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KaBloom sets its sights on the Moses Miracle |
BROOKLINE, USA, July 23, 2010: KaBloom, a chain of retail flower shops across the USA and an online florist, is having high hopes for an innovation called the Moses Miracle. KaBloom’s founder David Hartstein sees the Moses Miracle as a potential game changer in the flower industry - an inexpensive way to keep a perishable commodity hydrated and fresh, even when it's shipped across the country.
At first glance, it looks like a glorified water balloon that has been tightly cinched around a bouquet’s stems. And that’s pretty much what it is. “It’s exquisitely simple,’’ said a Simmons College associate professor, Edward T. Vieira Jr., who recently invited Hartstein to speak to his marketing students.
Though the Moses Miracle seems basic, it took much trial and error over several years to perfect the product and win a patent for it. The goal was a leak-proof balloon that could be quickly and cheaply slipped onto a bouquet’s stems. When Hartstein first brought his idea to a packaging specialist in his native Israel, the specialist doubted the idea’s logistical feasibility. Alluding to a biblical passage in which Moses miraculously drew water from a rock, he told Hartstein, “If you could do this, it would be a Moses miracle.’’
Thomas Whalen was skeptical. He is an accounting instructor at Suffolk University’s Sawyer Business School in Boston, where Hartstein is an executive in residence. When Hartstein told him about the Moses Miracle, Whalen said he thought it was “pie in the sky.’’ So he put it to the test. “I’ve shaken it,’’ he said. “I’ve held it upside down, and I’ve thrown it onto the floor of the car. It doesn’t leak — that’s the amazing thing.’’
Accoriding to Hartstein the Moses Miracle has another plus. By sealing bunches of fresh-cut flowers, KaBloom can sell flowers in low overhead kiosks that don’t need extensive plumbing or multiple buckets of water.
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