BURNABY, B.C. (Staff) – If you want to be successful in the flower business, you’ll need to beat the early birds – and bidders.
Auction day begins early. The auction workers, which can number up to 60 during the busy times of year, arrive at 3:30 a.m.
Farmers bring their flowers in at about 4:30 a.m. If they’re from further inland or from Vancouver Island, the growers may have come in the night before and camped out, waiting for the building to open.
Some buyers arrive at 5:30 a.m. to be recorded onto computer and to look over the produce.
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At the same time, growers use a bingo machine to draw the starting roles for selling. This determines who gets first shot at the customers.
At 6 a.m. the auction starts. It takes three to four hours, depending on how the selling progresses. Tuesdays and Thursdays are usually the busiest.
After the sale is over, it takes only about 40 minutes for all the flowers to be distributed. By 11:30 a.m., the auction is done. By about 2 p.m. the wholesalers have cleared out.
