June 5- 7, 2024 • Broward County Convention Center • Fort Lauderdale, FL

Buyer’s Corner: United Supermarkets defines what it means to be a neighborhood floral shop

— North America's Largest B2B Floral Show —

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United Supermarkets is a Texas-based grocery chain with stores in 53 communities in Texas and New Mexico. Their stores have impacted these communities in instrumental ways by delivering ultimate service, displaying superior performance and making a positive impact every single day.

Such endeavors are especially evident in their floral department, where every instance of a need for flowers is met.  Their floral teams are at charity events with volunteer hours all the way to designing beautiful flowers for galas. The United Supermarkets floral page allows visitors to send flowers, connect with a florist or plan for a special event, highlighting the direct connection their stores make to these communities but also with individual shoppers.

“We are your neighborhood floral shop,” said Bradley Gaines, Business Director of Floral at United Supermarkets. “From births to weddings to sympathy, our store teams connect with our guests and that is what sets us apart from the flower shop next door.  We see the same guests 1-2 times a week and we make those personal connections. We bring peace, joy, and happiness to all aspects of life.  Ultimately, we are just trying to bring a smile to our guests faces.”

Those personal connections are reflected in their “let life bloom” slogan that impacts the decisions made across their floral department. It’s a positive slogan that relays what flowers do for customer’s happiness and the joy in everyone’s life.

Just like everything and everyone else though, COVID-19 has impacted what that joy looks like on every level. The floral category has been changed because of it but such changes extend to individual stores and teams in a way that not everyone has recognized.

“COVID has put a strain on store team,” Gaines said. “Sales have increased double digits and labor has only increased single digits. Our goal of selling more flowers more of the time has happened but we’ve had to provide a more curated selections and offerings.”

Those adjustments are connected to a bigger shift for the floral industry this is set to be highlighted at the International Floriculture Exposition. Topic ranging from the art of positive politics to capitalizing on the post-COVID plant and gardening phenomenon to budgeting and forecasting are set to be explored in great detail during the event. These insights are secondary to what the floral industry missed out on by not being able to get to together in 2020 though, and those personal connections are top of mind for the upcoming event in Miami.

“The fellowship that the floral industry has was the biggest miss from the event being canceled in 2020,” Gaines said. “I believe that innovation and following trends were actually catapulted out in faster ways, mostly due to necessity. Fellowship and face-to-face discussions are what I’m most looking forward to doing at the live event and I really can’t wait to share and connect with people across the industry.”

 

The International Floriculture Expo (IFE) will take place in Miami Beach on September 16-18th and you can register now for the event. If you’d like to connect with our team for an upcoming Floral Connect Buyer’s Corner Interview, please get in touch via email or on social media

 

 

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