Category: Inside the 1800Flowers Offices

Join us, 1-800-Flowers.com, for a “Just Because” Twitter Party on August 14th, 2014 at 8pm EST! Get ready to share all your just because moments and talk about the inspirational impact of making someone else smile.  Click here to RSVP and qualify for over $350 in prizes and giveaways!

1-800-FLOWERS.COM®
2014 #CelebrateJustBecause Twitter Party

OFFICIAL RULES:

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. OPEN ONLY TO LEGAL RESIDENTS OF THE 50 UNITED STATES, INCLUDING THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, WHO ARE 18 YEARS OF AGE OR OLDER AS OF THE DATE OF ENTRY WHO HAVE OR OPEN AN ACCOUNT ON TWITTER.COM. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

1. PROMOTION PERIOD: 1-800-FLOWERS.COM® 2014 #CelebrateJustBecause Twitter Party (hereinafter the “Sweepstakes”) begins at 8:00 pm EDT on Thursday 8/14/14 and ends approximately at 9:00 pm EDT on Thursday 8/14/14 (the “Promotion Period”). Continue reading 1800Flowers #CelebrateJustBecause 2014 Twitter Party | Petal Talk

Veteran’s Day is the perfect time to salute the men and women who have dedicated their lives to defending the red, white and blue as everyone is getting into the Thanksgiving spirit. Although we may not realize it, military heroes/veterans live and work all around us. 1-800-Flowers.com has a few military heroes and military family members of our own! Meet the brave 1800Flowers military heroes, whom we proudly call our co-workers, and find out which patriotic flower arrangements are their favorite.

Meet John Ryan
Digital Leadership Senior Associate

John, who tackles new business challenges head-on with his team, joined the 1800Flowers family in December 2012. Before then, he served in the U.S. Army from 2003-2008, and then he served in the Army Reserves from 2009-2012.

Why He’s Proud to Be a U.S. Military Veteran:

“My wife and I share the same values as many military families. We’re loyal to each other and strive to be selfless with our loved ones. Though those qualities are not necessarily original, they are held extraordinarily high by military members and veterans. And that makes us feel like we are part of a special community.”

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Meet Jeanne Braun
Receptionist

Jeanne, who has worked in sales, customer service, billing and reception here at 1800Flowers for the past 20 years, may not have served in the military herself, but she knows firsthand what it’s like to be part of a military family. Her son Billy has been serving in the U.S. Army since 2006 as Sargeant Telecommunications Specialist.

Why She’s Proud to Be the Mom of a U.S. Army Soldier:

“My son Billy keeps really busy and has been to Alaska, Iraq and Afghanistan, and is presently in Clarksville, Tenn. He is coming to New York sometime in the beginning of June for two weeks and will then be going to Germany for three years. Billy makes me proud that he is serving our country!”

CARLE PLACE, NY – On Thursday, April 24, 2014, 1800Flowers.com celebrated Take Your Child to Work Day by inviting a group of 30 enthusiastic sons and daughters of our talented staff! With a busy schedule ahead of them, the kids showed up ready to tackle the day’s floral-filled activities and celebrations.

Happily greeted by 1800Flowers.com President Chris McCann and Senior Vice President of Human Resources Maureen Paradine, the children were warmly invited to get a hands-on experience of what it is like to work at 1800Flowers.com for the day, just like their parents.

To kick the day off, the kids jumped head first into their first project. Since 1800Flowers’ main mission is to deliver smiles, the first project the kids were tasked with was to think of creative ways to deliver smiles.

The youthful visitors were broken up into groups led by volunteers from the 1800Flowers.com family, where they put their innovative minds together to brainstorm some creative ideas for how 1800Flowers.com can deliver smiles during our “Summer of Smiles” initiative, an initiative where everyone in the company participates in volunteering at local charities. Each group of kids chose their best idea, turning it into a visual presentation with the help of poster board, marker, and arts and crafts. The completed projects were then presented to the rest of the groups with hopes of having their ideas brought to life in order to spread smiles into the community. Ideas included a carnival for kids, a toy drive, and a 5K marathon!

After an energizing pizza lunch break with their parents, our budding entrepreneurs had the opportunity to create their own truly original floral arrangement, as they learned from one of our most talented floral designers, Phil DeVito, who also teaches college level flower design courses. While some chose to create arrangements to spruce up their parents’ work space, others took the opportunity to create a sentimental arrangement of Mother’s Day flowers to gift as an early present for Mom!

1800Flowers.com is proud to support the Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Foundation’s goal of “Education, Empowerment, Experience,” by celebrating Take Your Child to Work Day with an itinerary of educational and inspiring activities.

As Valentine’s Day is tomorrow, we’re monitoring the severe weather on the East Coast and doing everything we can to keep you updated on delays.

While we can’t control the weather, as the leading floral & gifting company, we stand behind our 100% Smile Guarantee and will continue to keep you informed as new details become available.

We apologize for any inconvenience these unforeseen circumstances have caused and we thank you for your continued understanding.

