THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



271 



keeper knows the process) but the sur- 

 prise to me came good and plenty, 

 when that merchant pulled his coat, 

 got another sponge, and went at the 

 work with a vim, and with good 

 judgement, too. "Ah! Mr. Blank," I 

 said, "it is plain to see how you built 

 up your big trade. You know your 

 business from the ground up." 



That evening I took the train for 

 home with a check for the full amount 

 of the bill, and left a good friend as 

 well as a good customer, in the person 

 of that high-tempered old chap — the 

 terror of drummers. But that episode 

 resulted in our getting out big lettered 

 stickers covering the whole top of a 

 case, which read: "This side up. 

 With care. Don't handle on two- 

 wheeled trucks," — that helped the 

 breakage problem, in a measure. 



A FEW SUGGESTIONS. 



I tried to make my customers see 

 that our interests were mutual, that 

 whatever helped to make honey sell 

 easily, that increased its consumption 

 and popularity, whether by increased 

 attractiveness or tempting price, was 

 to the advantage of both. Any infor- 

 mation about the best place to keep 

 stock, the whys and wherefores of our 

 being able to produce honey that look- 

 ed so much more tempting than others, 

 and any other information asked for 

 was cheerfully given. I had the same 

 price for the small corner-grocer, who 

 wanted only one case, that I quoted to 

 the largest dealers who bought fifty 

 or more cases. As we paid the freight, 

 I sent all the small orders to one man, 

 and paid him to deliver to his neigh- 

 bors, saving book-work, way-bills and 

 freight charges. I persuaded custom- 

 ers to order their entire season's stock 

 at one time, as we would not ship in 

 cold weather, and honey stored right- 

 ly would keep a year, I, at the same 

 time, showing them where and how to 

 keep it. 



THE INFLUENCE OF LOCALITY IN 

 SELLING HONEY. 



Now, Mr. Editor, the locality, like 

 everything else connected with the bee 

 business, must be studied to make the 

 foregoing intelligible. Here were 

 twenty or more towns and cities, en- 

 tirely outside of honey producing 

 flora, deriving their living from coal 

 and iron. There were no wholesale 

 commission houses where the mer- 

 chant could "phone for a case of honey 

 at anytime." Just how serious this 

 obstacle is, I found out by a trip to 

 Massachusetts one fall. We had a big 

 crop, New England a failure, and 

 quotations were away up in Eastern 

 cities, so I took a little voyage of dis- 

 covery. First snag I encountered was 

 a fake firm furnishing quotations to 

 the bee papers, quoting their market 

 as "very active," and two cents per 

 pound higher than they were offering 

 honey for, openly. A letter from us to 

 the journals explaining the situation, 

 closed them out of the "honey quota- 

 tions" columns. 



THE CONSERVATISM OF BOSTON. 



My experience with a large grocery 

 firm in Boston is a type of Yankee 

 business methods, so I will describe 

 it. The store was very large, clean 

 and neat, and, at a guess, I would 

 say there were fifty clerks. Some hon- 

 ^y was displayed, marked "only 25c 

 each." I called for the buyer, who 

 was at once at my service — polite as 

 possible. He complimented me on my 

 honey, and the way it was packed, and 

 agreed with me that it was a great ad- 

 vantage to the retailer. Then came 

 the price. I asked him if he thought 

 my fancy white brand would sell as 

 well as the stock he had marked "only 

 25c each." "Ohl fah bettah, " he 

 said. (No 'r' in the language of the 

 Hub.) Then, said I, how would it 

 sell if you marked it iSc each, instead 

 of 25c? You can do it and make a net 



