WHOLESALE DISTBIBUTIOlSr OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES. 21 



jobbers, retailers, and consumers and enable some produce to pass 

 directly from the grower to the consumer. As a rule they are not 

 highly important factors in the distribution of perishables arriving 

 in car lots from distant production areas. During late years more 

 and more attention has been directed toward extending the useful- 

 ness of this form of distribution. 1 



DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS. 



The foregoing discussions indicate in a general way the great com- 

 plexity which attends the distribution of food products. The im- 

 pression may have been left, however, that all perishables pass 

 through each of the steps in distribution which have been noted. 

 This is not the case, as various factors decide what channels each 

 shipment is to take. A complete discussion of the various means 

 by which produce is collected, concentrated at market centers, and 

 finally distributed to consumers is impracticable in a publication of 

 this kind. Perhaps the subject can be made more clear by graphic 

 representation of the more common steps in distribution. 



In figure 2 the interlocking circles are intended to show the inti- 

 mate relationship existing between certain of the agencies interested 

 in distribution. Thus the grower may operate individually or he 

 may combine with his neighbors and all do business collectively or 

 through a cooperative organization. On the other hand, one firm 

 often performs the functions of the car-lot wholesaler, the commis- 

 sion merchant, and the jobber, and the business details overlap in 

 such a way that it is difficult to dissociate the three lines of business. 

 In a single diagram of this kind it is impossible to indicate all the 

 possibilities. Attention has been confined, therefore, to primary dis- 

 tributing channels. 



An attempt has been made to emphasize the routes through which 

 the great bulk of traffic passes. Perishables do not and can not 

 pass through the hands of all the distributing agencies which are 

 indicated. As a matter of fact, usually only a few agencies are 

 instrumental in handling the contents of any given car. The con- 

 tent- of two fins coming to a large market on the same day may pass 

 into consumption through very different channels. Thus one car 

 may be consigned to ;i commission merchant, who divides the car 

 among a large number of jobbers and retailers, while the other car 

 may be purchased by a buyer for a car-lot wholesaler, who sells to 

 the jobbing and retail trade. In either case the retailer is the inter- 

 mediary with whom the consumer comes in contact. 



'ii cu i"H <>( Mil- place and needs of city markets, see "Retail Public Markets," 

 by <:. v. Branch, Yearbook r. s. Dept. of Agriculture, 1014, pp. 167-184. (v. B. Sepa 

 rate 636.) 



