Effects of a Global Economy on our NYC Flower Shop
It’s not breaking news that the past few years have created a lot of volatility for businesses around the world. Concepts like shutdowns and shortages, supply chain and shipping disruptions, and droughts, floods, and unprecedented, well, everything, have become relatively commonplace.
But, one place you may not expect this disruption to hit hard is your local flower shop. That is until you consider that each of those beautiful bouquets is packed with flowers from every corner of the world. A rose shortage in South America caused by political unrest lead to a global scramble for alternative distributors—imagine an impending wedding season with roses scarcely found (*shudder*). A lockdown in New Zealand, the leading producer of orchids, lead to pulling favors with Holland, who miraculously had an orchid reserve.
Without much thought to the web of growers, distributors, and deliverers by which they’re obtained, we expect to be able to order whatever flowers our hearts desire at any given time. But, next time there’s a price jump on a particular variety or substitution for your favorite flower in your regular bouquet, there’s likely a long and complex story behind it.
How global shortages may impact your flower arrangements.
At Julia Testa, we do our best to make sure you get everything you’re looking for and more. A lot goes into making this happen, like purchasing roses at exorbitant prices out of a traveling van (yes, this really happened) or crafting chicken wire frames when oasis foam is out of stock. With perfect final products and jaw-dropping arrangements, you’ll likely never notice all that it takes to fill our designs and your orders.
There are a few things, however, that you may notice impacting your Julia Testa arrangements this year.
- Glass shortages are limiting the breadth of vases that we can offer. To help with this, we’re offering stunning plexiglass alternatives, never sacrificing the elegance or balance of the vessel on the overall design.
- General increases in costs of goods are leading to slight price pops. With our cost of goods nearly doubling, we’re innovating as much as possible to ensure you don’t feel the rise in price more than you have to. Across the board, however, there might be slight increases in prices for many of our bouquets and designs.
- Roses, still scarce across the globe, are becoming more valuable due to their rarity. With roses becoming one of the most impacted flower varieties by global shortages, we expect them to have a resurgence as an “elite flower choice,” as their scarcity adds value and ups the impact they have when received as a gift.
- Flower substitutions may be made based on availability. With a lot of volatility on the flower market still today, we’ll be leaning more into the flowers we can depend upon actually making it to our doors (and into your arrangements). You may notice our designs being filled with more local varieties or alternative selections, but chances are, you’ll only be thinking about how stunning they are, per usual.
As always, we are continually grateful for you, and can’t wait to be a part of your special moments this year and years to come. We will keep working behind the scenes (navigating whatever twists and turns are thrown our way) to bring you the beautiful floral arrangements and designs you’ve come to expect from the Julia Testa team.
Shop Designers Choice arrangements to ensure beautiful arrangements with the freshest, most available flower varieties.