"What's an Order Gatherer?", you ask.  Simply put, in the field of floral shops (and other types of businesses), an Order Gatherer is a middle man broker that takes a cut of a floral product without ever seeing or touching that product.  Their business involves putting up an eCommerce web site that a customer might go to and buy an item.  Once a sale is made, the order gatherer farms out the production and shipping of a product by calling florist shops in the area of the sender's recipient.  In the meantime, as an example, say you purchase a beautiful flower arrangement that is advertised to cost $150.00 plus delivery and taxes.  The tax might be $9.00 and delivery charge might be $20.00, bringing the grand total to $179.00.

The order gatherer will call a local florist and ask if they could produce the item for $120.00.  Most florists would know that the item that they would design, assemble and ship would cost about $180.00 and decline the order.  But some florists might take that order.  The item that they would produce would look nothing like the picture that you saw.  The order gatherer typically will keep 20% to 50% of the customer's payment as a service fee.  So answer me this, would you pay $150.00 for an item that is worth only $75.00?

Major order gatherers include FTD, 1-800-Flowers, Lovingly and many others.  Funeral homes have found it to their advantage to use a company called The Tribute Store. since they get a free web site for using them and get a percentage of any sale.  So again, why pay more for an item and get less.  The tribute store also gives a customer the opportunity to "plant a tree" in honor of their loved one.  But who knows where that tree will be planted? 

So as the Dos Equis man says, when shopping for flowers, visit your local Floral shop.  You'll get quality product at a reasonable price and you'll be supporting a local business.  You will get what you see and you may enjoy the visit.