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other pickers and damage to crops and plants. 



And so, the second suggestion offered is - 



2. Provide customers with a really "good" product (includ- 

 ing related services) -a product that will please them. 



The third suggestion is - 



3. Price realistically and with conviction . This means 

 a "fair" price - not too high and not too low - and 

 don't be timid about it. No matter how low prices might 

 be set, some customers would surely complain that they 

 are too high. Unfortunately, that is the nature of some 

 customers. But if, in fact, your prices are fair there 

 is no reason to feel apologetic or to "pussy foot" about 

 them. Quite the opposite; customers are more likely 



to feel assured that prices are reasonable when sales 

 personnel are quite positive and forthright in talking 

 about them. 



To do a good job of setting prices, a grower must know 

 his costs well, to know what price is necessary. Doing 

 so has become difficult in recent years, with herky- jerky 

 but generally rapid changes in operating costs. As a 

 result, a grower must work his records harder than ever 

 before to be certain of maintaining a financially healthy 

 position . 



It is also important to keep abreast of market conditions 

 to have a sense for prices elsewhere in the market and, therefore, 

 what customers will consider to be a reasonable price. Probably 

 the most important prices to stay in touch with are those at the 

 wholesale market and at supermarkets in your area. Many growers 

 object to the suggestion of using supermarket prices as at least 

 part of the basis for setting their own. However, it is a super- 

 market that is the principal competitor for most growers who are 

 retailing, and because of frequent visits there, it is supermarket 

 prices that most shoppers are likely to be familiar with. Further- 

 more, using supermarket prices as a pricing guide does not necessar- 

 ily mean following them exactly. 



Special mention should be made of the problem of pricing for 

 a "bumper crop". As background, a very brief lesson in the 

 economics of demand and supply would be helpful. For most agri- 

 cultural products, a relatively small change in the quantity avail- 

 able in the markets results in a relatively large change in market 

 prices. That is, a 10 percent decrease in the supply of a 

 particular commodity would result in a price increase of more than 

 10 percent, and vice-versa. In the jargon of economics, that 

 condition is referred to as a relatively inelastic demand . The 



