Marketing 201 



should cooperate in refusing to accept unfair prices. The 

 advantages of f .o.b. sales far outweigh the disadvantages. 

 Sales f .o.b. destination, with privilege of inspection, are 

 seldom practicable with strawberries; the fruit is so 

 perishable that if the car is rejected there is little oppor- 

 tunity for the shipper to handle it to advantage. 



COOPEBATIVE MARKETING 



Cooperation is more widely practiced and has been 

 more successful in marketing strawberries than any other 

 fruit except the orange. Most of the shipping associa- 

 tions are in the South and West ; north of the Delaware- 

 Maryland peninsula, there is little cooperative effort and 

 less necessity for it, since most of the fruit goes to near or 

 personal markets. Most of the early attempts at co- 

 operation, between 1870 and 1885, failed because there 

 was little or no effort to secure a uniform pack. Coopera- 

 tive effort is not likely to succeed as long as most of the 

 growers in a community are receiving profitable returns 

 from sales made individually. Cooperation is born of 

 dissatisfaction with existing conditions, and usually of 

 dire necessity. 



Types of selling associations. 



There are two types of selling associations. In one, 

 the fruit of each member is kept separate from that of 

 all others, although several lots may be shipped in the 

 same car ; his returns depend on the quality of his fruit 

 and pack. In the other, all the berries of the same variety 

 and grade grown by different members are pooled and 

 sold under the brand of the association, and the returns 

 are pro-rated to the grower according to the number of 



