20 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
WHO SHOULD RECEIVE WHOLESALE 
TRADE LISTS? 
By A. C. Hanson, Sales Manager, The Hawks Nursery Co., 
Wauwatosa, Wis. 
W HILE it is not considered good form these days 
to be allied with or in sympathy with trusts 
or trust methods, yet, when one notes some 
of the deficiencies in the nursery business as conducted 
to-day, it would seem that at sometime or other it was a 
case of u big business” forming trusts or going under be¬ 
cause of ruinous competition. 
In order to show what a live Association can do, I was 
talking a short time ago with a very wealthy Milwaukee 
man, heavily interested in lumber. He said their pro¬ 
tective methods for the retail lumber dealer were so 
strong that the mill owners and stock holders could not 
buy their lumber at wholesale for private uses, hut were 
supposed to buy and did buy at retail from the dealer in 
the locality in which they resided. How many acquain¬ 
tances have you able to buy at wholesale, clothing, gro¬ 
ceries, lumber, hardware, meats,' furniture and other 
things common to every day use? On the other hand, 
it is getting so now that most any one can buy nursery 
stock at wholesale prices. This statement is no idle pipe 
dream. It is founded on absolute facts. The writer 
knows personally of numerous instances within the 
past few years where both small and large quantities of 
stock were offered to the consumer and purchased by 
him at prices as low or lower than standard wholesale 
prices. Many retail nurserymen with whom I have 
talked will bear me out in this assertion. 
The question is gentlemen, where is this going to lead 
to and what the ultimate result? It is a vital issue; one 
of the most important which retail nurserymen are facing- 
today. The time has already passed when mere dis¬ 
cussion will suffice. The time is here and has been for 
sometime when radical and drastic action should be 
taken demanding that proper recognition and protection 
be given the legitimate nursery dealer. 
This sending out Wholesale trade lists promiscuously 
is a cancer in the side of nurserymen that must he re¬ 
moved. Every time a consumer whether he is buying 
a large or small quantity is able to buy at wholesale, he 
and his friends are forever lost to the retail nurseryman. 
It is a known fact that retail nurserymen afford the 
greatest outlet for the stock grown by the wholesaler 
and he realizing this, should work hand in hand with the 
retailer and give him all the protection he can. instead 
of hurting him by sales made in the manner above de¬ 
scribed. 
Any dealer in your town handling a staple article, 
would soon quit a manufacturer or wholesaler, who 
after stocking him up with a line of goods, was to cir¬ 
cularize people in this merchant's neighborhood, offering 
the same stock 30 to 40 per cent, lower in price. The 
present status of the wholesale nurseryman and the re¬ 
tail nurseryman is almost identical. It is not good bus¬ 
iness; neither is it fair. To further illustrate the point, 
I have talked with at least three landscape architects this 
past summer. In talking prices, I was very frankly 
told that they received a price for their landscape de¬ 
sign; a fee for superintending the planting; that they sent 
out lists to different wholesale nurserymen and got bids. 
The man who hid the lowest filled the order; they 
checked out the stock and Mr. Purchaser paid the bill 
direct to the wholesaler and not through the landscape 
architect. What does this mean? It means, the man 
spending $100.00 or $500.00 or more on shrubs and 
trees is getting the lowest possible wholesale rate. 
Again I ask you, is it fair and does anyone in the business 
think it is fair that landscape architects should be given 
wholesale prices when used in a way that cannot help 
hut be disastrous to the retail nurseryman? 
Is there any reason why Municipalities should buy 
their trees and shrubs at wholesale prices? Is it not a 
notorious fact that cities as a rule pay standard prices on 
other things, often paying more than the market price? 
Is it fair for wholesale nurserymen to sell direct to gar¬ 
deners and care-takers of private estates? Is it fair for 
wholesale nurserymen to sell stock to Department stores; 
said department stores offering these goods at cost as a 
bait to come in and buy other things? 
In cities like Chicago and Milwaukee and also cities 
much smaller, we find practically every small florist 
liberally supplied with special discount sheets and sur¬ 
plus lists, who are selling first class shrubs at 12 and 15 
cents, fruit trees from 20 to 25 cents. What show has 
the retailer against these methods? 
Do we find wholesale price-lists and confidentail dis¬ 
count sheets of different lines of big business going 
through the mails in 1 cent letters? Yet, in the spring 
from March to May 1st, the mails are flooded by nursery¬ 
men’s surplus and discount sheets in open envelopes and 
1 cent postage. 
Wisconsin nurserymen have at least begun to see the 
light and have taken a most decided stand as will he seen 
by the following open letter and resolution, which was 
signed and agreed to by practically 95 per cent, of the 
Wisconsin nurserymen. Furthermore, each of these 
nurserymen mailed copies of this letter and resolution 
to all of the wholesale growers with whom they have 
been doing business, making it plain that wholesale nur¬ 
serymen who are known to be careful about mailing 
their wholesale price-lists, would in the future be given 
the preference in placing of all orders. 
I would like to have this discussed through the col¬ 
umns of this paper and would be glad to know what 
others think about the same question. 
