What does it mean to be a Farmer Member?

We see West Sound Floral Exchange (WSFE) as facilitating the farmer-florist connection and providing our farming community another sales channel for their high quality blooms. We have designed WSFE to enable farmers to have control over what they offer for sale and how much they sell it for. In exchange we ask for a high level of quality, professionalism, and a team spirit. We see our fellow farmers as part of our community, and we want to see everyone prosper in their farming businesses. We do not view each other as competition since we all grow different things, at different times, and in different ways. We do not want to gate-keep local flowers but want to make them more available to more people. Here’s the basics of how we work together:

-Member Farmers will be trained to use our licensed software called “Local Food Marketplace” (LFM). This software enables our customers to shop one source that is updated by all our farmers.

-Every week, Farmers will have from Friday morning until Saturday night to upload their expected inventory for the coming week before the shop “opens” to customers.

-Sunday at 8am, the shop opens to the customers to place their flower orders. The shop remains open until Monday at 11:59pm.

-Farmers price their own products and a small logistics fee is added on top of your price when offered to the customer. We do not take a portion of your sale price.

- In the software portal, farmers can see the orders as they come rolling in, but you will also get an emailed report of everything that was purchased from you at the close of the shop period. 

-Farmers will prepare their orders on Tuesdays and condition the flowers overnight.

-On Wednesday morning the flower bus will pick up the orders from farmers. WSFE will not take anything that is not already ordered. We specifically designed the exchange this way because we do not think that the “consignment” model is a good for anyone who grows fresh products. If you don’t sell all your available flowers through WSFE, you can use the remainder elsewhere, minimizing your waste.

-After picking up orders, the flower bus then does another circuit through the county to deliver to our customers on the same day. We do this so that we don’t need a location to store flowers. This also minimizes handling which means better blooms to the end-customer.

-At the end of the day, once all the customers have received their orders and had a chance to inspect them, credit cards are processed and receipts issued to customers via email. Farmers are paid electronically for their sales.