116 MASS, EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 169. 



Jobber. 



The jobber is an intermediary between the commission man or car-lot 

 wholesaler and the retailer. He usually buj^s from the former in less than 

 carload lots — from 50 to 100 bags — and sells to retailers or other jobbers. 

 His aim is to make quick sales, even on a relatively small margin, his profits 

 coming through the rapid turnover of his capital. The jobber's cost of 

 doing business is much the same as that of the car-lot wholesaler. It 

 includes rent, help and interest on investment. 



For the rapid and effective handling of extremely perishable produce 

 his service could hardly be dispensed with, but in the distribution of onions 

 that are properly graded and sliipped the functions of the jobber are being 

 assumed more and more by the car-lot wholesaler. 



Retailer. 



The retailer is last in the chain of distributors. Occasionally he pur- 

 chases directly from the producer, but usually from the car-lot wholesaler 

 or jobber. In the early fall large retailers frequently purchase a consider- 

 able quantity of onions so as to escape the advance in price which comes 

 as soon as onions begin to be shipped out of storage. This accounts, in 

 part, for the heavy shipments during October and November and the light 

 shipments during December. 



The various retailing agencies are the general store, the corner grocery, 

 the iDublic market and the street peddler. The retailers, as a rule, sell in 

 small quantities by the pound, quart or peck. Of course in the early fall 

 larger quantities are sold to institutions, asylums and other large con- 

 sumers. The retailer must add at least 20 to 30 per cent, to the price he 

 pays to cover his expenses and allow for a small margin of profit. As a rule, 

 his prices vary very little during the season. In the early fall he may get 

 his trade "educated," as he calls it, by filling a window with onions and 

 using them as a leader for a week, selling them at a very reasonable price. 

 In the fall of 1915, for example, a large Boston retailer sold onions at 4 

 cents a pound, 3 pounds for 10 cents, or 35 cents a peck. Later, the price 

 was 5 cents a pound, 6 pounds for a quarter, or 50 cents a peck. Another 

 retailer, running onions as a leader, sold them the first week at 5 pounds for 

 10 cents. Such sales advertise the onions and serve an excellent purpose 

 in that they introduce another season's product to the public. 



It should be noticed that wholesale prices do not group themselves at a 

 certain definite level for the season, but differ even on the same day, 

 within the same State. This is due to the sensitiveness of wholesale prices 

 to such factors as quahty, grade, length of storage, shrinkage, middleman 

 expenses and cost of transportation. 



In marked contrast to this is the retail price of onions which varies very 

 little during the season, although it is well known that the wholesale cost 

 is not the same; hence, the retailer often appears to be getting too large 

 a share of the consumer's dollar. The fact that in the same city on the 



