I always find a local shop tell them a price range. It has worked great for me in the past. I do not need the middle man. They seem unhelpful.
I’ve had numerous problems with 1-800-FLOWERS, from no-shows to sending dead flowers. I also know other family members who’ve had trouble with them. Now I either call a local florist direct or I go to FTD.com and choose the selections which say they can be delivered by a local florist.
I used to deliver flowers p/t when I was in college. Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day are absolute clusterfucks.
And it’s such a shame that they keep changing the timing of them so no one knows how to anticipate and plan ahead…
If you do use a local florist, it’s probably a good idea to check out any review sites you can find.
I say this because I’m reminded of an eye-opening article that appeared several years ago in a local city glossy magazine. The writing team called a half-dozen florists in the city and gave them identical orders. I forget the exact parameters, but it was something like “mixed floral bouquet in a nice vase, about “x” $$$ and be creative!”
The orders were all delivered to one staffer’s home and photos were taken of each arrangement. The difference in the quality, quantity and appearance of the floral arrangements was remarkable. The florists’ interpretations of the “be creative” part was particularly funny. Request and delivery times, as well as the final costs were also included, and the florists were rated with stars based on each element.
I remember the article created quite a stir, with threats of lawsuits and butt-hurt letters to the editor.
Oh they prepare for it but you can’t staff all year for the couple of occasions you’re going to be run off your feet. If one delivery van is all you need 95% of the time you’re not going to have a second one just for those couple of days.
Temp staff helps but it’s not the same as trained employees.
Restaurants at least have a slightly larger employee pools so they just have more staff in and then they have to deal with the fact that there are a limited number of tables.
I didn’t want to take a chance on FTD once so I called the florist in my wife’s building directly. I assumed that would give me an advantage when it came to delivering to her since they just had to take them upstairs. They apparently called FTD, or similar, so the flowers ended up coming from across town, two days late. Their excuse was that they were so busy, which is true on Mother’s day I’m sure. Still, calling the florist directly didn’t work for me.
The problem is, as pointed out, that the florists can’t hire several more delivery people for just one day. Or so I assume.
I don’t go out to eat on Mother’s Day or Valentine’s Day or any similar holiday. Yeah, many restaurants have specials on those days, but the places are always jam packed and the servers are overloaded, so I will just say that I want something grilled at home, and we can go out another day.
The limited number of tables puts a cap on the number of customers a restaurant can attempt to service on their “super busy” day. As shiftless noted, no such cap exists for a florist, they can figure on getting a temp (or family member) to drive a rented van for the weekend, calling another florist, or some other way to service their ever mounting customer pool. These are days that help make their year profitable, it’s tough to tell a customer you won’t take their money. So, they stretch their capacity to the limit and hope for the best.
Exactly this. However, the florist in my home town has a revamped website with pictures and everything (not certain whether it’s affiliated with anything), so I did that this year. Both Mom and MIL loved their flowers.
This for my Mom. I love FTD because they take my overseas credit card, and I have my Mom’s address in there already (and my maiden aunt’s as well).
Never had a problem with them.
The guys name was Merlin Olsen.
As others have noted, they don’t.
The Consumerist website has featured quite a few stories about big flower companies like FTD, Teleflora, 1800Flowers, etc.
In some cases, the difference between the photo advertised on the website and the arrangement that actually gets delivered is very noticeable. And, needless to say, the discrepancy is always in favor of the company, not the customer. There are also stories of late deliveries, failed deliveries, wilted flowers, etc.
But his good friends called him Merle. 
At least I think they did. It’s been decades since I heard any former Rams teammates talk about Olsen. Rosey Grier did a lot of interviews about the Fearsome Foursome after he retired.
Btw, my mom did love her flower arrangement. FTD gave me some headaches but the local florist did a good job with the flower arrangement.