MARKETING PEANUTS 49 
During 1923 a cooperative association in Virginia experimented 
with putting up No. 1 shelled Virginia peanuts in lithographed 
cartons holding 1 pound and shipped in cases of 24 cartons. A 
booklet of recipes and instructions for roasting and salting at home 
was inclosed in each carton. They were advertised only slightly 
in a few cities, where they were sold to some extent through grocers 
and 5-and-10-cent stores. It was felt by close observers of the 
situation that with more extensive advertising and distribution, and 
a more reasonable price, the cartons might have moved readily. 
In an experiment carried on in an important southern city a few 
years ago, shelled Spanish peanuts were placed in some 25 of the 
more important grocery stores. The sheller induced the grocers to 
take the peanuts on condition that if they did not sell in 30 days the 
goods would be taken off their hands. For the peanuts sold, the 
grocers agreed to pay a price one-third higher than prevailing carlot 
quotations. Each grocer was furnished with a white porcelain pan 
about 2 inches deep, in which the peanuts were displayed on a promi- 
nent counter in the store. In the pan was placed a white placard 
calling the attention of the customers to the fact that raw peanuts 
could now be purchased in small quantities, shelled and ready for 
use. Printed directions for preparing the nuts were given with each 
sale. As a result of this campaign every store placed repeat orders, 
and the store managers were optimistic over the future for the sale 
of raw Spanish peanuts in small lots. 
It is important that the peanuts be on the shelves of the retailers 
before any large amount of advertising is undertaken, so that they 
will be available to the housekeeper when demand for them is created. 
Two possible methods of packing raw peanuts for the retail trade 
have been mentioned more often than any others. The lithographed 
cartons, already tried out in a limited way for No. 1 Virginia pea- 
nuts, are also suitable, in 1 and 2-pound sizes for both jumbo and 
fancy peanuts in the shell and for extra large shelled Virginias, and 
for No. 1 shelled Spanish. The lithographed labels might bear the 
name of one shipper or a group of shippers. The cartons could be 
packed at the mills, and shipped in solid cars or in small quantities 
in cars of sacked peanuts. In the consuming markets they would 
be sold through wholesalers and chain stores by the grocery trade. 
It has been suggested that many people, accustomed to buying an 
occasional small bag of roasted peanuts from a street vender, would 
welcome the opportunity of buying a pound or two of jumbos in 
the shell and roasting the peanuts themselves. 
Another plan that has been suggested is for the shipper to include 
2-pound paper sacks with each order, 60 with 120-pound bags of 
shelled peanuts and 45 to 55 with bags of peanuts in the shell, de- 
pending on the weight of the nuts. These sacks should bear neat 
lithographed labels. They could be filled with peanuts either by 
the city jobber or wholesale grocer, or by the retailer. A circular 
giving brief descriptions of how to prepare raw peanuts could be 
given with each order or might be supplied free by the shipper upon 
receipt of a lithographed label taken from one of his cartons or bags. 
At first, peanuts would need to be given special display in the 
retailer's store like any other new article, to bring them to the at- 
tention of the shopper. The old merchandizing axiom, " Goods 
75379°— 26f i 
