The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1907-11-02
DO you KNOW YOUR GRocERs

6A0NeEs the eOlIoE OF " oman ) nome
Companion. makes this comment in the
November number:
There are a few of the intimate
details Of his business life which your
obliging grocer does not wish you to
know. And that is why he sends a
solicitor TO your kitchen door every
morning. why he assures you that
your children viii be served as honestly
and promptly as yourself. and why he
| is highly elated when you put in
/ telephone and join his list Of telephone
customers.
The telephone and the order clerk
/ or solicitor have probably done more
to kill the hoasewifely instinct in wo-
men and further the ends of careless
or INSCRIPTIONS grocers than any other
labor saving household institutions Of
/ the century. Even the most competent
OF housekeepers can always md one
thing more to do at home-and when
the solicitor takes such a friendly in
| terest in her needs and what her fam
lily likes. or the telephone can be used
without changing from the house frock
to street suit. she is very apt to drop
the habit of marketing. New York
grocer established one year in a new
and prosperous residence district thus
summed up his trade:
We must make special appeal for
the telephone and solicited trade, be
cause our store and staff of clerks is
not large enough to accommodate Gus
toners If they called every day to
market Two thirds of our trading Is
secured either by telephone or by So
letting. and the women never come TO
the store except when they happen to
be passing on some other errand or
when there is some mistake in the bill.
Yet 1T takes half our clerks to wait on
the remaining one-third of the trade
women who come here every day, and
who waste our time picking over goods,
changing their minds, waiting for
change deciding between this brand
and that
Then you do not care for the wo-
man who wants to see what she buys
for her family to eat?'
The man had a saving sense of hu-
NOR, and replied:
~ can't say that we really care for
her-but I don't mind adding that we
respect her."
In an appeal for more sanitary con-
ditions in grocery stores. the editor of
Woman's Home Companion cites this
incident in the November number:
I'm a lovely little hamlet near Pitts
field Mass. are two grocery stores be
tween which there is little or no choice
as to attractiveness The writer waited
in one of those stores on a summer
afternoon until called for by a farmer
landlord. During a two-hour wait not
single woman entered that store.
Farmers galore drove up to its por-
tails. deposited an order slip with one
of the untidy clerks and then stalked
away on other errands. Perhaps a
plow was to be mended at the black
smith shop. or mail was to be picked up
at the postoff1ce. or an express rack
age was waiting at the depot. Some
times man would hand in an order
with this warning: Ma says she don
want any more Of that there - cot
fee The last was no good at all And
If you're giving away premiums to-
day with any brand of tea. she'd like
to try a pound and get a new vinegar
cruet'
THE farmer landlord then deposited
an order. and hurried away. When he
came back the order had been packed
into a soap box and was ready for
storing in the rear of his spring wagon.
landlords wife proved her to be won
derfully capable housekeeper, who
scrubbed her kitchen floor daily. scolded
the help for splitting a few drops OF
cider apple sauce on the pantry shelf
and personally scalded her milk tins
every day; yet she said she did not
! have time to get acquainted with her
grocer.
Ito be sure, she did not express II
just that way What she did say was
Father does most of the trading.
never go to town except to church
) There's nothing to see at the stores il
-"
In the November number, Woman''
Home Companion gives these impress
sive figures in it's campaign for clear
grocery stores:
There are eighty-four million PEG
pie in the United States. For theil
} food twelve billion dollars are spent
annually This does not include wha'
, farmers raise and serve on their owr
, tables.
"Eighty-four million stomachs ar,
a to be fed this year at a cost Of lively,
, billion dollars. Allowing as a very
small average that half the marketing
viii be done by mail. telephone Of
through solicitors and children, forty
| two million people Will be fed by wo
l men who do not know nor do not tr,
to know their grocers; and six billion
/ dollars worth of food Will be bough
without the supervision of the woman
r who knows her grocer. This food dis
Z tributed by grocers. clean and uncleau
, includes nearly 5000 600 tons Of sugar
!, S34.667.20S pounds of coffee, $4,000, OO
pounds of prunes, 17,854.76S bushels o
rice. $4,000 600 barrels of -four and 81,
100000 pounds of tea.
"AT of these commodities must b
handled by various clerks and deliver.
men before they pass from the grocer
store to your pantry. BY far the large
t proportion will be handled in the bulk
r taken from bins. bags. and cases
e weighed on scales. and poured into pa
per bags for delivery at your door