Gatekeepers

The bag you buy was decided long before you walked in — by fees, incentives, and distribution, not by what's actually good.

When a trophy is really an invoice, the winner isn't the flower — it's the marketing budget.

The grower and the shopkeeper get the credit, but the invisible middle layer — the distributor — quietly decides which flower ever reaches your jar.

The friendly "you'll love this" at the counter is sometimes a paid placement — here's the mechanism, and how to route around it.