The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1907-07-11
IHE.-PUBuC.
TRICKS OF THE TRAVELLING RE-
TAIL GROCERY AGENTS.
GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR
The Price May Be Small, But the
Goods Are Expensive Even at
That and Net Big
Profits.

You may know something about the
modus operandi of the travelling gro
Ger, and how the house after paying
him 20 per cent commission still
makes a princely profit. There may
be some things, inside affairs that it is
well that the people in general may
know. 1t will be found on close inves-
tigation that the average Mercantile
Supply company, Buyers association
or whatever name is used to gull the
unsuspecting farmer, consists of one
or two schemers, who have small
office room in some large city, and a
back room in the near neighborhood
re-packing and the mixing done. The
re-packing and the mixing are two
important parts of the work of the
company" When the representa-
tive" sells John Jones 100 pounds of
sugar for $3.50; fve cases of canned
goods at $2.40 case; three boxes OF
dried fruits at ten cents a pound,
few gallons Of extract at a bargain
and ten or Is pounds of spices at a
profit of 200 per cent, the order Is
sent to the home Office" There it is
recorded. The boy is sent down to the
wholesale grocery house which gen.
orally stands in with the concern,
brings back a lot Of ordinary bulk
dried fruits, the cases of seconds or
thirds, in canned goods, and the ave-
rage run of poor spices. In the pack
ing room the dried fruits are over
hauled, washed up if possible as in
the case of prunes, and packed in
boxes, supposed to contain full 25
pounds, but only run from IS to %;
branded with some fictitious mark
and shipped out with the other sup
plies. The spices are dumped out,
and again run through a mill with a
lot of ground nut-shells, bark or other
matter, and perhaps some bran or
other cheap material is added. The
extracts are of the cheapest class,
synthetic, and the pure fruit f1avors
are products of coal-tar, dOCtored up
with coloring matter to look good.
The label is the only pure thing about
it aside from the glass in the bottle
containing it.
In fact, the tricks of the boX-car
outfits are legion. The teas sold are
never up to the samples shown. In
one case a schemer travelled over the
country carrying with him samples of
Ceylon teas that were worth As cents
a pound wholesale. He agreed to sup
ply this tea at so cents. He received
large orders. Every order was filed
with teas that cost only 20 cents a
pound, and the funny thing about it
was that there was no kicking, be-
cause the farmers knew nothing
about teas, and were satisfied as Ions
as they thought that they had a fine
Ceylon article. The same way with
coffees. If there is anything that even
coffee experts know little about it is
coffee 1t is a wise merchant who
knows the classes of cOffees he is
handling. The box-car man generally
shows up cheap big-berry, tells all
about it being a great mountain Mocha
and sells three pounds for a dollar,
and buys it at 16 or II cents a pound.
Should the local grocer try to sell the
same grade to his customers at such
price, there would go up roar that
would raise the roof of the store. Still
the farmer continues to bite at such
bats, and doesn't squeal.