V-day…the countdown is on!

From the desk of Angie Lopez

January 2019

It’s a magical, overwhelming, and exciting month for us at Frank Adams. Valentines day is kicking into FULL gear! The buying departments in both supplies and fresh have been hustling to get availabilities and price lists from our vendors and farms since the beginning of December. Then we determine what gas/freight costs will be to get products from around the world landed here in Portland. It’s spreadsheets galore as we enter the numbers and let excel do the rest. Offers have been sent out, calendars have been set, and product is starting to be secured.

This time of year, team work is crucial. The decisions being made are a beautiful yet unnerving mix of educated guessing and gut feelings sprinkled with experience. What product to buy, where to buy it from, and how much to buy. What day of the week the holiday lands on. When will our customers want to start receiving their flowers? What day do we ship from farm to ensure the freshest product is available? And one of the biggest…..are we competitive with our neighboring competition???

These things don’t even begin to account for other uncontrollable variables such as weather at the farms in both South America and California which affect last minute availability, flight delays out of South America which could affect our departing trucks, said trucks traveling safely from Miami to Portland….

I’m quite certain everything above seems quite dismal and stressful but it’s actually what we live for. The unknown, the hustle, the constantly changing variables. There’s excitement in seeing semi-trucks loaded with our flowers come in, become organized, and miraculously fit Jenga style into our coolers! One day later, that same cooler starts to empty as orders are pulled for the following day’s deliveries and pick-ups. All hands on deck and everyone on point! We are a well-oiled machine that thrives on 2 months of planning for a 1.5 week window of incoming and outgoing perishable flowers.