584 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



September, 1922 



nir"T[ 



1. 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



SELLING IN THE HOME MARKET 



Folly of Asking 80 to 120 per cent Above Whole- 

 sale Price When Selling Locally 



If I buy a couple of tons of hay in the 

 home market of my neighbor within hauling 

 distance, 1 expect him to sell it within 

 10% of his price for a whole stack. So do 

 you. If he sells me a whole hog, I get it 

 for about the same money the butcher would 

 pay. We deal direct, for cash, at bulk 

 prices. No lost motion, no transportation 

 charges and no risk. What is wrong about 

 thatV And if the butcher takes half a dozen 

 hogs the same day we load out a carload for 

 Kansas Gity, he pays no more. 



But if we honey producers sell 5 and 10 

 pound pails of honey to local retailers, 

 many of us ask them 80% to 120% above 

 the wholesale price. (See Gleanings, May, 

 1922, p. 281.) I take it the wholesale price 

 of extracted honey is for honey in 5-gallon 

 cans, two to the case, f. o. b. local railroad 

 station. 



It certainly does not cost more than two 

 cents a pound extra in 5-pound pails un- 

 cased. I believe, if we ask local dealers 

 more than about three cents per pound over 

 the wholesale price, we are stupid business 

 men. 



If the wholesale price for extracted honey 



is 10 cents per pound, this nets 8 cents for 

 the lioney alone. Small containers, two and 

 a half pounds and up, cost from three cents 

 a pound down. Eight and three are 11. I 

 have no respect for the mental quality of 

 those who quote wholesale the price as 10 

 cents and charge local dealers more than 

 60 to 65 cents for 5-pound pails. 1 sell 

 at 60. The dealers can sell at 75 and make 

 25 per cent. I can sell at the same price at 

 home. 



And if any think the local store price to 

 customers should equal that of honey sold 

 first by the carload, hauled a couple of thou- 

 sand miles, rehandled and repacked and 

 finally shipped back by local freight, I think 

 that such belong in Bedlam. 



Laplata, N. M. Harrison H. Brown. 



[The quotations on large lots by produc- 

 ers, on our market page, to which Mr. 

 Brown refers, are understood to mean the 

 price when the entire crop is sold in one lot 

 or in carload lots, and not the wholesale 

 price. The beekeeper in splitting up his crop 

 to sell to local dealers should charge more 

 than when his entire crop is sold in one lot, 

 to cover the extra, cost of selling in this way. 

 When all the selling costs are counted, a 

 case of two 60-lb. cans would have to be sold 

 for two or three cents per pound more than 

 the carload lot price in order to break even. 

 —Editor.! 



If every honey i)i'oiliucr \v< 

 crop of the country wiuild \< 



uld omjiloy two lioys like these to sell honey in the local market, the honey 

 • siilii in sliiiit order. The boys are selling and delivering for Mrs. J. L. Irwin, 

 Montpelier, Indiana. 



