ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KBBPEJBS' AStSOCIATION. 



)09 



Mr. Moore— I am intensely inter- 

 ested. I have been selling honey 25 

 years. I tell you it is a false way to 

 sell honey, to sell it in pound pack- 

 ages, absolutely absurd. Here is a 

 thing that sells f6r 10 cents, Uneeda 

 biscuit, a can of corn or peas. That 

 is all right. But when you come to 

 sell honey, that sells to only one- 

 fourth of the people — ^I tell you, there 

 are only 20 in 100 that ever have 

 honey on their tables. Isn't that true, 

 Mr. Burnett? 



Mr. Burnett — I never counted them! 



Mr. Moore — My experience is that 

 not to exceed 20 out of 100^ eat honey 

 on their tables. Tou are putting 

 honey in a ten cent package along- 

 side of a package that is a staple, 

 eaten three times a day. It is all 

 wrong. I sell a 5 pound can and a 9- 

 pound can only, and I won't be both- 

 ered with anything less. That is the 

 answer, why it costs so much to mar- 

 ket your honey, because of the enor- 

 mous labor in selling it. There are 

 hundreds of grocers who will tell you 

 they never have honey on their 

 shelves. They have to put capital 

 into it, and unless they put brains 

 into selling it, it won't sell at all, and 

 other things sell themselves. I con- 

 sider that table (referring to the 

 Crane chart on the wall) misleading 

 in several particulars. I have got 

 quantities of it for a quarter of a cent 

 a pound freight, and the leakage no- 

 body would agree would be 25 per 

 cent; that is, 2 cents, and the cost to 

 produce it is 8 cents, which makes 25 

 per cent leakage. That is not any- 

 where near the fact. I consider you 

 ought to reform this whole question. 

 I think it is the height of abstirdity 

 to undertake to sell a 10 -cent pack- 

 age of honey because the label and 

 the bottle, etc., are altogether aut of 

 proportion to the quantity sold and 

 the value of the goods. 



Mr. Wheeler — ^How are you going to 

 change these wholesale articles? 

 . Mr. Wilcox — ^Would the fact that 

 it is a fancy article or a luxury make 

 a difference? If it were a staple ar- 

 ' tide would it be cheaper? 



Mr. Moore — If you could sell 10 or 

 20 times £ls much. 



Mr. Wiloox — ^For the last two years 

 or over, the price to the farmer Is 20 

 cents for potatoes, but they are sell- 

 ing here for 80 cents to a dollar. 



Why does iiot the same law apply to 

 potatoes that does to honey? That 

 must be a staple, for everybody eats 

 pota,toes. They are selling today for 

 20 cents at the farm station. 



Mr. Hatch — I think Mr. Moore is 

 on the right track. Educate the peo- 

 ple up to take larger packages. I 

 would not stop at less than a 10- 

 pound package. I would not handle 

 anything less than 10' pounds. I 

 would pass them right up. I would 

 not sell anything less than 10 pounds. 

 If they didn't want it. I would tell 

 them it was the smallest package I 

 had. I am going further than that. I 

 am getting to where I won't handle 

 less than a 60'-poimd package. I 

 handle a few pounds around home. I . 

 sold hardly anything but a few 

 pounds around home in less than 60-, 

 pound packages. Mr. Moore is on the 

 right track; and we are working 

 against our own interest when we are, 

 cutting down the size of our pack-^ 

 ages in section honey and liquid honey. 

 We want to go the other way. 



Mr. Wheeler — You have to give peo- 

 ple what they want. If you won't, some 

 one else will. 



Mr. Hatch — I should try to educate 

 them. 



Mr. Bruner— Perhaps that is one of 

 the reasons why there is such a dif- 

 ference between the consumer and- the 

 producer. If we won't do it, some 

 one else will do it, and he wants to 

 be paid for it, that is all. 



Mr. Burnett — That is something 

 that I come in contact with, and I 

 would like to say that Mr. Wheeler 

 has answered it briefly and concisely 

 after his own fashion. But it is very 

 diflBcult in any line of business, so far 

 as my knowledge extends, to draw 

 any hard and fast lines. Tou have 

 got to meet the necessities of the oc- 

 casion. There are people who will 

 buy it in 10-cent quantities who 

 otherwise won't buy it at all, and Mr. 

 Wheeler and others know this. They 

 don't put it up in small packages be- 

 cause they want to do so; but they 

 say: We cannot find a market for it; 

 we will have to put it in this size 

 package to sell it at all. If people 

 really wanted it or had to have it, 

 they would buy it in almost any kind 

 of a package. I know that I have had 

 to do so. Wlien I wanted' a thing I 

 had to take it in the kind of package 



