There's something about Fullerton orders that feels different to us. Maybe it's because we get so many calls from people who need flowers there by a specific time, like when Sarah rang us last Tuesday needing birthday flowers for her mom before a 3PM lunch at the Fullerton Arboretum. Or when Michael called on a Thursday morning, pretty frantic actually, needing sympathy flowers delivered that afternoon to a service in northwest Fullerton. The urgency is real, and we feel it.
When an order comes through for Fullerton, whether it's Bonnie taking the call in our small office or Ayu processing it online, we're immediately connecting with our partner florists there. Not through some algorithm or automated system, but actual people talking to actual florists who know Fullerton's neighborhoods, the delivery routes, the timing. We don't operate flower shops ourselves, we coordinate with local florists who do the actual arranging and delivering. That's critical to understand about how we work.
The same day delivery cutoff matters here more than people think. 1PM Monday through Friday, 10AM Saturday. Miss that window and we're honest about it, we tell you it's going to next business day. But hit that window and we're getting fresh flowers arranged locally and delivered the same day. That's the advantage of working with florists who are already in Fullerton, not shipping flowers in from some warehouse across the state.
Last week Jennifer called wanting anniversary flowers sent to her husband's office on Harbor Boulevard. She was in Seattle, couldn't be there in person, and wanted something that would make him smile in front of his coworkers. We get calls like this multiple times a day for Fullerton. People living elsewhere, wanting to send something meaningful to someone they care about in Fullerton. Birthday arrangements for daughters attending Cal State Fullerton. Get well flowers to St. Jude Medical Center. Sympathy arrangements to homes near Hillcrest Park when words just aren't enough.
Then there's Robert who calls us probably four times a year, always for his wife in east Fullerton, always roses, always wants them delivered before she gets home from work. He knows our cutoff times now, usually calls before noon to be safe. These repeat customers, they're why we keep doing this. They trust us to get it right because we've been getting it right for them, consistently, for years.
Why do they choose us over just googling "Fullerton florist" and calling someone local directly? Honestly, sometimes I think they shouldn't, local florists deserve direct business. But here's what happens. They find us, they see we've been doing this since 2007, they read about how we actually operate, and they feel more comfortable placing an order with us than cold-calling a shop they've never heard of. There's something about our story, our transparency about being order coordinators rather than pretending to be a local shop, that builds trust. At least that's what customers tell us.
I should explain how we even got into this flower coordination business, because it's relevant to how we handle your Fullerton orders today. Back in 2007, we had a small shop, not in California but elsewhere, and we were basically broke. $20 in the cash register was becoming normal. Frightening actually. But the phone kept ringing with people wanting flowers sent to other places, and we kept turning them away because we only did local delivery.
Then one day, sitting there with literally less than $20 in the till, we had this thought. What if we took the order, charged the customer, then called a florist in the town they wanted flowers sent to and coordinated the delivery? We could pay the florist, they'd do the arranging and delivery, everyone wins. It sounds obvious now but in 2007 this wasn't common practice for small operations like ours.
That first call I made to a florist to propose this partnership, I was so nervous I brought my one year old daughter with me. She promptly knocked over a gift display and shattered something expensive before I even introduced myself. Mortifying. But that florist, Bev, she got it. She understood the model immediately. We'd send her orders, she'd do what she does best, arrange and deliver beautiful flowers, and we'd handle the customer service and marketing side.
Over the next few years we built partnerships with dozens of florists, then hundreds. Eventually we connected with a much larger network in the United States that had relationships with over 15,000 florists nationwide. That's how we can serve Fullerton today. We're coordinating with established local florists there who have the expertise, the fresh flowers, the delivery capability. We're not pretending to be a Fullerton flower shop with some storefront on Commonwealth Avenue. We're coordinators, and we're transparent about it, because hiding what we actually do just feels wrong.
Every Fullerton order that comes through represents someone trusting us with something important. Flowers aren't groceries or office supplies. They're apologies and celebrations and grief and love and gratitude, all wrapped up in petals and stems. When someone in Arizona calls us to send birthday flowers to their daughter in Fullerton, or when someone in Fullerton itself orders anniversary flowers for their spouse, they're trusting us to get it right.
That's why we work with actual florists in Fullerton rather than trying to ship flowers from central warehouses. Local florists know which flowers are fresh that day. They know the difference between delivering to a business in downtown Fullerton versus a residence in the neighborhoods near Chapman Avenue. They can read a situation when they arrive and make judgment calls about where to leave flowers if nobody's home. This human element, it matters enormously.
Our team is small. Dennis, Dan, myself, my wife, Bonnie handling customer service, Ayu processing orders, Phoebe working on sympathy arrangements remotely. We don't have corporate layers or committees or approval processes. When something goes wrong with a Fullerton delivery, and occasionally things do go wrong, Bonnie is handling it directly. Not some call center overseas, not some chatbot. Bonnie. A real person who cares about getting it resolved because she knows that happy customers come back, and repeat customers are how small businesses like ours survive.
The partnership with our florist network gives us reach we could never have otherwise. Over 15,000 florists across the United States, including multiple options in Fullerton. But reach means nothing without quality control and human service. That's where our small team comes in, making sure every order gets the attention it deserves, making sure the flowers arranged in Fullerton are actually what the customer wanted, making sure delivery timing works out. It's not glamorous work, but it's important work, and we take it seriously.