Why Do Florists Charge to Arrange Flowers?

You get on the phone and order red roses arranged in a vase with babies' breath and greenery. The florist tells you it will cost you $74.95 and will be ready for you to pick up in fifteen minutes. On your way home from work you stop into the floral shop to pick up your arrangement. Drawn in by the colorful, fragrant masses of flowers in the display cooler you decide to step inside and take a look around while the clerk wraps up your purchase.

Inside the walk-in cooler you see buckets of roses and other cut flowers for sale by the stem. The placards on the buckets of roses read "$3.50 per stem" and the buckets of other flowers have similar signs with different prices. Looking around, you see babies' breath for $2.50 per stem and leather leaf fern for twenty-five cents per stem.

The gears start turning in your head and something just doesn't add up. Your dozen roses has $42 worth of roses in it, about $5 worth of babies breath in it, and maybe $3 worth of fern. The vase couldn't cost $24.95, could it?

You go out into the shop and look for a vase like the one your roses were arranged in on the shelves. Finally you find it. It's only eight dollars and twenty-nine cents!

So where did the other $16.66 come from?

It's a labor charge. It's what the flower shop charges you for the floral designer to arrange the flowers. Now you may think that's silly, it only took fifteen minutes for the florist to design my arrangement, didn't it? The floral designer had to be manning the store just like any other store cashier would, right? They were there anyway so why do they charge to arrange flowers?

Floral design is skilled labor. Don't believe me? Give it a try. I doubt the arrangements you make would be the same quality as professionally arranged flowers. I've taught dozens of floral design classes and virtually no one comes off the street having no prior training in floral design and makes a quality arrangement.

You wouldn't expect your mechanic to change your oil for free, just charging you for the oil and filter. Nor would you expect your hairdresser to cut your hair for free just because they already have scissors. Labor is what mechanics and hairdressers get paid for, it's where their wages come from. Floral design is similar, it's a skilled profession. So don't get upset about labor charges on your floral design. Either learn how to do it yourself then do it or just accept that professionals charge for their labor. After all, that's why they are called floral designers.