"Yedioth Ahronoth" Newspaper conducted a consumer market research ahead of Valentine's Day 2015. The findings and article are listed below:

When we buy flowers in order to please our mates, family, friends and colleagues, we are usually considered as “captive customers” who don’t see the final product, whether we order by phone, through the internet or even visit at the flower shop. The flowers recipients will not call to inform you that they received a wilted flowers bouquet, they will only thank you for the “nice flower bouquet”. Only in the case that you send the flower bouquet to your mate or close family you can find out that it is indeed looks like the one which was promised to you.
A more challenging problem is that on its way from the farmer to the bouquet recipient, its price rises in hundreds of percent’s. “When a 100% gap between the farmer’s price to the end consumer’s price is being found in fruits and vegetables, everyone are complaining. However, this gap is nothing in compare to the gaps we find in flowers”, says Haim Hadad, the CEO of the flower growers association. “Fruits and vegetables are considered food and are highly consumed, while flowers are considered as luxuries. There is a sense that when it comes to luxury products' prices, the sky is the limit”.
In our consumer market research ahead of “Valentine Day” we found gaps of up to 5 times between the price that the farmer is earning to the price the end customer pays when he purchase via the internet. This gap does not even include the shipment cost. We guess that in small boutique flower shops the price gap is even higher”.
It is true that the consumer cannot pay the same amount which is given to growers for the flowers, as usually the flowers “change hands” till they arrive to the store or the web site. “Farmers usually are not comfortable with working directly with the flower shops, so many time the goods moved through two layers of wholesalers which is causing the price to be doubled or even more”, says Yakov Amidi, the owner of “Khen Flowers” shop in Ramat-Gan. A flowers grower that we have interview, agrees with this fact. “No doubt that wholesalers and distributors have a significant contribution to the high prices”’ he says, “The agents and distributors are reaping the small shops. Only big flower shops with large volume and high turnaround can deal directly with growers”.
Yariv Shoam, an owner of two flowers shops and an internet website, says that a fair markup multiplication is two and half times. In the words of Yariv, “if a shop had purchased one flower at the cost of one Shekel, it will have to sell it for 2.5 Shekels or 3 for the maximum, if it wants to well earn from this sell. Such price is required to cover lost inventory and employees’ salaries. This markup provides a Gross Profit of 50%”.
Eithan Tze’iri is the owner of “Tze’iri Flowers” shop in the Carmel market.  He agreed with the formula of 3 times markup, based on a calculation of “third of the cost goes to the goods, third of the cost goes to the rent and manpower and third is for profit”. He claims to be satisfied with a markup of 2 only, and this possible since he buys the flowers directly from the growers, in large volume and great purchasing expertise. He also says that “flower shops that are located in shopping malls are charging even more, as they face high of expenses”.  Tze’iri is adding also that there is lots of lack of professionalism in this area, “It is a fact that many flowers shops are often closed although they charge even 400% more than the cost of their goods”.
Hadad estimates that if the price gap between the grower and the end customer will decrease, the consumption of flowers will increase; especially due to the fact that Israel's flower production is high thus 88% of it is being exported. Israel exports a billion flowers annually. Hadad also indicates that it is very common that flowers which are disqualified to export are sold in the local market.
He hopes that the change will come from the discount stores. “If Rami Levi, for example, will open flower departments with aggressive pricing in his chain of stores, then we will see a significant increase in the demand for flowers”, he says.

This is how we conducted our consumer market research
We ordered bouquets from five leading flower website stores. In each of the cases we chose the bouquet in a standard size based on a photo. In four of the cases, we spoke with salespersons who tried to convince us to order a larger bouquet. The bouquets were ordered on Sunday for delivery on Monday by noon on the week of Valentine's Day.
Haim Hadad, the CEO of the Flower Growers Association and a veteran farmer who is considered as an expert in this area, examined each bouquet in order to evaluate its look, quality and content. He disassembled each bouquet to its components (flowers, ferns and greenery) and separately examined them. Then he estimated the price that the grower is getting for each flower net of VAT. This was a professional evaluation based on the actual market price for that week, which were 40% higher due to the upcoming of “Valentine’s Day”. It must be indicated that the price which the grower is getting for his flowers and fern is determine by its quality and market demand”.

…And in the 1^st place, with a gold medal – Balizer Flowers Delivery
The expert findings
Promises vs. Realty: the bouquet matched its internet picture, both in visibility and as promised for quality and quantity. The flowers and greenery were of top quality.
The expert words: It was the tallest bouquet that we received: 65–60 cm. It included everything that was promised. The combination of white, green and purple was brilliant. The roses were of top quality, nice and full. This bouquet will hold at the customer house more time than the other bouquets that we have checked. The ferns and the greenery were beautiful.
Bottom line: Full value for money.
Rating: 9

In the 2nd place: ZER4U
The expert findings
Promises vs. Realty: we ordered a romantic bouquet, includes decorative greenery. The price does not include the vase which appears on the website picture. The roses in the bouquet were fine. The greenery was cheap looking in compare to the website photo.
The expert words: The roses are in good level and height (about 55 cm). They were sent in a stage that they should hold at the customer house for about a week. The greenery combination was not impressive. In addition, the greenery on the website picture contains Scindapsus Aureus and Ruscus Aculeatus which are nicer and more expensive. In reality we got three type of cheap greenery and their combination with the roses was poor.
Bottom line: With such prices gaps we expected to get a perfect looking bouquet.
Rating: 7.5

3^RD place 1800flowers.co.il
The expert findings
Promises vs. Realty: the promise in the website was for “a heartwarming winter bouquet with tulips arrangements”. We had the option to select a color and we chose red. Eight tulips arrived in the color we ordered, one stem was broken and there was a lot of greenery.
The expert words: The bouquet look in compare to the website's photo, was insulting. Although we did get the tulips with the right color we have ordered, the stems and leaves were poor looking and without a volume. For that reason, the supplier had to add verity of greeneries which were of poor quality and cheap looking. Six of the tulips were good and at a fair level of opening, two of them were completely full blown and one was even starting to wilt which made it improper to be included in the bouquet. The nine tulip head was chopped on its way to us.
Bottom line: The bouquet does not justifying its price.
Rating: 7

Published: Yedioth Ahronoth, "Mamon - Finance and Consumer" Friday 13-2-2015 addition