Dec, 1929] ROADSIDE MARKETING 37 



mittens and dolls; and cooked and canned food. Numerous other 

 hand-made articles are shown such as woodwork, ironwork, embroid- 

 ery, quilting, candle making, etc. All in all it seems an ideally con- 

 ceived and well managed undertaking having an ecomomic basis in 

 providing additional productive work for an isolated community of de- 

 serving people, particularly during the winter months, and the proper 

 setting for a market to place such products before the summer residents 

 and those who travel far in search of unusual gifts during the summer. 



Several people are specializing in home-made candies. One woman 

 in particular has built up a large business with an enviable reputation. 

 She makes only the very best and sells it at a fancy price to custom- 

 ers all over New England and even farther away, who in their annual 

 tours from a distance or more frequent jaunts from neighboring cities 

 and villages call at her door to replenish their stock of delicious con- 

 fections. Great pride in her product and personal attention to every 

 detail in its production have brought recognition of its merit, so that 

 her satisfied customers are indeed her best advertisement. New 

 friends are brought every year to view enthusiastically her spotless 

 kitchen and to feast their eyes on the remarkable exhibit mostly in a 

 variety of chocolate candies coated with the skill of a true artist. 

 Since 1920 in the present location, with only one small sign in her 

 dooryard this lady past middle age has built up a business that might 

 well be the envy of many a younger person. She believes that the 

 only limiting factor in selling annually ten thousand dollars' worth 

 of product lies entirely with her ability to manufacture that amount 

 in the same painstaking way, for she has calls for supplies she cannot 

 possibly fill. Perhaps for this reason she has largely confined her 

 business to roadside sales at the door and only occasionally finds it 

 possible to satisfy an insistent demand by mail at Thanksgiving or 

 Christmas time from summer customers of past experience, whose on- 

 ly guarantee need be that the product was made in this lady's kitchen. 

 And yet, few are the casual visitors at least, who appreciate at all the 

 years of study and experience involved in perfecting this kind of 

 workmanship and in the making of this woman a connoisseur not on- 

 ly in regard to the finished product but also in reference to sources 

 and kinds of raw materials. Such a one, indeed, merits success. 



And so another woman in the "homely" job of cooking has made 

 a reputation and built up a good sized retail business. Supplement- 

 ing the meagre income of her husband she has made an appreciable 

 contribution to the possible standard of living of her family. For 

 some eight years she has been cooking bread, doughnuts, pies, big 

 and little cakes, cookies, etc. While the variety is good, the different 

 products have been considerably standardized so that if one bought 

 cup cakes with chocolate coating last week or last year, the same 

 products are available the day that one wishes them now, and even 

 the chauffeur may be entrusted -with the list to get them. Home- 

 made bread in most homes today is a novelty and a pleasing varia- 

 tion for the summer diet. Temporary summer residents who do little 

 cooking would much prefer to buy home-prepared food at a price 

 commensurate with its extra cost even, so long as it is conscientiously 

 and daintily offered. Home-made jams, jellies, and preserves which 



