Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1917-06-11
ENTER THE MIDDLEMAN

For several years the wife Of a Grand Forks county
farmer has been selling butter to private customers IN
Grand Forks. She not only made the butter with her
own hands, but she delivered it in person. The butter
was excellent, and, while she always expected the full
market price for it, her customers were glad to pay that
price. for the article was Of the highest quality and the
service was regular and dependable.
Recently this lady notified her customers that she
would not be able to supply them longer. She was not
going out Of the butter business, but she was going to
discontinue delivery to private customers. She explained
that with the quantity Of milk obtained from her large
hands, she found the work Of making family deliveries
more than she could handle. She had arranged. accord
ingly, to sell all of her butter to a local grocer who would
look after the retailing himself.
We hear a great deal about the elimination Of the
middleman and the Inauguration of a system which would
provide for direct dealing between producer and consum-
err. Here was such a case. The producer sold dlrect 10
the consumer. The prices obtained were perfectly saas-
factory, and of the price which the consumer paid the
producer received every cent. There was no commission
or rake-o to anyone. And yet that relationship has been
discontinued at the instance of the producer. BY her
voluntary act she will receive a lower price for her pro
duct than II she had continued to market it herself. the
grocer cannot charge more than the ordinary market
price, and that price Is what the consumer has been pay
ing, and was willing to pay. But unless the grocer re-
ceives a higher price than he pays he will have nothing
with which to pay rent and taxes. inside help. delivery
charges, to say nothing of making provision for the sup
port of his own family.
The situation, then. is that the producer will receive
a lower price than she could have obtained, and that this
difference will be retained by the grocer. In this case
the consumer is not especially interested because the
price to the consumer is not changed. The producer Will
receive less money. This is horrible, we may be told
Pity the poor producer? Down with the middleman:
But the new situation is created by the voluntary act OF
the producer. There has been no compulsion. She wal
at liberty to obtain a relatively high price from the con-
sumner, or a lower price from the middleman. For rea'
sons satisfactory to herself she prefers the latter. sht
finds the middleman q convenience to her. BY deliver
ing her goods in bulk to him she can save herself many
hours in time each week, and much hard labor. She haI
been receiving the difference between the Wholesale ant
: the retail price of her product, but she has been working
too hard for it. She has made her own deliveries and he
own collections. She has kept her own accounts: ant
possibly she has sustained an occasional loss.
In other words, she has been conducting q retail
I business in addition to her manufacturing business. an
E she finds that there is not enough money in it to pay TO
] her labor. Hence she withdraws from that branch Q
n the business. leaving the retailing to a man who makes
: specially Of that line Of work.