The San Francisco call., 1896-01-11
Commission Men Agree Not to
Sell Single Packages to
Rouseholders.
THE RETAILERS DEMANDED IT.
Formal Agreement Signed Yesterday.
Another Good Argument for
Free Market.
Hereafter, if the agreement lust made be-

Hereafter, if the agreement Just made be-
tween the commission men and the retail
ers be lasting, San Francisco families will
be denied the privilege of going down on
the street" and buying box of apples
or oranges, or perhaps bunch of bananas
or a sack of nuts.
The agreement has only just been per-
fected, and it remains to be seen whether
1t will be binding on all the parties con-
cerned. These are, on the one hand, the
wholesale fruit and produce dealers OF San
Francisco, and on the other hand the re-
tail fruit and produce men.
The agreement is between the Retailers
Protective Association or Union as body
and the fifty or more commission houses
as individuals. The initiative was taken
by the Retailers Association, which sought
to enter into a solemn compact with the
Commission Merchants Protective Asso-
citation as a body. But the constitution
and bylaws of the latter body prevented
any interference with the individual busi-
ness methods of its members, which made
it necessary for the retailers to canvass the
situation from house to house and secure
the separate signature of each firm.
There was some difficulty in securing all
the signatures, but yesterday the last
name was secured, that of Allison & Co.,
and when CALL man started out to buy a
single box of apples yesterday most of the
big downtown houses refused the sale. 1t
is still an open qneation, however, whether
the agreement will hold good for any
length of time.
1t Will certainly work hardship on both
the wholesaler and the families that have
been in the habit of buying their fruit in
boxes from the commiSsion-houseS
ha
planned that their trade was being injured
by the fact that commission-hOuses were
selling fruit and produce to individual
persons in single-paCkage lots and usually
at the same rate as that charged the re-
taller Tor several packages. And finally,
when the Commission Merchants Pro-
tective Association was formed last Octo-
Der and regulations against the credit sys-
TEN were formulated, the retailers set about
their task of Strengthening out this pro-
miscuouS selling tangle.
Some of the commission houses were in
the habit of delivering single packages in
their respective neigh borhoOds in the
evening when the downtown stores had
closed. 1t was this fact more than any
thing which hurt the retail trade, for it
depends most largely upon the smaller
sales in less than package lots.
Some OF the commission men held out
long time before consenting to sign the
agreement. The firm of Allison e. Co. was
one of these. Mr.. Allison had know ledge
of the fact that some of the retailers had
been receiving COnsignmentS from the
country, and he refused to agree not TO
sell to families until the retailers agreed
not to receive co1signments. Finally this
clause was incorporated in the agreement,
and then the Allison firm signed it,
Il suppose the agreements fair enough"
said Mr.. Allison yesterday, 'but [ think it
IS directed more against those few com mis-
sion men who used 10 turn an honest
penny on the side by delivering single
packages in their neighborhoods at night,
than against the few families that like to
come down here and buy their fruit by the
box. l have one or two customers, men OF
influence and means, whom [ don't pro-
pose to refuse when they ask ne to sell
them box of oranges. The mere sale is
nothing to our house, but yet it is some
thing to accommodate a man with whom
you have business dealings perhaps in an
other way. In fact, | hardly think any
body who wants box of oranges very badly
viii find it very difficult to secure one from
the downtown commission men"
Nevertheless, great many houses did
positively decline to sell q single box of
fruit yesterday to one who was not known
as a retailer.
"Of course, it is going to work a hard
ship in the summer time" said Mr.. Lo-
bree, OF the firm of Jacobson & Lcbree, "if
the agreement holds good that long. Take
Saturday afternoon for instance, when we
are loaded down with strawberries that
will not keep till Monday morning. don't
know what we are going to do with them
unless we are permitted to sell them to
families. We will have to throw them
away, suppose"
"All of which is the best argument in
the world for the establishment of free
market" saiu another produce dealer.
That's what is needed in San Francisco,
which is about the only large city in the
United States thet does not have a free
market. With a free market all these per-
picking questions would solve themselves,
and the customers, which means the great
public a large. would be immensely bene-
fitted. In looking at these economic ques-
tions we usually forget the interests of the
consumer, while in fact his interests are
the only interests that are worth consid-
ering or that should be considered in a
republic"