Valentine’s Day is a holiday that not everybody celebrates and for some people it’s just a regular day without any special meaning to it. But there are quite a lot of people who like to treat their loved ones and that usually involves men buying their wives and girlfriends flowers.
That means that this is a very busy time for florists and because they have to deal with more people in general, there’s a bigger chance of serving more dissatisfied and unpleasant people. One florist went to Reddit and revealed what it is like to sell flowers during the period of love. Turns out, it’s as bad as you would guess.
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More info: Reddit
A tired florist went to Reddit to vent about how bizarre Valentine’s Day can be for people selling flowers
Image credits: Phillip Pessar (not the actual photo)
The Original Poster (OP) with the amazing nickname tapiocatsar is nonbinary, but claims that most people would guess they are a woman based on their appearance, which is why they posted in the subreddit r/TwoXChromosomes which is “for both serious and silly content, and intended for women’s perspectives.”
The first thing that tapiocatsar points out is that they noticed how many men cheat on their wives and after choosing a bouquet for them, will start deciding on what to get for their girlfriends. Another thing that always threw off the florist was when men started flirting with them while they were literally trying to find a gift that would symbolize their love for their spouse.
From learning husbands cheat on their wives to being flirted with and the classical persistent clients, the OP experiences it all in one day
Image credits: tapiocatsar
Of course, florists will have some similar experiences that are shared among all retail workers, and that is clients who are angry for reasons that don’t depend on the retail worker. While some people will come and plan their gifts and flowers in advance, inevitably there will come a flux of people who thought they could just grab some flowers on their way home from work.
If you buy gifts during a busy season at the last minute, you can’t expect to have a big assortment to choose from, but tapiocatsar had to endure annoyed men blaming them for not having any other colors of roses except for yellow and white, as if the men’s inability to plan gifts or lack of understanding of how retail works during holidays is any of OP’s fault.
The OP is nonbinary but their appearance would make others think they’re a woman so they get some unwanted attention from other men
Image credits: tapiocatsar
Another story the OP shared in the comments was about a customer asking for blue roses. They explained to the customer that they didn’t have them and if they wanted, they could buy white roses and dye them blue, as that is where blue roses come from, after all. The woman accused the florist of lying and of hiding blue roses somewhere and not allowing her to buy some.
Image credits: tapiocatsar
Another thing that annoys tapiocatsar is men giving them creepy comments and not understanding that this is a business interaction, and getting comments like being pretty as the flowers they sell, which is not wanted and the florist feels like “just a sexual object to some of the men.”
Working in retail is never easy, but Valentine’s Day in a shop selling flowers seems to be on a different level. However, it is not that unusual, as in the comments, other Redditors shared their own stories.
The OP’s experience isn’t an isolated one and other retail workers shared that Valentine’s Day gets on their nerves too
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Image credits: tapiocatsar
Other florists related to tapiocatsar’s experience and recognized the certain types of customers. But also, people working at or owning bakeries and candy shops understood exactly what the OP was talking about as sweets are a popular thing to buy for Valentine’s Day.
According to the National Retail Federation, people actually buy more candy than flowers. The data of their consumer spending survey shows that in 2022, more than half of the respondents were planning to gift candy, 40 percent of people would buy greeting cards, and 37 percent wanted to gift some flowers. And on average, they were willing to spend $175.41.
It is understandable as quite a lot of people celebrate it and don’t mind spending quite a bit of money to treat their significant others
Image credits: tapiocatsar
If you are interested in more statistics related to retail on Valentine’s Day, then here are some more. You might guess that the most popular flower to gift on Valentine’s Day is a rose, but what could surprise you is that it is estimated that more than 250 million roses are for sale on Valentine’s Day.
As for chocolate, in the US, approximately 58 million pounds are sold on the 14th of February and more than half of the boxes are heart-shaped.
An interesting number is of people who are not celebrating Valentine’s Day, but still plan to do something more than on a regular day: more than a quarter of respondents to NRF’s survey said this.
Image credits: tapiocatsar
The statistics show that Valentine’s Day is a popular holiday and from OP’s experience it is also evident that more people come to find flowers and show more attention to their significant others.
Do you celebrate the day of love and what do you think of tapiocatsar’s post? Let us know your thoughts and opinions in the comments!
Here are some of redditors’ reactions and stories they remembered after reading the post
The post This Florist Shows A Glimpse Of The Not-So-Romantic Side Of Valentine’s Day After Sharing Some Encounters With Customers first appeared on Bored Panda.
Source: boredpanda.com