As Teachers' Day approaches, flower shops focus on gratitude-themed promotions
The wave of the "back-to-school economy" among students has not yet receded, and the "Teachers' Day economy" is already gathering momentum. As Teachers' Day draws near, both physical stores and online shops are pulling out all the stops to attract parents and students to buy gifts for teachers. Among them, flowers are the standout among the many gifts.
"Currently, flowers are mainly pre-ordered by schools to give to teachers as a group"
At several flower shops on the wide section of Pengcheng Road, quite a few owners have already put up signs for Teachers' Day bouquet pre-orders. The owner of one flower shop told reporters that in previous years, the number of people pre-ordering flowers began to increase after September 3, and flower sales also began to rise. But this year, up to now, no growth trend has been seen. At present, those coming to pre-order flowers are mainly schools placing group orders to give to teachers, while few parents place orders.
A Ms. Qiu, who was pre-ordering flowers, said her son is in fourth grade this year. In previous years, the school always sent a school notification before Teachers' Day, reminding parents not to give flowers or gifts to teachers on Teachers' Day, and strictly forbidding teachers from accepting gifts from parents on their own. Therefore, she had never given anything to the teacher on Teachers' Day, and instead had her son write a greeting card for the teacher. "But last year, my son said that on Teachers' Day, many classmates in the class gave gifts to the teacher, including flowers and mooncakes. Although the prices were not high, they were all a little token of the parents' feelings. So this year for Teachers' Day, I plan to give the head teacher of my son's class a bouquet of flowers to express thanks," Ms. Qiu said. At the scene, reporters saw Ms. Qiu pre-order a bouquet of hydrangea mainly featuring roses, priced at 80 yuan.
Pre-order flower prices have not risen
Although flower shops have already put out the Teachers' Day gratitude card, reporters learned that the prices of flowers such as carnations, lilies and sunflowers have not risen. Among them, sunflowers are 10 yuan each and lilies are 4 yuan each. Parents can choose and match flowers themselves. A slightly more upscale bouquet costs around 150 to 160 yuan, while cheaper bouquets range from 50 to 60 yuan. "At present, all orders are placed in advance, and we have also stocked quite a few flowers suitable for Teachers' Day, so the prices for parents who come to pre-order are basically the same as usual," one flower shop owner told reporters. Flowers pre-ordered now follow current market prices and have not gone up. But if flowers are bought on the day of Teachers' Day itself, the price may be a bit higher, and the quality of the flowers will not be as good as now.
This year's Teachers' Day is on a Saturday, a school rest day. So will this year's flower shop orders be affected by Teachers' Day falling on a weekend? Many shop owners said that compared with previous years, sales have indeed declined somewhat. For some who have already pre-ordered flowers, most chose Friday as the pickup day, with some choosing Thursday.
Teachers' Day and Mid-Autumn Festival bundled sales
In addition, because Teachers' Day and Mid-Autumn Festival are six days apart, many mooncakes were already put on shelves early. A store manager at a cake shop said: "Actually, giving a teacher a box of mooncakes on Teachers' Day is very cost-effective. It brings both Teachers' Day wishes and Mid-Autumn Festival wishes, one gift with two blessings."
It is understood that as Teachers' Day approaches, some shops have begun to fine-tune their promotional themes and sales methods, linking Teachers' Day and Mid-Autumn Festival in a "double festival" joint promotion. At a shopping mall in the urban area, reporters saw that merchants had launched a new round of autumn discount activities under the gimmick of "Celebrate Mid-Autumn together and thank teachers for their grace." During an interview, a shopping mall staff member said that now the mall offers discounts for every festival. Because Mid-Autumn Festival targets a broad audience and has a long promotional cycle, publicity mostly leans toward Mid-Autumn Festival, but as Teachers' Day approaches, the promotional themes will certainly change again.
In addition, the online sales of various gifts, from pillows and cups to even all kinds of gold items, have also been labeled as Teachers' Day gifts. During an interview, reporters saw on the homepage of an online shop that the owner wrote: "Spend one sum of money, buy two gifts, bring two kinds of blessings."