The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1878-10-04

About year ago the leading jobbing
house in the grocery trade Of New York
called in all but q very few Of its CONNER
cial travellers or drummcrs. and vcnturod
on the experiment of conducting its business
without the aid Of such agents. 1t was u
step which was attended with some risks
and could not safely have been taken by n
house less potent in capital and established
trade connections, for n great part Of the
business brought to our merchants nova
days comes through their drummers who
scour the country in search of orders, and
eventually build up trade with the hold
ing Of which their personal influence has
much 20 do.
The New York grocers found that by dis
pcnsing with these indcfatigablc agents
they lost some trade but we believe thcy
claim to have so reduced their expenses by
the abandonment of the system Of CONNER
cial travellers as to make their profits fully
as large as they were before. Their wares
having become known to the trade of the
country through long and persistent solicit
ing, they now. for the most part, content
themselves with sending 30 their customers
n weekly price list, from which orders may
be made up and transmitted by mail or tcle-
| graph. They must, however, suffer To some
extent from the cutting down in prices 10y
the agents Of other houses who journey
from town to town and village To village
and use all their wits both to gain and to
retain business.
The growth in the number Of commercial
travellers since the war has been astonish-
| ing. For twenty-five years and moro our
jobbing merchants have been accustomed to
send out travelling statesmen and collectors
though formerly they were mostly dcs-
| patched to the South and West; but there
were comparatively few of them until with
in the last ten or fifteen years Now they
are numbered by the ten thousand, and are
a. familiar In the hotels Of the interior as
the gentlcmanly clerk on the gorgeous bar
tender They constitute very considerable
portion of the travellers by rail, and there
are many hotels in the country which get
their main support from these periodically
returning solicitors Of trade Some ol these
hotels advertise especially for their patron
age and seek otherwise to win it by Offering
reduced terms to them and by furnishing
rooms set apart for the display of their
samples The cost Of one Of these agents to
the employer for travelling expenses alone
II dlOul lbNl W NlN h'llhlH IL NAN hlNl lll' y
are either paid salaries or allowed com
mission on the business they get
Some idea Of the number Of these enter
prislng travellers may be obtained from the
knowledge that their association in this
State for purposes Of life assurance, which
was started in 1872 with 20 members, already
contains about 1900 members probably not
half Of the whole number Of commercial
travellers in New York, and that the city
Of Syracuse alone sends out moro than a
thousand commercial travellers. Tho total
Of the great host who represent the bust
ness houses Of all the cities of the Union
We cannot give but it must be from twenty
to thirty thousand at least.
The extensive employment of these tray
ellcrs has of course worked great change
in tie methods Of trade The orders
from customers nowadays come more IN Il
steady stream than formerly when our job
bng merchants We're overloaded with bust
ness at the beginning Of spring and II
August and the early autumn and remained
comparatively inactive during the rest O
the year 50 far as the country trade was
concerned. Then the dealer from the in
terror from the West and from tho South
made his regular February or March ano
August and September trips TO New York
TO be eagerly welcomed by attentive sales
men; but now tho country trader may
order everything he requires from New Yorl
through the commercial travellers, who rep
resent different hines of business in the city
and who do not omit to visit him with grea
punctuality once a week, once in two weeks
or once a month. II he comes to the metrop
oils, 1t Is his curiosity or desire for chang
which draws him hithcr rather than an,
real business necessity.
, Another development OF the system O
, ! commercial travelling 10 one which has o