Episode 9: Interview with Rich Salvaggio: Changes in the Floral Industry
This week Vonda sits down with a true industry statesman: Rich Salvaggio, past president and fellow of the American Institute of Floral Designers, PFCI member, recipient of numerous state and allied florist association awards, and recently retired after many years as vice president of industry relations at Teleflora. Rich has devoted his life to the flower business, and this conversation ranges from why the once-packed state conventions thinned out, to the underrated power of hands-on classes, to his three non-negotiables for keeping a flower shop profitable.
What happened to the big conventions?
Vonda and Rich reminisce about presenting together at a Texas convention when trade fairs were packed with vendors. So what changed? Rich doesn't think interest died — he thinks economics did the reordering. With 800-numbers and endless other places to buy flowers, shop owners realized they needed to spend more time working in their own shops. "You've got to take care of your house first." Attendance dipped, and once attendance dips, vendors — who haul trucks of product and staff across the country — stop getting a return and stop coming. Texas restructured smartly: one big expo plus smaller educational events through the year, with vendors on site so shops that can't get to market can see and buy new product. His reminder for every florist: support your local wholesaler and the companies you buy from, or one day they won't exist.
Education is everywhere — and business classes aren't boring anymore
Teleflora runs programs at wholesale houses and hotels across the country, plus the hands-on Scholarship Academy classes: Friday night through Sunday, capped at 40 people, with a main instructor and two assistants coaching over your shoulder ("move this flower a tiny bit and it's stronger"). Rich says even 30-year veterans and big industry names pull him aside afterward to say how much they learned. Wedding and sympathy programs draw the biggest crowds — funeral work still runs around 35 percent of many shops' business — while anything labeled "basic" empties the room. And a telling shift: education companies used to hide the business content in design programs because owners found it boring. Now the business end goes right in the information packet, and people show up for it.
Rich's philosophy of education is the heart of the episode. When Vonda was inducted into AIFD, she was told she'd just received her "license to learn" — and Rich, inducted in the early eighties, has never stopped. But the real multiplier is what you do next: go back to your shop, teach your staff everything you learned, and have them teach someone else. "Otherwise it just stops."
Three things that keep a shop in business
Put on the spot for his top three, Rich delivers:
1. Keep your staff slim and working. Shops staff up for a holiday and then quietly keep everyone on. Designer payroll has to earn its money back — and it won't earn holiday-level returns the rest of the year.
2. Watch your cost of goods. This is where shops bleed money, and Rich names the culprit with a story every florist knows: Mrs. Jones is such a nice lady, she brought us a cake last Christmas, let's slip a few extra roses into her $50 arrangement. Price the arrangement first, then make it pretty — pretty matters, because nobody buys ugly, but it cannot go out the door for less than what's in it. And as Vonda points out, the worst offenders are usually the owners themselves; employees know they're being watched. Rich's related tip: credit your staff designers by name even for pieces you made — customers start asking for Shirley, confidence rises, and the shop stops depending on the owner's hands.
3. Keep your eye on every market. Trends come from outside the cooler: clothing, cars, and especially paint companies, which dictate color. Rich tells the story of returning from studying in the Netherlands in the eighties, filling his New Jersey shop's cooler with new-convention and hand-tied designs — and throwing every one away, week after week, for two months. Then a customer asked for one of those "cool arrangements with the flowers standing straight up" — 60 feet of it, for a 60th birthday buffet. One order paid for two months of education, and the trend designs never left his cooler again. Educate the consumer, and keep at it.
Why we move the buckets 42 times a day
What Rich loves most: no two days are the same. Even through 26 years at a desk, he got into the flower room weekly to keep his design hands moving. His advice to owners — once a month, ride along on deliveries and watch someone's face when unexpected flowers arrive. "They glow, they glimmer, they giggle." That's the rejuvenation that reminds you why you do this. His favorite flower, by the way: the sweet pea — delicate, flowing, gorgeous colors, magnificent fragrance.
Key takeaways
- Support your local wholesaler and key vendors — the industry infrastructure only survives if shops show up for it.
- Never stop learning, and always teach what you learn to someone else — that's how knowledge keeps moving.
- Staff slim: holiday hires shouldn't quietly become year-round payroll.
- Price first, then make it pretty — and watch the owner's generosity as closely as anyone's.
- Follow color and trends from fashion, cars, and paint — and keep trend designs in the cooler until customers catch up.
- Ride along on a delivery once a month to remember why you love this business.
Read more at thebusinessandpleasureofflowers.com.
Sponsored by:
Flower Clique
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Real Life Retail Florist