My friend, Flowerishous, and I decided to do a nursery tour the other day. We planned to visit two of our former workplaces that have moved onto new owners. We were excited to see the changes, and planned on finishing at another favorite nursery.
Good thing that we did, because the first two have left such a bad impression, that I don’t think that I am ever going back to them again. I take my camera everywhere with me, and I am always politely asking for permission to take photos of the flowers before I do anything. At the first “just reopened under new owner’s” store, I asked for, and was given permission by a staff member to take photos of the flowers. Flowerishious and I had introduced ourselves as former employees, and asked about the nursery cat, whom we loved. The new owners were a bit standoffish, and unwilling to communicate, but we thought they were just busy. As I was approaching the flowers preparing to photograph them, I was rudely yelled at, and told that the offer was rescinded. No explanation was given, and rather annoyed, we left, we had planned on purchasing items, but didn’t. We won’t be back, and I have doubts that many former customers will either.
The second nursery also just reopened under a new name, was a similar story. I politely asked permission to take some macro shots of flowers. Both times I had made it very clear that I was only interested in the flowers, not shots of the store, fixtures, or giftware. “ Oh no, company policy, no photographs of anything! Especially if there is a chance that the photos might be used in a commercial way. We wouldn’t want you to make any profits off of any photographs that you took.” I had wanted to feature both stores on my blog, and was about to tell them that when the “no photographs” situation unfolded. I am so tempted to ask what the difference is if I photograph a flower at their store, or purchase it and take it home to photograph. Do they want to charge me a royalty because it came from their store? Yes I realize that it is their store, and they can make the rules. But I doubt that the poor reception at the first store will increase business for them. So it’s company policy not to allow taking flower photos flowers in a nursery? Just how are you going to stop all those customers with camera phones?
Jen.