After managing the pizza joint I switched to delivering pizza’s since that was one of the best jobs I have ever had. Figured I would earn some more tips by delivering flowers during the day for a very popular flower shop. Knowing the delivery biz I was hired immediately and get trained for 1/2 a day and I was off. Right away I figured I had made a big mistake. Flower delivery guys do not make tips, well hardly ever.
It was a full day adventure. Get there in the morning and grab the delivery van, load it with flowers that had been made early in the morning or late the previous night. One strange thing to note here. There is a law that a driver cannot use his own vehicle to deliver flowers. It must be a company van or a rental. (At least that is what they told me) You will not be able to find a van for rwnt on valentines or easter in this city, I guarantee it. The back of the van was stripped of seats and had some wooden forms with coffee cans of different sizes for the vases to sit in. Pretty neat idea actually.
So I would get a bunch of sheets with the arrangement # and address from which I would make up my route. SO quick route in the morning, head back and see what I can get in before lunch, lunch and the final last trip. if I got done before 5 they would have me do some menial tasks to stay busy and I cleaned up after the floral arrangers. Really not all that bad.
When someone plunks down $50 on some stupid flowers you better make sure they are perfect. Raw flower deliveries came in each morning and sometimes I would cut the stems under water to a more usable length to help the arrangers out. Thing is they knew quality. At the end of the day they would throw out bunches of flowers that were not up to snuff but still looked fine. Lets just say I brought home flowers every day of the year I worked there. plus bring some where ever I went. If you go behind any floral place and did through the dumpster you will find fragrant gold.
So where did I deliver to most? Funeral homes, elderly care and hospitals. I knew the backs of all the funeral homes, and exactly what to do. Funeral homes have their own florists but people do not think about that. Also it seems that people like to give plants so they will last longer for the family of a deceased one. hospitals and elderly care were a breeze as well. Drop them off at the front desk and make sure the patient is still there and the volunteers will deliver them to the rooms.
Then it was the houses that gave me all the grief. Who is home during 8-5 on a week day? Hardly anybody. So knock on the neighbors door and hope they can hold the flowers for the person, make door tags telling the orig peep what was up. Unfortunately it was usually back into the truck till we heard from the person. Offices were the best though. When a young guy walks in with a bunch of flowers the women in the office swarm. I had my taser set to stun and kicked many nosey chicks in the nuts trying to fight my way to the customer. Seriously you lady’s and your flowers.
I made a grand total of $10 in tips from two people. ladies tip your flower delivery guy. So I was delivering flowers in the day and pizza at night. About 16 hours of driving around each day. it got old really quick since the tips were not there to supplement my $7 and hour. I tried to get out and being the nice guy that I am it took almost 2 months for them to find a replacement.
The absolute worse it the holiday season. The stupid evergreen is on 90% of the arrangements and smells like crap. i did get to see some pretty neat stuff though. Forget roses, they barely last. Protea’s are really cool and last a long time.
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