Dec, 1929] 



ROADSIDE MARKETING 



Table II. — Average sales at each stand 

 (207 stands for which total estimated sales were obtained) 



GENERAL RESUME OF FIGURES 



Estimates for total sales per stand for the summer, or year, of 1926, 

 more or less compared for accuracy's sake with current conditions 

 during the survey period in 1927 were obtained at 207 places of busi- 

 ness. The average sales were $1878. An attempt was made to classify 

 these places according to the most obvious kind of business in which 

 each was interested and the results are shown in Table II. 



There was no conscious attemjit in the interviews to pick out the 

 stands for any one reason, such as amount of business done, or size 

 of house, except that no place selling appreciable ciuantities of fanii 

 jiroducc was purposely omitted. All farm products markets suggested 

 by the county agents as well as others discovered and interviewed dur- 

 ing the summer travels are included in this group. There were 55 in 

 all, but only 50 at which such j^roducts constituted a major enterprise. 

 The five selling relatively less important amounts were classified under 

 other headings. For the whole state there were only 77 locations re- 

 corded in Figure 2 that sold any home-grown products at all and some 

 of those were of insignificant size and were not interviewed. On the 

 other hand there are represented in the 88 merchandising stands less 

 than one-fourth of those in the state. The significance then of Table 

 II is in showing the average sales for all stands surveyed and the ap- 

 parent predominance in size of business for the first group, raising 

 farm j^roducts, as expressed in average sales of $3144. The next high- 

 est group is the one called "Tea room, gift shop" with an average of 

 $2367, while the merchandising group comprising 88 locations is third 

 with average sales of $1554. There are also many lots of corn and 

 green beans and tomatoes sold beside the road that escape special no- 

 tice because of their very temporary nature, and these sell insignificant 

 amounts, in most cases from one or two dollars worth to ten or twenty 

 perhaps. 



