SELF-SERVING IN RETAILING EOOD PRODUCTS. 37 
tomers apparently are not willing to buy such articles from the sam- 
ples. They wish to see the actual contents of the package and will 
usually break tied packages open before purchasing them. This 
causes waste and also prevents the use of the products for attractive 
displays. 
Fruits and vegetables may be divided into groups, according to the 
methods of handling that seem most satisfactory. Among those that 
can be most satisfactorily sold under self-service are oranges, lemons, 
and grapefruit, cantaloupes, bananas, cabbage, eggplants, cucumbers, 
peppers, and certain types of apples. Lettuce and cauliflower also 
are dealt in successfully by some self-service establishments, but they 
are more easily injured by handling than the other products named. 
Most of these products are usually exposed in bulk and sold by count, 
but a few, such as cabbage, cauliflower, and bananas, might be sold 
by weight, while peppers might be sold by the small basket. 
In the case of certain products, display in baskets is practically a 
necessity because of the smallness of the units or because the products 
are too perishable to stand bulk display and picking over. In this 
group may be included lima beans, either shelled or in pods, green 
peas, string beans, Brussels sprouts, tomatoes, peaches, pears, plums, 
cherries, grapes, berries, and cranberries. Of course, when the small 
fruits which may be eaten without preparation are displayed, the 
temptation to petty pilfering is considerable. For this reason some 
self -serve stores do not deal in such products, confining their basket 
trade to vegetables, the larger fruits, and to such small fruits as 
cranberries, which require cooking. The placing of berries, cherries, 
etc., near the cashier's desk probably would reduce the pilfering of 
such products. At least one manager of a self-service store has 
solved this problem satisfactory to himself by placing baskets of 
small fruits in his glass-door refrigerators. He finds that customers 
will not open the doors to pilfer. 
Where berries and other small products are displayed in pint or 
quart boxes, the containers may 'be sold with the fruit, the whole 
package being slipped into a paper bag by the wrapper. In the case 
of many of the products mentioned as best displayed in baskets, 
however, especially in the case of baskets containing more than a 
quart, the contents usually are poured into bags by the wrapper, the 
baskets being retained for repeated use by the store. 
A third group, practically confined to vegetables, may be described 
as semibulky products usually bunched. In this group are green 
onions, young beets and carrots, oyster plants, radishes, asparagus, 
rhubarb, celery, and sweet corn. Most of these products can be sold 
satisfactorily under self-service when exposed in bins or on tables. 
Sweet corn probably can be sold less satisfactorily under self-service 
than any other of the products in this group. Customers usually 
