of the 23 million Flowers 1-800-FLOWERS.COM

needs to get from farm to florist

to customer for Mother's Day.

with 10% of the annual revenue on the line

there's little room for error.

It's the company's biggest day for Floral sales.

- It is our Super Bowl.

- [Narrator] This distribution center in New York City

will see 10,000 of those Mother's Day orders.

It's just one of the thousands of facilities

and independent floors the company depends on

to get fresh Flowers to customers nationwide.

We visited the company's busiest hub to understand

the complicated logistics behind

Florals biggest day of the year.

This is the economics of 1-800-FLOWERS.COM.

In the 1980s, Flowers were typically purchased

at a neighborhood grocery store

or a local florist like this one.

- When you have something to say

Floral Plenty can help you say with style.

- [Narrator] But in 1986, that New York florist

purchased a toll-free number

setting in motion a transformation of the industry just

- [Announcer] Just call on in or visit our stores.

- When we acquired the 1-800-FLOWERS number

we became a national business overnight.

- [Narrator] The company grew into a large network

of florists across the country.

Just call the number and it would figure out the details

and then came the worldwide web.

In the 1990s, the floral industry

was one of the first to go online

with 1-800-FLOWERS leading the pack.

- We can take care of that right now with America Online.

- We can?

- Yeah, we can send your mom Flowers.

- They're very cutting edge in technology

and online technology.

I would consider them a leader as an e-commerce company.

- [Narrator] As a research analyst, Linda Bolton Weiser

has covered 1-800-FLOWERS for over a decade.

- The floral network is key to the business

and sort of standardizing the brand

to be able to advertise is really part of what they did

to pioneer the industry

- [Announcer] Better call 1-800-FLOWERS.

- [Narrator] Today the company brings in

$2 billion in annual revenue

and with more than 5,000 florists in its network

holiday logistics are pretty complicated.

- Preparing for Mother's, Day is one of those things

that really gets our blood going.

- [Narrator] After customer places an order online

it can be sent to a few different places.

A farm, a distribution center owned

by the company or one of the network's local florists.

Where and how orders are fulfilled

depends on the type of product and the location

of the customer.

- Getting the Flowers to the right recipient

is more complex than people think.

- [Narrator] It all starts at a farm like this one

where Flowers for the holiday are harvested in May.

Every year the company relies on its own data

to forecast what types of Flowers they'll need planted.

- Preparation for a major holiday like Mother's Day

really began a year ago when we would work

with all of our suppliers to say,

"Here's what we're thinking of designing.

How does that match your growing cycles?"

- [Narrator] The company imports Flowers

from all over the world including California,

Ecuador, Holland and Thailand.

Roses are the most popular for Mother's Day.

The company expects to deliver 10 million in 2023.

At the farms Flowers are cut sorted by type and color

and packaged for shipping.

The hardest part, keeping Flowers alive and looking fresh.

Some customers have complained that their orders arrived

looking worse for wear.

- [Customer] This is how they came.

The Flowers were dead.

- [Narrator] The company says that customer experience

is its number one priority and that when it might

miss the mark, it works with urgency

to rectify the situation quickly and to ensure

the customer is 100% happy with the resolution.

But the most important thing to avoid those dead Flowers

in the first place, keep them cold,

including on refrigerated trucks that cart the Flowers

all over the country.

- The fast you can get that cut flower down

to about 33, 34 degrees and then maintain that temperature

you suspend life and you can really extend

the vase life that a customer therefore gets.

- [Narrator] The Flowers are kept cold

through transportation and arrival of distribution centers

like this one in New York.

Warehouse manager, Isaiah Brown and his staff

are preparing to receive hundreds of thousands of Flowers

more than double what they usually get.

- When he product comes in for the week of Mother's Day

we want to get it in in as late as possible

so it's at as freshest for our customers.

- [Narrator] Which means all of the Mother's Day Prep

has to happen fast.

The staff here almost triples to prepare for the rush.

The Flowers are unpacked and processed.

- It's very important that we strip bottom leaves

so that those leaves when the Flowers are cut

and put in the buckets are not submerged in the water.

- [Narrator] Cutting these stems at an angle

allows water to flow to the heads of the Flowers.

After Flowers are processed,

they're returned to the cooler room.

Designers pop in and out to pick out Flowers

for their arrangements.

This team in New York will make a couple thousand Bouquets

every day for the week of Mother's. Day

- It could take any matter from a few minutes

till 15 minutes.

It all depends on the occasion

and the type of bouquet we're talking about.

- [Narrator] When the designers finish,

most of the arrangements will be loaded into trucks

like this one and delivered to the customer's door

on the same day.

- Go Flowers delivery.

- [Narrator] Sometimes other gifts like teddy bears

or chocolate covered strawberries

or fruit Bouquets are delivered with the Flowers.

That's part of the company's bigger strategy

to become a one stop gift shop

where customers can also order from Harry & David

or Sherry's Berries.

- They would like to be known

as the premier online gifting marketplace.

- [Narrator] In fact, 45% of the company's business

is in gourmet foods and gift baskets.

Business boomed during the pandemic

as people stayed home and sent gifts online.

But as the world came out of lockdown

and an economic downturn loomed

both revenues and profits decreased.

- Flowers are considered in ephemeral gift

meaning you can't actually use it or consume it.

It's just for beauty and enjoyment.

And so in a recession that tends to be the gift class

that falls off first.

- [Narrator] Inflation and rising labor and supply costs

have also affected the company.

Competition has blossomed too with companies like

Bouqs, UrbanStems and Farmgirl Flowers

entering the $12 billion Floral gifting market.

Food delivery services like DoorDash and Uber Eats

are also getting in on the action.

- We work with many of them, even though

they also compete against us.

E-commerce gives the ability for people

to get into your category relatively easy.

It doesn't replace the 50 years of experience

that we bring to the table.

- [Narrator] To keep an edge,

McCann is once again looking to emerging technologies.

In April, the company launched an AI generated poem composer

that's powered by ChatGBT.

- [Chris McCann] I see opportunity to grow

exactly as we are now but I know that technology

is going to change things and we'll look a lot different

than we do five years from now.

(bright music)