4 BULLETIN 136£, "U". S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
evenly distributed among the members of the trade, there seems to 
be little dissatisfaction within the trade itself, and scant oppor- 
tunity for manipulation. The buyers, being stockholders in the 
auction company, patronize it as far as possible and therefore their 
sales are usually well attended and the bidding is distributed among 
a large number. Irrespective of the type of organization, any 
honestly and equitably conducted agency which tends to bring the 
buying power of the market together and to stimulate active and 
unrestricted bidding, would seem to exert a stabilizing influence in 
the market and therefore, in the last analysis, to be a benefit to both 
buyers and sellers. 
Many of the trade auctions have been reorganized since 1915 and 
the stock holdings have been more widely distributed among the 
buyers and receivers. In some cases these auctions are organized 
on a basis which in a sense may be considered as cooperative, in that 
a discount is allowed to all stockholders, amounting to a fraction of 
1 per cent of the gross value of their purchases or sales, payable at 
stated intervals. 
POSITION OF AUCTIONS IN CHANNELS OF DISTRIBUTION 
The agencies and channels of distribution for fruits and vegetables 
are shown in Figure 2. It- will be observed that in a general way 
the distributing agencies shown in this chart may be classified into 
four main groups, according to their functions : 
1. The shippers or country assemblers, who either purchase the 
goods at shipping points or act as agents of the producer or buyer 
in assembling, conditioning, and forwarding the products to market. 
2. Those dealers who receive the products in car-lot quantities 
in the terminal markets and break them up into smaller units for 
distribution. They may be the owners of the products or the agents 
of the owner or the shipper. 
3. Those dealers who purchase their supplies in less-than-carload 
lots and sell them to the retail distributors. 
4. The retailers, who sell to the ultimate consumer. 
In its functions the auction clearly occupies a station between the 
shippers and the retailers, but its actual position in relation to the 
second and third groups is not so readily determined. On the one 
hand, the functions of the auction are identical with those of the 
car-lot wholesaler or the commission merchant ; on the other hand, it 
operates in much the same manner as the jobber and other less-than- 
car-lot wholesalers. It serves both groups, but functions principally 
in distributing among the trade in jobbing quantities car lots placed 
for disposal through the auction. 
Customarily, goods handled by the auctions are received from the 
salaried representatives of large shipping organizations or from the 
auction receivers and are sold to the buyers of less-than-car-lot units 
for further wholesale distribution, although in some instances com- 
modities sold by the auction companies are received by them direct 
from the shippers or country assemblers. Moreover, considerable 
quantities of goods are auctioned direct to the retail distributors 
without going through the hands of the jobbers or less-than-car-lot 
wholesalers. 
