies in the gift industry?
Nothing has changed in the last year… and parts have gotten worse.

Companies that advertise chocolate covered strawberries but the product is not made with chocolate? They are still at it (read more and even more), unforgettably fake chocolate is not what they advertise.

Companies that are being sued for the easy saver scam? Visa and MasterCard or the California Attorney General have not shut them down  (read more), not being able to trust a a company to protect your credit card information is very basic and their customers say they violated that trust.

Companies advertising “fresh from the grower” who really truck their flowers around the US to regional warehouses? (They even say they are fresher than local florists but those several days on the road to their regional warehouses say differently (it’s the same group as the “Easy Saver Scam”)) plus they even use local florists to deliver some of their flowers.

Surprise “care” fees at checkout? Of course.. (same people as above)

Corporate discriminatory Religious policies? Yep they are still at it (read more)

Fake Free shipping? The FTC seems to be sleeping on this one. They are not supposed to raise prices and then claim free shipping.

In the gift industry it seems like the government is not really doing it’s job correctly, and the largest players in the gift industry seem to be running amok while the regulators sleep, which seems to be a pattern in the enforcement segment of government. We are too small to play games like they do, and frankly we’d rather spend the time making a better product (and web site) than pay a bunch of lawyers to separate you from your money.

Most of the public does not know that parts of the government make rules for what is allowed to be called certain names.  The lawsuit was filed because according to tests the “Beef” didn’t meet the minimum government specifications to be called that name. Did you know “chocolate” has a legal definition? 

So how does that affect you?
Valentine’s day is coming up, and a group of companies are advertising “chocolate covered strawberries” and the product does not meet the legal definition to be called Milk, White, or Dark (bittersweet) Chocolate.

The easiest way to show that the product is not chocolate is to look at the ingredients as cocoa butter is required to be called “chocolate”.  If there is no cocoa butter: it was not dipped in “chocolate”.

But what about “chocolate flavored”?
The term “chocolate flavored” is allowed to be used when the product does not contain cocoa butter but does have other ingredients from a cocoa bean (chocolate liqueur, cocoa powder..), but it must be labeled “chocolate flavored” and not just as “chocolate”.  Since the minimum required 20% cocoa butter is the one and only ingredient in white chocolate that comes from the cocoa bean: once you remove the cocoa butter you cannot call it “white chocolate” or even “white chocolate  flavored”.

But what about Chocolate Cake?
Chocolate cake or even chocolate pudding are what are called a “common sense exclusions” as “the public” knows that a chocolate cake is not a big slab of chocolate but that there are other ingredients in the cake. This common sense exclusion does not apply to “chocolate covered strawberries” because those companies are saying the product is dipped in chocolate , a substance they do not use.

Eventually a law firm will file a lawsuit  and collect some big fees on this type of false advertising as well, as those companies “chocolate covered strawberries” don’t meet the requirements to be called “chocolate” , or even “chocolate flavored” since there is no such thing as “white chocolate flavored”.

Truth in advertising matters to us, as does the correct use of the legal term “chocolate” that is why we dip our chocolate covered strawberries in true gourmet chocolate unlike the companies that we list on our “Wall of Shame”.

We often get asked how to save on shipments throughout the year.

The first way is to place more than one order at a time, as our final checkout screen (the ‘thank you’ screen) has a discount code that even new customers can use to place more than one order at a time.

The second way is less obvious; simply combine your order with others as part of the same shipment this saves you a pile on shipping. To save even more look at our multi dozen chocolate covered strawberry assortments.  There is no special box that holds two dozen strawberries, when someone orders two dozen strawberries (or more) they are delivered in one dozen boxes. It’s pretty simple, order a 4 dozen chocolate covered strawberry assortment and you will get 4 boxes of one dozen strawberries. If you split those four dozen with 4 people at work your strawberries and delivery charges will be a whole lot less than if you each ordered separately.

Our wholesale flowers also are a great way to save money, our 100 ,200 and 400 long stem red rose packages can be split up upon receipt and you have roses for a whole lot of people. That’s a whole lot more than the $90 we’ve seen some local florists charge for a dozen roses on Valentine’s Day.  If you do the math right you could even get the other people to pay for your roses and they would still come out way ahead.

Order early: we place your order with the flower suppliers as soon as they come in, for Valentines we normally see stepped price increases as we get closer to the big day. The sooner you order the lower prices you’ll pay. It’s not that the suppliers are pricing gouging, there are millions of people asking for the exact same thing on the exact same day, this creates shortages of product, transportation, and trained labor. Special flights have to be arranged to bring the flowers into the US (it’s not like a whole lot of flowers are coming from Michigan in the dead of winter. They have to be flown in from South America).  The flower suppliers don’t want to suppress their January sales so they raise the prices in steps, the people that get the orders in soonest get the January prices, if you wait till the week before Valentine’s you’ll pay much more.

The same price increases happen in the strawberry market, plus if there is a freeze in California or Florida the prices for a flat of strawberries can easily jump $20 overnight. Strawberries are even more sensitive and perishable than roses and there are only so many places that they can be grown this time of year. Getting your strawberry order in early avoids the risk of price changes due to weather related problems or being locked out due to product shortages.

But if all you were after was a discount code … use “I-M-EARLY” it’s good on orders over $36 that are placed before 01/30/2011 (you’ll select a delivery date during checkout and can place  orders as far in the future as June). The discount code is only valid online and must be applied just after you press “Add to Cart” it can not be combined or used on previous orders or if  you have canceled an order in the last 30 days.

