Tried wholesale buckets vs. buying direct from farms for a year now

I ran two different supply methods side by side for the past 12 months at my shop in Portland. Wholesale buckets from a big distributor were steady but the stems were always shorter and the flowers lasted maybe 4 days on average. Buying direct from a small farm an hour out of town? Those roses held up 8 days easy and the color was way deeper. The catch is I have to drive out there at 6 AM every Tuesday and sometimes they run out of certain varieties. Has anyone else tried cutting out the middleman and found it worth the extra legwork?

2 comments

2 Comments

rivera.hannah6d ago

Have you considered that those extra 4 days from farm-direct roses might not matter much if you can't get the colors your customers actually want on a regular basis? Consistency beats quality when you're running a business that relies on repeat orders. Driving an hour twice a week burns gas and eats into your margin, plus you're banking on one farm's crop instead of having a backup plan. A steady supply of decent stems from a wholesaler means less headache and more time actually working.

oliviabutler6d ago

Nah you're spot on. It's like people think fancy and complicated always means better, but in real life the boring reliable stuff is what actually keeps things moving. Seen it a million times - the showy option fails, the plain workhorse saves the day.