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"Changing help, inexperienced help, uninterested help, low priced help" have been 

 the reasons given for the small amount of progress. "Men have not made a career 

 of a fruit and vegetable counter." 



There is one produce counter where I got to know 'Talter and then Bobby - bcth 

 good boys. They are given responsibility in the store. They try to treat the 

 customers right. Bobby and 'i^alter are all right. Then it occurred to me that 1 

 knew Bobby . It was the ones I didn't know who vrere at fault. Then I realized 

 how human and unjustified that attitude vvas. 



The problem from the vieiA-point of produce counter men, sounds like this: 



"The fruit grovrer sends all kinds of fruit, some ripe, some bruised, some 

 scabby, some good, all in the sane kind of b'^x. Often the boxes are second hand. 

 Sometimes they are thin, cheap boxes that hardly hold together. Apples are not 

 packed, just d^jmped. The apples are put up as if the grow-r did not think -nuch 

 of the fruit himself - and then he crabs us because we don't handle the apples like 

 eggs. The grower does net hardle the apples v;ell, v^hy should we? Custcmers get the 

 same idea, tool" Some growers have the idea that as long as the consumers do not 

 see or handle the packaf^-e,"'.'"! they need in a box is to get the apples to the store 

 and that's all - it is a gift package. Grov/ers pack for the vvholesale buyer. 



One day waiter got some apples in a carton. They looked good to him. They 

 were not bruised. They were really packaged. The grower thought enough of the 

 apples to take good care of them. Y/alter built up a display at the end of a g'^ndola 

 - fastened a new piece of cellophane on the top of one carton and placed it on its 

 side so that the customers c^uld see the good apples - each one in its ovvn cell - 

 clean, unbruised - really something choice. The sign read "3 lbs. for 29;J." He 

 said, "Those apples are really moving, customers like them." The men on the 

 produce counter are human beings. They react to cheap packaging, good packaging, 

 poor quality and good quality, the same as anyone else. 



Then came a series of articles in trade papers about packaging - new designs, 

 attractive colors - in lines v/here the customers did not see the package. The 

 attractive package was just for the clerk behind the counter i It vias working. 

 More goods were being sold - better care - the clerks knew the lines better - 

 more sales. Packaging for the »lerks on the counter is a paying preposition. 

 7/hy not for apples? 



Apple grovrers could use attractive packages - do better packing in y/holesal^ 

 package - for the clerks, and attack the weakest spot in the distribution chain . 

 The more I thought about it - compared costs, compared prices - the less excuse 

 there was for good apples in a crate, particularly good apples in the same kind 

 of a crate that carried the poor apples. 



Therefore, I pass the thought on to you: - Use a carton , label it and put 

 instructions on it for th e clerk on the produce counter. Package for the produce 

 counter cl-rk . Tackle the vjeakest spot in the apple distribution v.-ith a pacicage 

 and instruction? designed for him. Dress up the apples instead of crabbing the 

 clerk. Put only poor apples in the crates where poor apples are at home. 



Treat the man on the produce counter as a human being, give him good apples, 

 packed right, in an attractive package, and the man who has been blamed for poor 

 conditioB may turn out to be one of the best friends the apple grower has . Just a 

 human appi^ach to a difficult problem, - but who isn't human? 



— Frederick E. Cole 



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