272 



THE bee-kep:peks' review 



profit of 25 per cent., for I will deliver 

 it at 12c for each section. 



He was delighted, enthusiastic, and, 

 after studying the situation carefully, 

 told me he would "owdah two cases." 

 I did not retail goods, and told him so; 

 showed him in my order book the sale 

 I made to a little Pennsylvania Dutch 

 grocer j% where the man, his wife, and 

 a son under twenty did the entire busi- 

 ness of selling and delivering, and that 

 order was for 42 cases; he must order 

 at least 50 cases, or we could not deal. 

 The poor man nearly had a fit. They 

 never bought over two cases at a time; 

 and, what if it did not all sell, but 

 spoiled on their hands? He "pwefah- 

 ed" to phone for one case at a time 

 even at the higher "pwice. " In vain 

 I showed him how it would advertise 

 his store to sell honey at that rate, 

 what a drawing card it would be as a 

 leader, etc. Oh, no; it was out of that 

 cast iron Yankee rut, and so like the 

 wild and wooly West, which would 

 never do for Boston, doncher know. 

 What a blessing it would be to the 

 people of that ancient place, if some 

 wild western firm would start a pro- 

 vision store there, and price goods so 

 they could afford something beside 

 beans. 



Such a market as I found in the coal 

 regions does not exist elsewhere, and 

 isn't large enough to cut much of a 

 figure in this vast problem of how we 

 shall sell our honey to the best advan- 

 tage. 



DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF ESTAB- 

 LISHING A HONEY COMPANY 

 IN A LARGE CITY WHERE 

 COMMISSION MEN 

 HANDLE HONEY. 



The large majority of comb honey is 

 produced without separators, not even- 

 ly graded; and is sent to large commis- 

 sion houses for sale. The commission 

 man must price it low enough to make 



it move. Suppose some honey com- 

 pany should send a drummer into this 

 city (Chicago) with a stock to dispose 

 of that was of the Miles Morton var- 

 iety, having all the improvements cal- 

 culated to tickle the fancy of the groc- 

 er, and should commence to stock up 

 the retail stores at the same price as 

 quoted by the commission houses. If 

 the honey company were a small con- 

 cern, it would create no ripple worth 

 mentioning, but, if large enough to 

 affect sales unfavorably in the com- 

 mission houses, the inevitable result 

 would be — cut the prices low enough 

 to affect sales. The grocer would 

 soon find his neighbor selling at less 

 than his own stock cost him, and he 

 would buy cnly from "hand to mouth" 

 when next you tried him. If the hon- 

 ey company could stay in the game 

 long enough, it would drive the slop 

 honey man out of business, and reap 

 the reward, but where can such a com- 

 pany be even started? Who has the 

 ability and hustle to manage success- 

 fully, such an incongruous lot of "know 

 it all" kickers as the bee men, great 

 and small, have shown themselves to 

 be? 



How did I apportion the expenses? 

 By adding all expenses of every kind, 

 and dividing the sum total by the num- 

 ber of cases sold, on the theory that it 

 cost as much to sell one kind as another. 

 That gave the expense per case. Each 

 member had a memorandum of the 

 number of cases and grades in the lot 

 he contributed to the pool. In settle- 

 ment I made out a statement some- 

 thing like this: — 



Mr. Blank 



10 cases Fancy White («> $3.00 

 10 " No. 1 " @ 2.50 



20 " Fancy Buck, (it 2.50 

 10 " No. l' " @ 2.00 



50 cases, total. 

 Expense, 50 cases @ 32c 



$30.00 

 35.00 

 50.,00 

 20.00 



$125.00 

 16.00 



$109,00 



Chicago, Ills., Feb. 2., 1904 



