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Show I ROADSIDE MARKETING By T. J. Delohery BOYS ARE GOOD SALESMEN ON"T send a boy to do a man's L' ob" may be good advice at times, but numbers of farmers have found that boys can do as good, tf not a better job of selling produce direct to the consumer. Especially is this true of town deliveries, where the youngsters are known in the community com-munity and neighborliness and friendship friend-ship breaks the ice. With the right kind of training tn salesmanship boys become very good merchants. Some of them, when they learn "their vegetables," are on a par even with the best farmer merchants, being more willing to do everything to please and accommodate customers. In some counties roadside marketing market-ing is a part of the Boys and Girls 4H club work, and vocational agriculture teachers who use vegetable and fruit growing as a class room subject are carrying their teaching further by having their students open up roadside road-side and other markets for the produce pro-duce grown. Many of these teachers, in preparation for the marketing work, have studied roadside markets and have obtained college bulletins and other literature, the gist of which they pass on to their pupils. Selling, as a role, is left to the boys showing their adeptness for this work, the others spread the word of their market among customers, thus making customers which older people might fail to interest. Up In Milwaukee county, Wiscon-"sin, Wiscon-"sin, William Hawthorne, who won the state gardening championship in 4H club work and who learned about selling sell-ing to city consumers while carrying on the project, is now on his own with two rented acres for outdoor vegetable vege-table production. During the winter season he keeps his trade supplied with what he grows in the greenhouse green-house he leases. William makes deliveries de-liveries on his bicycle. Mrs. Frank A. Burford of Warren county, Illinois, sells home-made country coun-try butter to 60 families in town. Deliveries De-liveries require a little too much time Boy Salesmen. considering she does her own housework, house-work, so she has hired Margaret Swanson, her granddaughter, to help her. Margaret, who is quite a candy-maker, candy-maker, increases her earnings by selling sell-ing her sweets to the same people. She packs the candy in half-pint paper containers. The children were always running to Harry Kleck for permission to sell magazines, perfume and other things to neighboring farmers. Permission was refused, of course. But when the wholesale price of eggs got down to where Kleck's flock wasn't paying, and he began to "think out loud" to his wife about new markets, the youngsters chorused "let us sell them to people in town." Eggs were different from perfume or magazines. People needed good eggs such as Kleck produced, so he let the kids try their hand. And what a success they made of the Job I Now Kleck sells all of his eggs to consumers, con-sumers, and, Instead of delivering them, the people drive out to his farm outside of Emporia, Kan. He gets a margin over wholesale, too. He paid the youngsters 10 per cent for selling. Robert James had to lease a larger farm because he needed more vegetables vege-tables to keep up with the demand created by two boys who sold his produce pro-duce from house to house. Now he has a crew of ten youngsters ranging from twelve to sixteen years of age, who have pushcart routes of their own making. The routes average 12 blocks, both sides of the street. When J. R. Robbins' house-to-house milk route got too big for him to handle han-dle and supervise his farm work, and yet too small to hire another truck and driver, he turned to boys to deliver de-liver his product. The youngsters not only supplied his customers, but operating op-erating in localities where they lived, soon had 150 people In several Porter county, Indiana, towns buying not only milk but fruit, sausage, vegetables and eggs. Each boy works two to four blocks. "I use paper milk bottles," said Mr. Kobbins. "nence, there are no returns. re-turns. "Our relationship with the boys Is strictly business that is, I'm constantly con-stantly giving them Information on salesmanship to read and I keep close check to see that they don't become involved in their accounts. "My boys are a bright lot and I think they appreciate not only the opportunity of making money but learning something which will help them when they are old enough to shift for themselves. A milk route offers a good chance to study human nature and there Is every Indication that the natural smartness of the boys Is helping educate them along business lines." , 1933, Western Newspaper Union. |