The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-09-11
CIGAR JOBBING INDUSTRY
THIRTY MILLION PIECES OF THE
FINISHED PRODUCT.
The business i'm indianapolis HAS
Grown Amazingly within the
Past Fifteen Years.

An Industry that dispOses OF thirty mil
lion pieces of finished product every year
has grown up in indianapolis In the past
fifteen wears without attracting more than
ordinary attention This is the cigar job
bling industry. Thomas A Afford, or the
A. Kiefer Drug Company, has Deen init
mateIy ESQ tated with this industry for a
number Of ears and is therefore In po-
sition to sneak intelligenty of its growth
and development. Mr.. Afford was in
reminiscent mood yesterday and furnished
many interesting and valuable facts con-
corning the cigar jObbing business OF this
city.
Fifteen years ago." said Mr. Afford,
Indianapolis ranked very low among cities
that did a jobbing business in cigars. At
that time only one or two firms were en-
gagged in the business, and they limited
scale. To-day indianapolis is considered
the best cigar jobbing city of its size in
the entire country. No less than eleven
houses of established reputation are now
engaged in jobbing cigars in this city.
They ship goods all over the States of
Indiana, Ohio Illinois. Michigan and Ken
lucky. y conservative estimate of the
number Of cigars sent out annually by these
houses is thirty millions. In addition.
number of cigar manufacturers do their
own jobbing and. while this is a COM
paratively small scale. it will bring the
total considerably above the thirty million
mark each year"
THE NEW IDEAS.
Mr.. Affords "reminiscences drifted quite
naturally into the subject of the difference
between the way cigar jobblng was con-
Quoted in the old days and at the present
time.
1.-THE cigar business now is an altogether
different proposition" he said from what
II was ten or twelve years ago. AT that
time there were very few advertised brands
their travelling statesmen to interest the
retail dealers in the particular lines of
goods. When the retailer was induced TO
lay in a stock Of a certain kind of cigars
ne proceeded forthwith to populariZe it by
recommending IL 10 his customers.
But that way OF selling goods did not
move them fast enough TO suit the big
manufacturers and jobbers OF cigars; hence
the modern elaborate and costly methods
of advertising came into use. Nowadays
the pedestrian on any Of our city streets
and the traveller by rail or over county
roads is confronted with faring posters
on huge billbOards, on Cead walls, on the
roofs Of farmhOuSeS, on the sides of
bridges. on fences and ON the great front
doors Of barns Better even than this
spectacular form of advertising is the
renting OF large spaces in live newspapers,
which hold the attention longer than any
OF the 'open-air' advertising literature
This Is undoubtedly the era of adver-
Using" continued Mr.. Afford, land there
seems no limit to either the cost or the
variety OF styles of advertisements. Auto
mobiles herald the merits of particular
brands of cigars. patent medicines and
even newspapers as they whizZ past the
lodging pedestrian on the public thor
oughfares. Electric signs of dazzling
splendOr compel the attention of passers-
by at night Store windows are converted
by the genius of modern handicraft and art
into seductive advertising mediums.
Not content with expanding large sums
OF money in these various forms of adyer-
Using. the manufacturers and jobbers go a
step further in their eager desire to sell
fer the retailer free boxes of a certain
brand of cigars in order to expedite the
introduction of the brand; The plain fact
is that a manufacturer that tries to in
troduce new brand without the aid of the
modern methods of advertising is commit
ting commercial suicide. When he. goes
70 retail dealer and asks him to invest
I'm the new brand the latter is sure to re-
ply, Why, there are now on the market
twenty-five or thirty advertised brands
that am bound TO keep in stock for my
customers are constantly calling for them.
and | just have not room for a brand that
IS not known to the trade"
A PROFIT IN 1T.
What becomes of the advertised brands
of cigars?" Mr.. Afford was asked do
they last long?''
Not as a rule" he replied VERY few
OF them score lasting success. Hun
dreds have fallen by the wayslde since
the modern methods came into use But
before they lost their hold on the popular
favor more than enough OF them were sold
to pay for the advertising and net the
manufacturer good profit. in most in
stances. So an argument against advertis-
Ing cannot be derived from the fact that
the articles advertised did not hold out
know Of but single advertised scent
cigar that began its career as far back as
1875 that is what you would term a first
class seller to-day. For the name OF
that brand 1 will have to refer YOU to any
local newspaper
Mr.. Afford said that there are now about
twenty-five well advertised brands of cigars
I'm this market. To dispose of the 80. 900. OOC
cigars that are sent out from this city
each year the services OF nearly one hun
dred travelling statesmen are brought into
requisitiOn. AS these men are all high
salaried individuals. il is not difficult to see
that the cigar jObbing Industry is one of
the most important in Indianapolis. These
figures DO not take into account the sales
men that are employed to canvass the CITY
trade, nor the host of men who actually
handle the cigars and the smaller host that
keeps the accounts of this immense indus
trS. The larger houses that do a cigar
jobbing business are the Daniel Stewart
Drug Company, the Indiana Cigar Com
pany. Louis G.. Deschler Patton Brothers
the A. Kiefer Drug Company. Ward
Brothers Drug Company. Brfnkmeyer
Kuhn q Co. the indianapolis Drug Com
pany, kothe, Wells & Bauer, Schnuil & Co
and NJ. O'COnnOr q Co