Does this look like a £40 bunch of flowers?

[veuveo]

What do you think?

Looks like a dozen short-stemmed roses and some astrantia. I would have said £30.00. But they are pretty pink roses.

roses are expensive

Florist here. If it's come from a bricks and mortar florist rather than a supermarket, it's probably about right. There's 10 x roses, maybe 5 x astrantia and a decent amount of foliage (which is much more costly than you'd think). I'd estimate that the cost price of the flowers only is about £15 plus VAT, then there's the cost of the packaging etc. Add on the profit margin and the cost to deliver and it's very easy to end up at £40 for a bouquet that's simple and less than spectacular. You also have to remember that the florist will have overheads, premises, tax, NI, public and product liability insurance, the cost of staff, ongoing professional development plus fees for industry organisations and membership of wire services like interflora (who would take a decent chunk of a £40 order themselves too, leaving the florist with very little to work with and remain profitable). There's a reason that the gorgeous bouquets you can order from the independant big London florists are often nearer to £100 a time.....and it's not just because they are London based.

It looks more like their £30 Pearl Grey gift bag arrangement.

You also have to remember that the florist will have overheads, premises, tax, NI, public and product liability insurance, the cost of staff, ongoing professional development plus fees for industry organisations

Like every business ever, then. (And can’t imagine the ongoing professional development’ requirements for a florist are onerous.)

Sorry, but I think delivered flowers are an absolute rip-off.

Not at all

Yeah that's it Paranoid!
They've replaced the £40 with the £30 one

www.nextflowers.co.uk/FlowersItem/8988/8988

I agree with Paranoid - they're taking the piss!

Just read your update about them being from Next. Not surprised they are a disappointment. In general the non-traditional sellers like next will.have the flowers made into bouquets in something more like a factory setting by less skilled workers, and certainly not experienced florists. Having received similar flowers myself as a gift, calling these arrangements "handtied bouquets" is a bit of a stretch. Also, for the photos, they always front load the flowers in the arrangement. You do get what you can see in the images, but when you then arrange it in an all round way and so that it's balanced, it looks like you were short changed on the flowers. Buyer beware when buying from "cheap" online sellers. Buy local and support your local florist instead!

Crossed post!
At least they haven't even made a small change, so it will be pretty easy to tell them they're taking the piss and that they can collect and refund the full £40 immediately!

I always call direct to the nearest florist to where I want them delivered.

By doing this I by-pass Interflora (saving their charges) and get more flowers. I can also directly talk to the person doing the arrangement and see what flowers they have in stock.

And it's your misunderstanding on things like the skill and on going development of being an excellent florist which means there's no point even trying to convince you of the value of using a local florist rather than cheap and cheerful supermarket flowers HuskyMcClusky! It's like with most things in life, you get what you pay for and good quality fresh flowers are.expensive before you factor in the cost of someone doing something with them for you.

I don’t buy supermarket flowers and I do buy from local florists, actually. I won’t pay ridiculously inflated rates for delivered flowers that I can’t even see beforehand. I’ve heard too many stories like this.

I’d pay around £10 at most for that

I looked at that and gut reaction was thought I'd pay £20 maximum.Decent bunch of flowers, nice looking. Nothing to warrant 40 quid though! (Yorkshire)
Interesting to see the florist poster's thoughts as I was thinking the same and also on it being from a well known chain. Stands to reason local independent businesses will cost more. No reason for this to charge more but not be such a feeble choice for that price in my opinion!

Yes, and I helped in a florist. Some ros3s are individually quite expensive from the wholesaler

Hmm a bit sparse.
I've never gone wrong with M&S flowers. Always on time. Next day delivery. Masses of blooms and foliage. £40 would mean my mum has 2 vases full

It's nice but it looks like a £15 bunch from Asda. For delivered flowers I use a small local florist, you get more for your money. But I'd expect more for £40!

I would tweet them and they will soon reply apologizing and sending you a new bouquet :)

And include a side by side pic of what was delivered and what was promised so the public get a good idea of the 'quality' :)

At least with the Prosecco Hamper for £40 you can drown your sorrows

Delivery date wrong & a cheaper version.

Rip off. I suppose they are hoping you wont notice

Have you got a pic of the Xmas ones?

Another florist here ( London)
Yeah that's a shitty Next arrangement all right. They are made in a huge warehouse by people who aren't florists who are just following a list with a stem count. The original pictures are of course made by a high end florist and photographed beautifully.
I used to work for an Interflora florist and it was soul destroying. First of all you ares set up to fail by the photos, which are completely photoshopped. The ones that aren't photoshopped are arranged with all the flowers to the front and in full bloom, so you never send out anything that looks remotely like the picture.
Secondly, you are told what has to be in the bouquet, down to how many stems of foliage ( as pp said, surprisingly pricey). For example, 12 red roses would tell you to use 1 stem of gypsophila, whereas the picture shown to the customer would have at least three or four. The pricing structure of the bouquet meant that if you put more in ( which I often used to do to avoid complaint) you're losing money.

With Interflora, approximately a third of your spend goes straight back to them in 'admin' fees. So with a £40 bouquet £13ish goes to Interflora, leaving you £27 for flowers and foliage. And in this case a vase.

So if the Next structure is anything like Interflora then sadly, that bouquet is on the money. But they are shitty cheap quality Kenyan roses which are as cheap as.

£40 at the place where I work now is broken down thus :£7 for foliage, wrapping, bag and labour. £33 on flowers.

No