- [Narrator] These are just a fraction
of the 23 million Flowers 1-800-FLOWERS.COM
needs to get from farm to florist
to customer for Mother's Day.
with 10% of the annual revenue on the line
there's little room for error.
It's the company's biggest day for Floral sales.
- It is our Super Bowl.
- [Narrator] This distribution center in New York City
will see 10,000 of those Mother's Day orders.
It's just one of the thousands of facilities
and independent floors the company depends on
to get fresh Flowers to customers nationwide.
We visited the company's busiest hub to understand
the complicated logistics behind
Florals biggest day of the year.
This is the economics of 1-800-FLOWERS.COM.
In the 1980s, Flowers were typically purchased
at a neighborhood grocery store
or a local florist like this one.
- When you have something to say
Floral Plenty can help you say with style.
- [Narrator] But in 1986, that New York florist
purchased a toll-free number
setting in motion a transformation of the industry just
- [Announcer] Just call on in or visit our stores.
- When we acquired the 1-800-FLOWERS number
we became a national business overnight.
- [Narrator] The company grew into a large network
of florists across the country.
Just call the number and it would figure out the details
and then came the worldwide web.
In the 1990s, the floral industry
was one of the first to go online
with 1-800-FLOWERS leading the pack.
- We can take care of that right now with America Online.
- We can?
- Yeah, we can send your mom Flowers.
- They're very cutting edge in technology
and online technology.
I would consider them a leader as an e-commerce company.
- [Narrator] As a research analyst, Linda Bolton Weiser
has covered 1-800-FLOWERS for over a decade.
- The floral network is key to the business
and sort of standardizing the brand
to be able to advertise is really part of what they did
to pioneer the industry
- [Announcer] Better call 1-800-FLOWERS.
- [Narrator] Today the company brings in
$2 billion in annual revenue
and with more than 5,000 florists in its network
holiday logistics are pretty complicated.
- Preparing for Mother's, Day is one of those things
that really gets our blood going.
- [Narrator] After customer places an order online
it can be sent to a few different places.
A farm, a distribution center owned
by the company or one of the network's local florists.
Where and how orders are fulfilled
depends on the type of product and the location
of the customer.
- Getting the Flowers to the right recipient
is more complex than people think.
- [Narrator] It all starts at a farm like this one
where Flowers for the holiday are harvested in May.
Every year the company relies on its own data
to forecast what types of Flowers they'll need planted.
- Preparation for a major holiday like Mother's Day
really began a year ago when we would work
with all of our suppliers to say,
"Here's what we're thinking of designing.
How does that match your growing cycles?"
- [Narrator] The company imports Flowers
from all over the world including California,
Ecuador, Holland and Thailand.
Roses are the most popular for Mother's Day.
The company expects to deliver 10 million in 2023.
At the farms Flowers are cut sorted by type and color
and packaged for shipping.
The hardest part, keeping Flowers alive and looking fresh.
Some customers have complained that their orders arrived
looking worse for wear.
- [Customer] This is how they came.
The Flowers were dead.
- [Narrator] The company says that customer experience
is its number one priority and that when it might
miss the mark, it works with urgency
to rectify the situation quickly and to ensure
the customer is 100% happy with the resolution.
But the most important thing to avoid those dead Flowers
in the first place, keep them cold,
including on refrigerated trucks that cart the Flowers
all over the country.
- The fast you can get that cut flower down
to about 33, 34 degrees and then maintain that temperature
you suspend life and you can really extend
the vase life that a customer therefore gets.
- [Narrator] The Flowers are kept cold
through transportation and arrival of distribution centers
like this one in New York.
Warehouse manager, Isaiah Brown and his staff
are preparing to receive hundreds of thousands of Flowers
more than double what they usually get.
- When he product comes in for the week of Mother's Day
we want to get it in in as late as possible
so it's at as freshest for our customers.
- [Narrator] Which means all of the Mother's Day Prep
has to happen fast.
The staff here almost triples to prepare for the rush.
The Flowers are unpacked and processed.
- It's very important that we strip bottom leaves
so that those leaves when the Flowers are cut
and put in the buckets are not submerged in the water.
- [Narrator] Cutting these stems at an angle
allows water to flow to the heads of the Flowers.
After Flowers are processed,
they're returned to the cooler room.
Designers pop in and out to pick out Flowers
for their arrangements.
This team in New York will make a couple thousand Bouquets
every day for the week of Mother's. Day
- It could take any matter from a few minutes
till 15 minutes.
It all depends on the occasion
and the type of bouquet we're talking about.
- [Narrator] When the designers finish,
most of the arrangements will be loaded into trucks
like this one and delivered to the customer's door
on the same day.
- Go Flowers delivery.
- [Narrator] Sometimes other gifts like teddy bears
or chocolate covered strawberries
or fruit Bouquets are delivered with the Flowers.
That's part of the company's bigger strategy
to become a one stop gift shop
where customers can also order from Harry & David
or Sherry's Berries.
- They would like to be known
as the premier online gifting marketplace.
- [Narrator] In fact, 45% of the company's business
is in gourmet foods and gift baskets.
Business boomed during the pandemic
as people stayed home and sent gifts online.
But as the world came out of lockdown
and an economic downturn loomed
both revenues and profits decreased.
- Flowers are considered in ephemeral gift
meaning you can't actually use it or consume it.
It's just for beauty and enjoyment.
And so in a recession that tends to be the gift class
that falls off first.
- [Narrator] Inflation and rising labor and supply costs
have also affected the company.
Competition has blossomed too with companies like
Bouqs, UrbanStems and Farmgirl Flowers
entering the $12 billion Floral gifting market.
Food delivery services like DoorDash and Uber Eats
are also getting in on the action.
- We work with many of them, even though
they also compete against us.
E-commerce gives the ability for people
to get into your category relatively easy.
It doesn't replace the 50 years of experience
that we bring to the table.
- [Narrator] To keep an edge,
McCann is once again looking to emerging technologies.
In April, the company launched an AI generated poem composer
that's powered by ChatGBT.
- [Chris McCann] I see opportunity to grow
exactly as we are now but I know that technology
is going to change things and we'll look a lot different
than we do five years from now.
(bright music)