Our goal is to provide everyone with a safe & happy Valentine’s Day filled with smiles.

American Heart Association Celebrates 10 Years of Going Red!

Here at 1800Flowers.com we’re all about wearing red throughout the month of February for one of our favorite holidays Valentine’s Day, but today we wear red for a really amazing cause. In honor of the American Heart Association’s  National Wear Red Day® today, members of the 1-800-Flowers.com family are wearing red to support the cause for heart disease awareness! Heart disease is the number one killer in women in the United States. More information about how you can “go red” can be found on their site www.goredforwomen.org.

The holidays are all about FAMILY!

This Christmas, meet some of 10 members from our 1800Flowers family in the Employee Spotlight’s Christmas edition and learn about their Christmas favorites, from truly original family traditions to favorite Christmas gifts!

Today was an exciting day at the 1800Flowers offices, thanks to some surprise guests: Midnight Red! The new American boy band came to the 1800Flowers Headquarters in Carle Place, New York to bring some holiday cheer by singing popular hits with their amazing voices. Not only did they sing to employees, but they also performed for lucky store visitors at the 1-800-FLOWERS.COM Carle Place Flower Shop  located on the ground floor of our building for all to enjoy! Thanks Midnight Red for delivering smiles!

Pencils of Promise (“PoP”) is an amazing organization that builds schools in the developing world, while training young leaders to take action locally and globally. 1-800-FLOWERS.COM has had the pleasure of working with PoP over the past four years and was thrilled to be able to provide the floral centerpieces at this year’s Pencils of Promise Gala on October 24, 2013 in New York City. The night honors some of the most amazing Pencils of Promise ambassadors and leading figures in international education.

“We are proud to support this amazing organization. This year, we launched our prom program where a portion of all corsages sold online and in our flower stores, was donated to Pencils of Promise. With the proceeds raised, we were able to build a classroom,” says 1-800-FLOWERS.COM Vice President of Retail Marketing, Lisa Hendrikson.

This year’s PoP Gala was hosted by Sophia Bush and the honorees included sixteen year old Pakistani school pupil and education activist Malala Yousafzai, New Jersey Senator Elect Cory Booker, and The Cahill Family. Malala’s award was accepted by Shiza Shahid, Executive Director of the Malala Fund who recited Malala’s powerful words on her behalf, “…that education is our basic right.”

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At every company, each department has a little special something that helps bring them together. At 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, the Web Marketing team has their monthly cooking competition. This month’s competition was all about COOKIES!

The Web Marketing Team is pretty serious about their cooking competitions which is why they have chosen three judges from three different departments to fairly judge each cookie through a blind taste test: Bill from IT, Joe from Creative, and Rob from Merchandising. Joe even brought his own personal Cookie Monster mug for the occasion. Ballots are handed out to each judge and the cookies were based on four factors on a scale from 1 to 5: (1) Taste, (2) Mouthwatering, (3) Presentation, & (4) Originality. The numbers are added up for one total and 5 trophies are given to the winners.

Seven people from the Web Marketing Team baked and there were nine cookies to judge total. There are a couple of rules the Web Marketing Team must adhere to for the cookie competition: there can be more than one entry per contestant and no mixes.

The Web Marketing Team even provided the judges with milk to accompany their cookies which means they were ready to taste!

The cookies entered were as follows:
Cookie #1: Chocolate Hazelnut Oatmeal Cookie
Cookie #2: Chocolate Chip Cookie with Chocolate Caramel Candy Center
Cookie #3: Chocolate Chip Toffee Cookie
Cookie #4: Round Butter Cookie with Cocoa Middle
Cookie #5: Original Chocolate Chip Cookie
Cookies #6a-c: Triple Bacon Combo
(6a) Maple Bacon Cookie
(6b) Chocolate Chip Bacon Cookie
(6c) Chocolate Bacon Cookie
Cookie #7: Chocolate Chip Espresso Cookie

All of the cookies were absolutely delicious but by Cookie #5 the judges were hurting a bit, but like the troopers they are, kept trekking along to complete their cookie judging mission!

After the judges had completed filling out the cookie judging paperwork, all the bakers were invited into the room to hear the judges comments. Points were added up to determine the five winners for each category and the bakers names were disclosed for their cookie creations.

Since we can’t capture the ENTIRE contest for you in just one blog post, we will share with you some of the comments from the judges. In regards to the bacon cookies (Cookies #6a-c), Bill said “Tears in my eyes, go bacon!” Joe decided to embody Cookie Monster and said in regards to the toffee chocolate chip cookie (Cookie # 3), “T is for toffee that’s good enough for me.” For Cookie #2 (chocolate chip cookie with caramel and chocolate candy center), Rob said the “marshmallowy goodness sends chills down my spine,” however no marshmallows were used in this cookie.

And the winners were…
* For the Taste award, Cindy won with Cookie #3 for her Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookie, which she said used four sticks of butter!
* The other four awards for Mouthwatering, Presentation, Originality, and Overall went to Leslie for her Three Bacon Cookies. The Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookie was an overall favorite!