In the game of mom & pop flower shop there seems to be a lot of struggle. The wire services, order gatherers, originators, clearinghouses, online giants, syphilitic whores, whatever you want to call them, seem to be making almost as much money on every order as the poor local florist who buys, stores, arranges, and delivers the flower orders. All the while the local florist is also financing the whole operation for FTD, 1-800 Flowers, Teleflora, etc. Not a bad gig if your on the 'do my work, finance my work, and I'll pay you for a portion of it in another month' end of things. But, when you're a small shop with limited resources it can make business almost, and sometimes completely, impossible. The answer is obvious: ditch the wire services. The path to get there is not as easy as uttering that four word phrase. Hopefully the criminal corporate profiteering days are numbered for these institutions. It seems as if, maybe, hopefully, the tide is turning. Many floris