Posted by: Author amra December 28th, 2014

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Bill Miller and I met in a chat room. Florist chat room. We never met in person, but I learned a lot from Bill. He takes time to educate and mentor younger florists, and he takes time to teach you about running a business.

He is a small business owner, Southerner, conservative, fisherman, nature lover, and genuinely good person. While we do not see eye to eye politically (Me - small business owner, immigrant, liberal, city dweller, good person - if you believe my grandma), we always had a great relationship. He is a great mentor (great human being) and he really does not care (neither do I) about all of the above.

But he cares about the future of small business. And he follows Rush Limbaugh, the man who talks a lot about small business.

So my friend Bill wrote an open letter to Rush and he would very much like for Rush to see it, so I decided to help Bill, hoping one of my lovely Tea Party friends (you know who I'm talking about) will see it and pass it to Mr. Limbaugh.

This is what Bill wrote:

Rush...

You wouldn’t use a Middleman to help you buy a pizza, or a wristwatch or window blinds, would you? So why are you urging your loyal listeners to BUY FLOWERS that way?

But that’s what you do when you personally endorse 1-800-FLOWERS.

With the exception of a scant handful of franchised or wholly-owned shops, 1-800-FLOWERS do not SUPPLY any flowers. Instead, in coordination with Bloomnet – their order relay network – they TAKE as much as 50% of the customer’s money in FEES & COMMISSIONS. Then they pass the now-heavily-discounted order to a REAL LOCAL FLORIST for design and delivery.

And local florists are POWERLESS to compete because 1-800-FLOWERS has no Cost Of Goods Sold, no inventory, no designers and no delivery people.  Almost their ONLY COST is for advertising!

Since 1988, when you championed the “bake sale,” you have been (verbally) a staunch supporter of SMALL independent businesses.

Please, Rush. Put your money where your mouth is and STOP recommending Middleman companies whose actions are destroying local businesses!

 

So Bill, my dear friend, my mentor – Here’s to you and your advocacy for the small business everywhere.

May the force be always with you !