ECONOMICS OF FRUIT MERCHANDISING 
us in the past, having sold our crop at a 
satisfactory price and delivered our ap- 
ples to the buyer, ever gave another 
thought to our customer, or cared a rap 
whether he made a profit or a loss? 
Frequently, too, we ourselves have 
robbed our customer of a profit on his 
purchase by shipping to his competitor 
in his home market other fruit to be 
sold on consignment. It happens time 
and again that we, consciously or uncon- 
sciously, have misrepresented our product 
in making sales, and on other occasions 
have subjected our customers to loss by 
dishonesty in the preparation of our prod- 
uce. In other words, both by active and 
passive means—by what we have done as 
well as what we have left undone—we 
have contributed to the abuses which we 
are prone to lay solely at the door of our 
neighbor, the middleman. The writer 
does not wish to be misunderstood as 
charging the growers, as a class, with 
deliberate dishonesty. On the other hand 
he believes that most of them are just as 
honest as most of the middlemen, but he 
does wish to emphasize that what is 
needed is a system which will protect us 
from our own dishonesty, and which will 
protect the jobber from our dishonesty, 
protect the jobber from his own dishon- 
esty, and protect us from the jobber’s dis- 
honesty. System, education and co-oper- 
ation alone can accomplish these things. 
In the development of this system we 
have been sadly lacking. And in this 
omission we have injured ourselves far 
more than anyone else has injured us. 
The up-to-date manufacturer-merchant 
studies the progress of his merchandise 
all the way from his factory to its ulti- 
mate consumer. He follows it long after 
he has been paid for it by the jobber. 
Right now the Department of Justice at 
Washington is prosecuting a manufac- 
turer of a well-advertised breakfast food 
for making an agreement with retail gro- 
cers under which they were forced to 
take a reasonable profit, and were not 
allowed to cut the price. Hundreds of 
manufacturers in every line of merchan- 
dise are finding that the tendency of the 
trade is not to make an abnormal profit, 
1309 
but, under stress of flerce competition, 
to sell popular brands of merchandise at 
cost or less than cost. Knowing that 
sooner or later this will react upon him- 
self, the manufacturer resorts to every 
lawful means to maintain the selling 
price of his commodity. And the writer 
knows from experience that it is the most 
difficult thing in the world to do. There- 
fore, the matter of exorbitant profits is 
an abuse which is comparatively easy to 
correct, if we but choose to take a hand 
in the game and play it according to the 
well-known rules which are an open book 
to all men of business experience. 
Our “Snecialty Line” 
The first thing we need to do is to 
recognize the perfectly self-evident fact 
that what we are producing is a “specialty 
line” rather than (in the trade sense) a 
staple The high level of our invest- 
ments, the high cost of production, heavy 
overhead expenses, high cost of trans- 
portation, all contribute to the necessity 
of producing an article which can be 
sold at a price at which only the more 
prosperous classes of the people can con- 
sume. The distinguishing features of our 
commodity are superior appearance and 
attractiveness, and its package. These 
are also distinguishing features of nearly 
every manufactured, advertised specialty. 
“White House Coffee,” “Quaker Oats,” 
“Cream of Wheat” are all advertised 
brands—srecialties—of staple bulk com- 
modities. Shorn of the brand value, cre- 
ated by advertising and careful packae- 
ing, and sold in a paper bag, the same 
merchandise would cost the consumer 
about one-half of its actual price. Take 
for example “Cream of Wheat.” The con- 
tents of this package consist of wheat 
farina. Bulk wheat farina is quoted on 
the Portland market today at $3.25 per 
100 pounds wholesale; “Cream of Wheat,” 
$5.50 per case of 36 packages, the net 
weight of which is 1 pound 13 ounces, or 
65 pounds net per case. Sixty-five pounds 
of No. 1 wheat farina in bulk would cost 
$2.11, or 38 per cent of the price charged 
for the packaged, brand-copyrighted, ad- 
vertised article. Cream of Wheat is man- 
ufactured in the East; a local prepara- 
