Roses Bought on Monday, Binned on Thursday
Three hundred stems come off the van at six in the morning. By Thursday a third of them cannot be sold, and nobody can say whether those were Monday’s roses or Wednesday’s.
Stock measured in days, not months
Received by the bunch, with its date
What came in this morning, from which supplier, at what rate. The date is the whole point of florist inventory management.
Age against each lot
Day one, day three, day five. The buckets look alike by Wednesday and the record does not.
What must move today
A list of the lots nearing their limit, so they go into today’s bouquets or today’s offer instead of Saturday’s bin.
Low stock before a weekend
Reorder levels on the flowers you always sell, checked before the Saturday rush rather than during it.
The sundries nobody counts
Oasis, wrap, ribbon, pins, tape. They cost little, and they stop a wedding order dead.
Oldest out first, which nobody does by instinct
The girl making a bouquet reaches into the freshest bucket, because fresh flowers make a better bouquet. She is right about the bouquet and wrong about the week. The picking list tells her which lot to take.
Before the van comes tomorrow
- What is still in the cold room, by flower and by age
- What was written off this week, and which flower it keeps being
- Stock at the second shop, before you buy twice
- A purchase order to the supplier for what is genuinely short
It counts days, it cannot see a tired rose
Two lots the same age can be quite different flowers, depending on the heat, the water and the ride in from the market. The record says day three; your eye says otherwise, and your eye wins. What this removes is the guessing about which lot is which, not the judgement about whether it will sell.
Frequently asked questions
Does it handle stock across two shops?
Yes. Each shop’s stock is held separately and read together, so you can see that the gerberas you are about to order are sitting in the other branch. Transfers between shops are recorded as they happen.
Will it tell us how much to buy for Valentine’s week?
It will show you what last year looked like: what sold, on which day, and what went into the bin on the sixteenth. It does not forecast. Last year plus your own judgement beats any prediction a system could make.
Do we have to count everything every day?
No. Receipts and sales move the balance on their own. Most shops do one physical count a week on the fast-moving flowers, which takes ten minutes and keeps the record honest.
Can we track gift items and hampers too?
Yes, alongside the stems. Chocolates, vases, soft toys and hampers have their own expiry or shelf life, and they sit in the same florist inventory management list as the flowers.
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