About the Image

Features

Rumble in the Bronx (Small Business Vs. Big Business)

By Brent Phelps June 13, 2005

Comments (7)

Today's all-star match is the battle between a large flower delivery service (1800flowers.com -  Westbury, NY) and a local Flower Shop (On The Square Flower Shop - Bronx, NY). Place your bets now on who will come out victorious in the battle to provide the best service and win customer loyalty and (uhhh, errr...) hundreds of dollars in cash and flower orders.

Round 1 - Valentines Day - Feb 05    (ding, ding)

Last Valentines Day I ordered flowers from 1800flowers.com two weeks before the big day. I went with 1800flowers.com for the following reasons. 

• A promotion where I received air miles
• I assumed that 1800flowers.com would be able to offer a great product at a reasonable      price and that delivery would be reliable.

I selected a nice bouquet with tulips that I knew would appeal to my wife. The cost was approximately $75 (a bargain for any married man to make his wife happy on V-day). However when Valentines day arrived, I never heard from my wife (typically she would call to say thank-you). Towards the end of the day I tried to call 1800flowers.com to see when the flowers would be delivered and was told by a recording that the hold time would be a minimum of 3 hours (I did not wait to see if someone would actually pick up). The next day - still no flowers. Three days later I called 1800flowers.com again and this time I waited 35 minutes to speak with a representative. The representative started sparring with me by informing me that the package was not delivered to my wife because FedEx cannot deliver to the address provided (not true). I confirmed that the address provided was correct and I pointed out that I have sent FedEx packages to my wife at that address before. The representative admitted that she has no idea why the package was not delivered. After more dancing in the ring I finally convinced 1800flowers.com to refund my card and cancel the order.

 

Round 2 - Wedding Anniversary - June 05    (ding, ding)

For this round I did a little research to find a reputable local flower shop (a contender) that was located in the Bronx (where my wife works). However this time around I had been traveling the week before our anniversary and had neglected to call-in an order until the day before (I know - a rookie mistake).  In addition to procrastinating I had the glorious idea that it would be great to see if I could find a florist who can make an arrangement to look similar to my wife's bridal bouquet with Yellow Roses and Blue Cornflowers (I found out later that Blue Cornflowers are not very common).

I called a few local flower shops who all agreed that it was a lovely romantic idea but that I was crazy to try this with only 24 hours notice. Finally I called a little shop called "On The Square Flower Shop" and spoke with a gentleman name John (the owner). John told me he wasn’t sure if he could do it but would be glad to look into it with his supplier and call me back. Here is where John outshined my expectations - He actually called back! John said that he could make it happen and would be glad to make the arrangement based on a picture of my wife’s wedding bouquet that I would e-mail to him. John then came out with a 1-2 combo where he asked me how much I wanted to spend. I suggested $75.00 for the flowers and John confirmed that he could make a reasonable arrangement for that price. The next day, John came through on his promise and delivered a beautiful arrangement which pleased my wife and made me look like Cassa-Nova. (See the picture attached for the knock-out punch in this battle of David Vs. Goliath.)

 

Ladies and gentleman the winner with a knock-out punch and your new heavyweight champion…… On The Square Flower Shop -  Bronx, NY!

www.squareflowers.com 

Search

advanced search »

Supporters

advertise on AbouttheImage.com »