When I was in my twenties, I was a buyer for a Wholesale Floral Firm based in Central California. In addition to purchasing from flower growers in Northern and Southern California, I had to travel to the LA Flower Market to buy specialty flowers to fill special orders. But my favorite part was once my orders were placed, I had an additional $10,000 to spend on specialty flowers for speculative sales. All this would take place between the hours of 12pm to 5am. What a treat, so much to choose from. I did this for 9 years before starting my own Wholesale Company and running off the Market for an additional 7 years. This was back in the early 80's and I can only imagine if the market is still the same. Back then we had the American side, and across the street we had the Japanese side with old scary Japanese vendors that were as children interned in camps during the war. So there was no love for skinny young white guys like me and procuring flowers from them made me feel like they were doing me a favor. Still they had the best and the cheapest flowers available and when you needed 85 bundles of yellow roses or 125 bundles of white gladiolas, you had to maneuver gently and wisely and hit them at the right moment or they would grunt at you and you just knew you did not stand a chance.
As a Social Event Designer, part of my job is flowers. I can only dream of having access to the Market, instead I have to rely on Salesmen from various Wholesalers, various Miami Shippers, but never anything or anyplace I can go to to hand select my flowers.
No comments:
Post a Comment