1-800-Flowers
 |
|
| Public | |
| Traded as | NASDAQ: FLWS |
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1976 |
| Founder | James McCann |
| Headquarters | Carle Place, New York, United States |
|
Key people
|
James McCann (Chairman) Chris McCann (CEO) |
| Products | Flowers, Gift Baskets, Plants, Gourmet Food, Collectibles |
| Subsidiaries |
Fannie May Harry & David |
| Website | www.1800flowers.com |
1-800-Flowers.com, Inc. is a floral and gourmet foods gift retailer and distribution company in the United States. It was one of the first retailers to use a 24 x 7 toll-free telephone number and the Internet for direct sales to consumers.
The concept of using the word "flowers" within a Phoneword was originated by William Alexander in the early 1980s. The phone number, 1-800-356-9377, had been assigned to a trucking brokerage in Wisconsin and was used for that company until 1981. Granville Semmes and David Snow formed a corporation which began to use that number to sell flowers in 1982. Their business struggled and that company was dissolved, with its assets going to investors James Poage and John Davis of Texas. In turn, this new corporation struggled financially as well. Its assets were acquired in 1986 by Jim McCann, an owner of several flower shops in the New York City area since 1976, under whom the business saw success and growth.
In the early 1990s, two events helped bring 1-800-Flowers to national prominence. First, AT&T created an advertising campaign featuring the company that aired repeatedly during the 1992 Summer Olympics. Second, at the time of the first Persian Gulf War, many advertisers were pulling out of CNN, unaware that CNN's war coverage would draw additional viewers. 1-800-Flowers agreed to remain as an advertiser at founder Ted Turner's request.
The company was among the first retailers to partner with CompuServe and AOL, in 1992 and 1994 respectively. On September 1, 1995, the company registered the 1800flowers.com domain name. In 1999, the company went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker symbol FLWS and changed its name to 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, to match its web site address.
The company has merged with or acquired a number of other gift and retailing companies. In September 2007, the company announced a partnership with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia to produce a line of floral products inspired by Martha Stewart. In August 2011, the company acquired Flowerama, a Waterloo-based floral retailer with 100 locations in 28 states.
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Wikipedia