IMPROVED MARKETING 137 



to obtain it via Manchester, thus saving at least one 

 intermediate profit. The same principle has been ap- 

 plied to other parts of the United Kingdom as well. 

 Except in regard to the very best qualities of asparagus, 

 and one or two other articles, the great desire of the 

 Evesham traders was to keep off the London markets, 

 which were already receiving such prodigious quantities 

 from other sources of supply, and especially from the 

 market-gardens in the Metropolitan suburbs. ' If we 

 had to depend on London,' I was told, ' we should soon 

 be in the workhouse.' 



In reorganizing the business on this footing, the 

 Evesham traders were greatly aided by the knowledge 

 they obtained of local markets, as the outcome of 

 frequent journeys ; but they were aided still more by 

 the telephone, the use of which has alike widened the 

 area of distribution and increased the prices realized 

 by something like 25 per cent. A very large propor- 

 tion, indeed, of Evesham's vegetable and fruit business 

 is now done over the telephone. A dealer ' rings up ' 

 one town after another in England, Wales, or Scotland 

 I have heard of one instance in which a list of forty 

 calls was gone through and transactions involving 

 important deals are settled straight off. One trader 

 told me how, seated in his office in Evesham, he had 

 disposed, over the telephone, of 200 tons of plums to 

 a jam-maker in Scotland in less than three minutes. 

 There are some large traders in Evesham who consign 

 exclusively to ' order,' per telephone or otherwise, and 

 no longer send to salesmen, except on such order. 

 But, in any case, the use of the telephone enables 

 grower or trader to get into direct touch with a great 

 range of local markets, and in this way the whole 

 trading conditions at Evesham have been placed on 

 a better footing than was formerly the case. 



