MARKETING OF BUTTER 421 



to take care of its regular trade during the time of shortage 

 of fresh butter, by offering- it cold storage goods in the place of 

 fresh butter. 



The large centralized creameries obviously have the ad- 

 vantage in disposing of their output direct to the retailer. Their 

 output is large enough, so that they can afford to establish distri- 

 buting offices in the large markets. Through these distributing 

 offices they are able to reach the retailer in distant consuming 

 centers in a similar way as in the local and home markets. These 

 distributing offices also serve as a channel through which the 

 trend of the market may be accurately followed, and through 

 which that class of trade may be located that has the greatest 

 demand for the quality of butter the creamery produces. 



Selling butter to the wholesale produce trade. The dis- 

 tribution of vast quantities of the butter made, is taken care 

 of by an organization of middlemen intermediary between the 

 shipper and the city retail stores. This organization is known 

 as the wholesale trade. The wholesale produce trade occupies an 

 important position in supplying the shipper with a market for his 

 product and in regulating the quantity and quality of the 

 supply of the retail store, in reducing the cost of transporta- 

 tion by making possible shipments in large units, in maintaining 

 the necessary business relations with the retail stores for or 

 in the place of the shipper, and in making possible prompt pay- 

 ments so as to enable the shipper to pay the farmer for his 

 cream without delay. In other words, the wholesale produce trade 

 performs that function which the shippej the creamery with- 

 out branch offices in the distant city markets, is unable to ac- 

 complish. It acts as a clearing house for the shipper and re- 

 tailer alike. Its proximity to the distributing channels enables 

 it to feel the pulse of the market in its and other cities and to 

 regulate the influx and movement of the various grades of but- 

 ter and other commodities on the market. 



The organization of the wholesale produce trade is established 

 in all cities of appreciable size. According to Weld, 1 "a city is 

 large enough to require a separate wholesale trade organization 

 when it can handle goods in car lots for consumption in the city 



1 Weld, The Marketing of Farm Products, p. 67, 1916, 



