There are three important things to know about holiday floral selling (and real estate): location, location, location! You will be selling a lot of plants and arrangements for Thanksgiving and Christmas and you need the real estate in the store to do it. Start planning early with your store management teams to create the space needed to display all your holiday products to your guests.

Jon StromYour mass displays of mums should be color-striped for impact. Gift baskets and arrangements need special displays near the entrance and close to checkout. Map out your real estate plans week by week and decide the best way to showcase your great holiday offers. Note that Hanukkah was Christmas week last year but starts Dec. 8 this year, so you have to order earlier.

Bulb kits are just like grocery items — you can stack them high and watch them fly out the door. Creative ways of stacking these kits will attract your holiday shoppers’ eyes. Containers and other hardgoods may sell alone as gifts, so these need to come off the shelves and get mixed in with your holiday displays. Be sure everything is priced to sell.

Cut flowers need more real estate at the holidays, too, but this should be an expansion in the floral department, where you can keep the flowers in good conditions and have them handy for your own design work or for your guests who make their own designs.

Don’t forget that every day is somebody’s birthday; in other words, you have to keep a good stock of everyday flowers for those important occasions like sympathy, get well, anniversary, baby boy and girl, congratulations and of course, birthday arrangements. It is sometimes easy for the stores to order focused on their holiday needs and then end up running out of flowers for these important events that happen all year round, even at the holidays.

Outdoor greens, wreaths and decorations are the first fresh products your customers see as they enter the store. The displays must be eye-appealing and maintained daily to give that great first impression. At least one third of all your wreaths on display should be upgraded. During the holidays, people are willing to spend a little more than normal on others and on themselves.

Upgrade your mums and poinsettias with baskets and bows, add some Curly Ting Ting to arrangements for that holiday shine and be sure to have higher-priced arrangements and holiday plants on display so those who want the best will find it in your store. Try new colors and varieties of poinsettia and Christmas cactus (Zygocactus), new containers and new upgrade baskets to bring a new look to your holiday floral departments.

Jon Strom is vice president for new business development at Price Chopper Supermarkets in Schenectady, NY. He can be contacted by email at [email protected] or by phone at 518/379-1226.