Dec, 1929] 



ROADSIDE MARKETING 



15 



side business gets larger it tends to 

 absorb more of the family's atten- 

 tion and to limit tlu> income from 

 other sourrcs. 



THE FARM PRODUCE 

 MARKETS 



Table VIII gives considerable de- 

 tail relating to the 55 stands out of 

 the 103, each of which sold home- 

 grown farm i)roduce. The records 

 are arranged in groups depending 

 on the size of business as measurecl 

 by total sales. There is evidence 

 in this distribution of more diffi- 

 culty to be ex})erienced in getting 

 into the larger groups. There hap- 

 pen to be five in the $10,000 class 

 and only four in the less than the 

 $500 class; but there is a tendency 

 for more records to fall in the low- 

 er half of the table than the upper, 

 indicating, as would be expected, 

 that it is easier to develop a mar- 

 ket selling from $500 to $3000 than 

 one selling from that amount to 

 $10,000 worth or more. In the 

 range from $1 to $5000 there are 47 

 records while the greater range 

 from $5000 to $10,000 and over 

 comprises only 8. In the percent- 

 age distribution, we note that the 

 proportion of the family receipts 

 derived from these sales is high 

 with the larger businesses and tends 

 to decrease rather consistently as the groups decline in total sales. In 

 other words, those families that have sales of $4000 or better from 

 their roadside markets, are disposed to get a small amount of income 

 from other sources. As a matter of fact there were only four families 

 which got their entire receipts from the stand and eight others that 

 got as much as 85 percent. Nine of these twelve were in the upper 

 three groups. 



Total sales for this whole group of 55 averaged $3154 for each place. 

 Of this amount 31.1 per cent was made up of farm products raised, 

 29.7 per cent of gasoline and oil, 15.3 per cent of merchandised food 

 materials, 10.9 per cent of home iireparcd food, 7.8 per cent of farm 

 products purchased, 3.5 per cent of miscellaneous and only 1.7 per cent 

 of over-night accommodations. Farm products raised and purchased 

 made up, then, 38.9 per cent and with the addition of home cooking re- 

 presented just about half of total sales, or 49.8 per cent. There seems to 



Map shoiving the location of 77 

 places where iarm produce is sold at 

 the roadside. The solid circles in- 

 dicate that farm products represent 

 at least 33 per cent of total sales. 

 The rings suggest that farm pro- 

 ducts are a less important propor- 

 tion of total sales. 



