Nationwide Flower Delivery Does its Part to Keep the Extended Family Alive

One of the characteristics of our society that distinguishes us from societies of the past is the nuclear family as opposed to the extended family. Only a few generations ago, the extended family dominated. This family included mother, father, children, grandmother, grandfather, uncle, aunts, and cousins, all living in close proximity to one another, even in the same house or on the same plot or adjoining plots of land. When it came to holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, occasions when gifts were given or exchanged, delivering gifts meant walking down the road.

As our society and economy developed, bread winners found it necessary to go where the work was. Children left home or college and took jobs far away from their parents, in distant cities, in other states, where they would marry and have their own children. The extended family was now separated by great distances and the family was confined to parents and
their children. Grandparents stayed in touch and every so often a family reunion would bring all relatives back together again, but distances between related families prevailed. No longer did giving a gift to grandmother, grandfather, uncle, aunt, or cousin, mean walking down the road. Since the break-up of the extended family, gift giving entails
sending gifts over great distances, by mail or other delivery services. One might order a gift from a catalog and have it shipped to those distant places, but face-to-face gift giving among family members is now rare indeed.

When sending non-perishable gifts to our relatives, few of us are concerned that the gift will be destroyed before it is delivered, but when the gift is perishable, like flowers, we’re hesitant to send such gifts through the mail or mail-like delivery companies. We’re still reluctant to have our flower gifts delivered by nationwide flower delivery service if that means buying the flowers where we live, boxing them up, and loading them on a truck or plane destined one, two, or three thousand miles away. If we treat the mail service as a nationwide flower delivery service, for instance, we’re right to be concerned that the
flowers will arrive in the same condition in which we bought them. For example, a local florist in New York might assure you it has nationwide flower delivery service, and mean by that the flowers can be delivered by UPS. As fine a delivery service as UPS is, unless you’re willing to pay premium prices for one or two day delivery from New York to California, through no fault of UPS, but because flowers require special conditions to remain fresh and unruffled, it’s unlikely your flowers are going to be received in the condition you bought them in New York City.

The surest way to assure your gift of flowers are going to be in the same condition as they were when purchased is to buy the flowers in the same locale in which they will be received. Then delivery is just a walk or a short drive down the road. That’s not nationwide flower delivery service, not unless you’re able to buy from a florist who has a shop in your city and another one with the same products in the city where they are to be
delivered. In this case, you view and select your flowers and style of arrangement, which is duplicated in the shop in the destination city, and the florist in your city places your order in the destination city. Nationwide flower delivery then implies a nationwide florist or a nationwide network of florists who cooperate with each other. This is exactly what nationwide flower delivery means today.

The internet is the perfect partner in the nationwide flower delivery services. These networked nationwide florists present their products with pictures and descriptions to you, wherever you may be, even if that’s in another country. You select and place your order, pay with a credit card, and your order goes to the shop in the destination city. From there, fresh, un-bruised flowers can arrive at your grandparent’s, your uncle’s, aunt’s, or cousin’s home, just as if you’d just walked them down the road yourself. You aren’t delivering your gift of flowers face to face, but the freshness and arrangement of the flowers will be just as if you’d gathered, arranged and delivered them yourself – lovely! The extended family, by such devices as nationwide flower delivery, still survives!