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What are the issues?
" I suppose our local societies
could be thought of as the Chez Panisses of the restaurant world, insisting on the freshest most organic of foods for our restaurant's clientele who are willing to pay the price. (Hmmm... there may be a newsletter article in that notion...) K Barrett " From a user's view point, this quote is the smartest thing said in this thread. IMHO "club" and "business" are and should be separate. Mixing the two, in clubs I have joined, works the hell out of members and produces a bland product. The best clubs concentrate on member enjoyment and let the business aspects take a back seat. The local OS serves bad coffee and speakers, has little room for socializing, is set up like a classroom and is populated by a pretty dour member set. At their shows everybody is hovered around the sales booths and the exhibits stand in lonely beauty, abandoned, unexplained, an afterthought to this business of selling. Wouldn't it be a winner if, lined up behind a First Prize Winner there were a dozen siblings, in bloom, waiting for a new owner! Instead, you must walk from this beauty to some forlorn stall and buy a bare root baby that looks like a cold wet dog. That, by the way, is the feeling I get when buying from a big box. That, by the way, is the way I got into orchids, buying a blooming beauty for someone. That rule still applies for me. I seldom buy one to grow, I buy it to bloom! There the BBs have you beat, sell the bloom not the plant. They just cannot perform that feat very well, you should be able to.OR, split your effort to sell plants AND bloomers, two VERY different markets. Plants should arrive ready to grow, no repotting for two years, with complete instructions. No difficult to grow,seldom blooming wonders. Check roses, they only sell when in bloom, orchids should be the same. If you would only decide to be bloom sellers your life would be easy and wallets fat. Lowe's only sells blooming plants in pots, maybe you should take the hint. Lowe's orchids in a bag you ask ? The bag has a huge bloom on it! Like I say, they only sell blooms. Most orchid sellers show you the bloom then sell you the plant! Most that will bloom in two to five YEARS!!! Give me a break. Joe T I confess that I do have one plant to grow, a Max. Picta. My wife gave me a hand full of pbulbs 12 years ago saying "this is an orchid" Yeah, right! I have been growing that damn thing for TWELVE YEARS! Always near death, never a bloom. My wife could compete with some orchid sellers I have known. Heavy on the "have" K Barrett wrote: Taken with Koopowitz's recent editorial in 'The Orchid Digest' it appears some societies are moving away from the 'show' aspect of their annual fund raisers and only having the 'sale' portions. Two of the societies in the CalSierra region hold sales instead of shows. I believe both are held in conjunction with large home and garden shows. The DVOS had their show in October, did not buy any plants as a society, only sold member's plants and took a cut from the vendor (like what Pat was saying). We made more $$ than in any previous year. We tried 1) being a vendor and having other vendors, 2) being the only vendor and 3) this time selling society members plants and letting vendors sell. To us it looks like #3 is the winner. Also we advertised the heck out of the show with signs placed at just about every intersection in town. Lo tech. I like Pat's comment that the local show may act only to whet the public's appetite for orchids, so they then go off to Trader Joe's and buy their plants. I suppose one would have to wonder where does one's sympathies lie? As a Board member I wanted more members to come to the meetings. But as I write this, maybe the club makes more money from the sale than they do from the members and so why spend so much energy on the least productive portion of the Club's income? If a club was to be run as a business then members, newsletters and meetings are a loss leader. The real money comes from auctions and sales. I dunno, I'm just talking off the top of my head here, and I think I just scared myself. *G*. Where's that dang 'Matrix' when you need it? One of my friends eyes the progress of big box stores as a good thing. Finally time for the vendor to finally make some decent money. But then he's on the *Big* side of the business. He wholesales to box stores. To him the debate is one of Darwinism. If you can't compete then get out of the way. I suppose its the same way in any ag business. The little niche growers vs the multinational conglomerates. I suppose our local societies could be thought of as the Chez Panisses of the restaurant world, insisting on the freshest most organic of foods for our restaurant's clientele who are willing to pay the price. (Hmmm... there may be a newsletter article in that notion...) K Barrett |
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