Everybody's Cashin in...

The impending arrival of Valentine's Day is showing me something I never looked at so clearly before.  A lot of people evidently think there is a lot of money to be made from roses on Valentine's Day.  A lot of people also think being a florist is a "fun and easy job".
For some reason, it seems like every where I turn right now, someone else is selling roses for Valentine's Day.  Everybody wants to be a florist for a day.  The dollar store, the grocery, the drug store, churches, and schools have all jumped on the bandwagon.
Maybe this bothers me more this year because this has been a tough year financially.  I work so hard to keep things going at the shop.  I feel the responsibility that comes with meeting the payroll every week so my employees are able to feed their families.  I worry a lot about  how I'm going to pay my bills.
My worries are the same ones that others have had before me, especially over the last twenty five years as WalMart has put the small family owned businesses out of work and changed the whole economy of our country.
Here's the thing:  I don't sell paper towels , cleaning products, and potato chips.  I do sell fruit baskets, but I buy the fruit from the grocery that is now selling roses.  I don't sell cans of soup or steaks or cookies.  A florist has a very narrow inventory.  Roses are one of the few things we sell compared to a grocery store that sells a million different products before they start selling roses.  And the same goes for the dollar store. 
Why can't these stores just sell what they are good at and leave us lttle people to earn a living selling what we are good at??  Or are we not good at it, so they feel the need to rub that in our faces???
And what about churches cutting into my ability to earn a living??  And will they be at my doorstep in a while asking for a donation?
We used to sell a lot of balloons, but now everybody does it so we don't sell very many.  Same goes with stuffed animals to go with those balloons.  Add memorial flowers to that list, too, and silk flowers in general.  Heck, you can even buy your wedding at WalMart or Hobby Lobby, leave the tags on everything, and take it all back after the wedding.

More later, it's 8:42 and I have to go back to work.