The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1910-11-18
SELLING APPLES BY MAIL
An Eastern orohardist Has Built Up Direct
to-Customer Business

Because OF their keeping qualities
and their popularity Nh. Hale Of New
England, says the Saturday Evening
Post, is setting in operation a new plan
of marketing his apples. With a more
perishable fruit, or one not in constant
and universal demand, the idea would
not be practical. Nearness to large
markets is also an element in the sue
cess Of the plan.
i hold the way for an eastern grower
to sell his apples is direct to the con-
sumer," says Mr.. Hale. This is es-
peciaIly true of the finest and second
best grade Of apples. But the man
who thinks he can build up direct-to-
consumer business in apples on any
other basis than that Of the most rigid
grading is going to get left. There's
where a lot of shifty growers are going
to fall down. Otherwise the plan is
safe and sound and will carry.
Once you sell a man a barrel Of
prime New England apples, honestly
graded and packed from top to bottom,
you have made him a life customer so
long as he is able to buy apples and SO
long as you send him apples up to the
grade he orders.
People are funny about apples. The
city man likes to pass the apples to his
friends and say: Those are the real
thing! l get EN- straight from the or
chard-every year from the same man.
He doesn't go into the market-just
sells to private customers who want the
best. The whole barelful is like those.
Then, between bites, the friend asks
for the name and address OF the orchard
man, and the man who gets his apples
straight from the orchard is as hattered
as if you had praised his favorite brand
OF cigars.
This is the way the business pushes
itself. The grower who wishes to build
up mail-order trade direct with con-
sumers will put few neatly-printed
circulars telling about his apples and
his orchard into every box or barrel he
sends out. On each bit of apple liter
ature will be a red line suggesting the
circulars are for the convenience of the
buyer, to be handed to his friends who
may wish to know where the apples
were grown. This will held the busi-
ness to push itself.
Again, there are many high-class
publications in which the grower, reach
ing out after direct mail-order busi-
ness. may profitably advertise. These
are the lines along which am organ
izing my own apple business, which is
Just coming on in a large commercial
way.
Il do not anticipate much difficulty
on the score of losses from shipments
to unreliable customers. The dragnet
of credit information in these days is
extensive and thorough in its sweep.
This makes fair basis to begin with.
OF course there will be some losses at
the start; but they will quickly teach
any wide-awake grower the tricks that
will be put up against him and how to
circumvent them. His greatest danger
lies right in himself. II he is too care
less or too shifty to grade his apples
according to a rigid standard his mail
order business is doomed.
my own apples for the direct-to-
consumer trade are sorted into three
grades, each grade with its distinctive
color label. The purpose Of this color
scheme is to emphasize the difference
in the grades, to impress every person
who sees a package with the fact red
label, for instance, means the choicest
fruit grown in the orchard; white label
means a good fruit, but not extremely
fancy; the blue label means serviceable
fruit at a low price; every label means
all the fruit in the package is as good
as the top layer.