Florists disappointed as Mother’s Day sales fail to bloom
FLORISTS were left disappointed on Mother’s Day last Sunday after sales failed to bloom. The day coincided with a full-day curfew, although ministers had allowed flower shops to take online orders and make deliveries on a “one-off” basis. However sellers who spoke to Cyprus Today’s sister newspaper Kıbrıs said that demand was down compared to pre-pandemic levels, while also complaining about competition from supermarkets and corner shops.
Viva Floristry director Naime Bolat stated that due to the Covid19 pandemic, florists make “very few sales” on weekdays and they can only make money on special days but the fact that flowers are sold in markets and marketplaces “strikes a blow” to their efforts.
Ms Bolat said that while she had made sales for Mother’s Day, on other days she had closed her shop “without making even a single sale”
while markets are “eyeing the two kuruş” they earn on special days.
She emphasised that due to the increase in the value of foreign currency against the Turkish lira, flowers imported from the Netherlands have become more expensive and that they had ordered half the goods they normally order.
Taking orders online or over the phone proved difficult for Ms Bolat: “Should we do business or try to get people to pick flowers over the phone? Even if only on Mother’s Day, people should have been able to come here and choose the flowers themselves.”
Yaşar Susuz, who works at Filiz florists, said that the sales they made on Mother’s Day were “not what they expected at all” and recalled that under “normal conditions” customers would have been “queuing up at the door”.
“People want to come and see the flowers themselves but there was a curfew because it’s Sunday,” he said.
Green Flower director Bekir Aktaş said that Mother’s Day sales fell below their expectations and that online sales “had less demand than normal sales”.
Pointing out that the sale of flowers in markets also affected them, Mr Aktaş said: “It is our colleagues who are doing this – florists who cannot make enough money.
“They don’t just sell them in shops, they also want to sell them in markets. We do not blame the grocery stores, it is the florists who do this.
“Flowers on special days should only be sold by florists and the necessary checks should be done to ensure this.”