MARKETING EASTERN GRAPES. 41 



THE STREET MARKETS. 



The street markets in Benton Harbor and St. Joseph constitute 

 an interesting development in the Berrien County section. These 

 cities are surrounded by many extensive vineyards, though in the main 

 the individual holdings are considerably smaller than in Van Buren 

 County. The size of these holdings, and consequently the large 

 number of growers, probably had an important bearing on the estab- 

 lishment of the type of market at these points, for while in Van 

 Buren County cooperation developed among the growers, in the 

 street markets of Benton and St. Joseph there is found an extreme 

 development of competition among the buyers. 



The street sales form what is practically an auction market, for 

 the farmers sell their output daily by driving to certain crowded 

 street corners in these cities, where they receive bids for their loads. 

 Informal regulations are agreed to; the farmers' wagons form in 

 lines at certain corners, beyond which no buyers pass. The buyers 

 congregate around each wagon as the line moves up and each makes 

 a bid, the highest of which is usually accepted. However, if the 

 grower feels that he can secure larger returns by consigning his 

 shipment by freight or express to some city market he refuses even 

 the highest bid and drives on to the railroad station. With this end 

 in view, many growers address each basket with a rubber stamp to 

 facilitate shipment. 



There is much controversy as to whether the returns from cooper- 

 ative associations or street sales net the greatest profit to the grower, 

 but the observations made by this bureau in 1918 show that only for 

 a short period, when the Champion crop was cleaning up, did the 

 street prices to growers exceed those paid by associations. This was 

 due in part to the better average quality of the associations' stock 

 produced under close inspection and in part by the very nature of 

 the business of the two types of factors, for the local buyers, who 

 dealt on the street -market, had to sell their grapes on a basis fairly 

 comparable with the f. o. b. prices received by the associations them- 

 selves. 



Usually the street prices reflect very closely the daily quotations 

 from the tributary terminal markets, but in a few cases temporary 

 abnormally high or low prices result from the vagaries of supply 

 and demand. For example, on some evenings several buyers have 

 carloads or boatloads nearly completed and bid up stock to high 

 prices in order to secure quantity transportation rates, conversely 

 relatively low levels often prevail because available carriers are 

 completely loaded. 