How did it start:
In 1921 a group of confectionary companies in Cleveland Ohio gave out over 20,000 boxes to the elderly, poor, orphans and newsboys (the kids that used to sell newspapers on street corners). They also arranged for the delivery of confections to some of the biggest start of the day. In 1940 another 10,000 boxes were given to charities, and various religious group leaders.

Unlike Valentine’s Day, it’s not just about your special someone; it’s not affiliated with any religious beliefs or dependant on family or personal relationship.

But… if your girlfriend comes from an area that comes from an area that celebrates it (or picked it up somewhere along the way) you might want to ask her about it.. just to be safe…

Sooo. What do we do for Sweetest Day, unlike the bog box stores that change what they sell dependant on the season, we sell Chocolate Covered Strawberries all year round. Just like we make chocolate covered strawberries for Birthdays, Romance and Halloween (and just about every other holiday and event) we also make our custom creations for Sweetest Day.

Hints for saving on Sweetest day:
Giving to two or more local people or two or more people at the same address? Combining shipments, (even with friends) saves about $10 per box on the chocolate covered strawberries just on the shipping alone, when combine that with our pre-discounted assortments of 2, 4 or 8 dozen strawberries the savings can be huge. Just make sure to get your orders in early (delivery dates are selected during checkout).

Even if you are sending gifts to more than one address: a discount coupon code is shown on the final page of checkout that is good for orders that you place on the same day.

Other ways to save: join our e-mail newsletter, Facebook group or follow us on Twitter

How to save

1. The final checkout screen (the ‘thank you’ screen) has a coupon code for strawberry and floral orders that you place the same day.  Think about your other gift needs:  a birthday or long delayed thank-you gift.. use the code on the final checkout page to send upscale gifts at a discount.
2. Combine your orders with others, your friends co-workers..  (one shipment to a single location) and you’ll save a lot over separate shipments
3. The 2, 4 and 8 dozen gift sets are packaged in one dozen boxes, do the math… we’ll wait.. yep that’s a huge savings (combine with #2)
4. When Possible avoid Saturday delivery, it’s a lot more expensive. (we don’t make money on shipping so if you want to go ahead)
5. The bulk rose shipments are also a great way to save money, just pick up your vases locally and save a ton, if you look around the house you probably already have a vase or two. (combine your rose needs with the other people you work with to get the deepest discount on long stem roses) . Again do the math.. look at the 100 rose package and divide by 8 (that will give you the price for a dozen roses… you’ll see it’s about an eighth of what some florists (local or online) will be selling roses for, that’s a huge savings.
6. Get your orders in early, our suppliers pass the rate increases on to us and there have been crop destroying freezing in Florida (Strawberries and Flowers) and South America (Flowers), they have agreed to honor the current pricing on the orders we have in-house when the rates go up
7. Join our newsletter, it always has the best coupons and discounts.
8. Don’t wait till the last minute, there is a limit to how much we can make and ship in a day, if you wait till the last minute we may be at capacity and not taking any more orders and you may end up shelling out a huge amount for something from someone else at the last minute.

1)      Get the delivery address right: you’d be surprised how many people don’t take the simple step of double checking what they entered.

1. Example 1: A package was addressed to an address in Miami that would have been about 5 miles offshore (we caught this one before it happened and corrected it)
2. Example 2: Another problem shipment was the result of some sending the package to “21 Thunder Way” rather than “12 Thunder Way”.  (result= someone else ate her package)
3. Zip codes, a bad zip code will send the package to the wrong part of the state and may result in a several day delay in delivery (result=ruined package).
4. The delivery address is your responsibility, if you get it wrong there is not a lot we can do about it.

2)      Making sure someone is going to be home

1. We had one customer send a package to his mother in Arizona, she was out of town for three days.

3)      Apartments: FedEx/UPS will not always leave a package unattended,

1.  A package left at the door of an apartment may ‘disappear’.
2.  Shipping to a business address or making sure someone will be home is much better.

4)       Shipping at the last possible moment for Christmas (bad idea).

1. Everybody else has the same idea.. and each year FedEx/UPS get more packages then they can handle in a single day (one year FedEx got 12 million packages in one day when they could only handle 9 million)

 Best practices:

1)      Double check your delivery address,

1. Does it have all the needed bits, suite number, business name, correct name
2. “Grandma” is not the correct way to address a package.
3. An incorrect or incomplete delivery address is the leading cause of delivery problems.

2)      Will someone actually be home or are they off on vacation?

3)      When someone is not going to be home: The delivery address needs to be secure  .

1. FedEx/UPS will not leave a package that has a high chance of being stolen.

4)      Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, It’s best when you don’t wait till the last minute to ship. Each of these Holidays are peak times for FedEx/UPS, and the busier things get the more likely things are to go wrong.

1. Christmas: anytime in the two weeks before Christmas works, just avoid the last few shipping days before Christmas. People are much more likely to be home and you’ve avoided the Christmas overload that the carriers experience every year.
2. Mother’s Day: avoid scheduling a delivery for the Friday before Mother’s Day. Mom will just be glad you remembered.
3. Valentine’s Day: You’ll get more ‘points’ for early delivery, everybody in the US is shooting for delivery on Valentine’s, this leads to an overload at the carriers. Having your package delivered a few days earlier will let them be the center of attention.