General Tnade Edition 
Dic = DUNG 
There is no soil, however barren and unproductive, that cannot, by well digging and dunging, be made 
fertile and prolific—Adapted from Cervantes’ DON QUIXOTE, Part II, Chapter XII. 
Sales and Service Bulletin 
VOL. 18 
THE 
Most of the older established dahlia 
growers had a complete sell-out this 
year, while those among the newer 
growers who did not have an es- 
tablished trade found themselves with 
a heavy surplus much of which was 
unsaleable late in the season even at 
reduced prices. Naturally this would 
mean that the older growers had only 
their planting stock left and could 
not, therefore, increase their planting 
to any great extent this year while 
the newer growers, with stock to 
dump, would not be likely to increase 
their planting of stock for which they 
had no market; so on the whole I do 
not believe there will be any increase 
in the total acreage of dahlias this 
year and there will probably be less 
likelihood of surpluses than there was 
last year. 
On this basis I do not look for 
much change in prices except possibly 
in some of the better varieties, which 
are more likly to go up rather than 
down. 
Nearly all of the mail order houses 
reported a drop in sales on all lines, 
with dahlias and glads holding up 
fully as well as any line. Retail stores 
were varied, some reporting increased 
sales and others reporting a drop, 
many laying the drop to weather 
conditions rather than any other 
cause. There is apparently no gen- 
eral economic slump, but, of course, 
with more lines of goods available 
than there were during the war, each 
line has to take a smaller share of 
the available purchase money. It 
would, therefore, seem that the ques- 
tion of merchandising and sales effort 
is one of greatest interest to the 
trade at this time. In other words, 
while there are just as many dollars 
available as there were during the 
war there are more places for these 
dollars and consquently each line is 
putting forth its greatest effort in 
attracting these dollars to itself. A 
mere listing of a few varieties of 
WAYLAND, MICHIGAN, U.S.A., SEASON OF 1951 
VOL. 1 
DAHLIA SITUATION THIS YEAR 
any item is not swéficient to draw 
trade for this item. You must il- 
Justrate your product, describe it 
fully and price it so people will want 
it and be ready to buy it. 
In illustrating, I think one large 
cut, say 5 or 6 inches in diameter, is 
worth four single column cuts and 
where possible to use color the pull- 
ing power is still greater. 
Combination offers are another 
feature that always take well. For 
example, two years ago one of our 
larger customers listed one of the 
newer varieties on our recommenda- 
tion. When he added this variety his 
pages had already been laid out and 
it was impossible to add an illustra- 
tion or make any special offers in 
connection with the variety. Sales 
were not up to expectations. How- 
ever, rather than _ discontinue the 
variety it was listed again this last 
year, still without a special illustra- 
tion but at a special price when taken 
in combination with another variety 
which was illustrated. Sales by this 
method were way beyond expectation 
and, in fact, the combination offer 
increased the orders for the illustrated 
variety as well as the one in question. 
Gift Tuber—a plan which we have 
always advocated has proved to be 
most effective in inducing sales. Here 
you offer a new variety, not at a 
special price but absolutely free if 
the customer just buys two or more 
of the regular collections. A strong 
description of the free tuber so people 
really want to obtain it helps a lot 
in selling the regular varieties. This 
plan has been used successfully by 
the Book of the Month Club and now 
I notice one of the large appliance 
manufacturers is adopting this gift 
idea offering as a “dividend” some 
gift gadget where the regular ap- 
pliance is bought. 
Just how far the “cut-rate” idea 
can be applied nowadays is a question. 
Nearly all the TV sets are offered at 
$299.50 or $199.50 or something like 
that. Whether this 50c reduction real- 
ly amounts to anything or not I can- 
not say but it seems to me that an 
even $300 or $200 as the case may be 
would be just as effective at the pres- 
ent time. People don’t think much of 
a half dollar nowadays when = about 
the only thing it will buy is two 
quarters. I think it would be much 
more effective if they would talk up 
the value of the article as_ being a 
third or a half more rather than 
make a very small price cut. 
Right at this point I might call at- 
tention to what I would consider the 
best Pattern for Permanency in any 
line. When I was a kid the safety 
bicycle made its first appearance. 
The Columbia, the Pope-Toledo, the 
Rambler and several other makes of 
bicycles were offered at a price from 
$100 to $150. The demand was good 
and the price left a big profit. As a 
result bicycle factories sprang up all 
over the country. Competition was 
in the matter of price and within a 
year or two the prices had dropped 
more than half. Then the factories 
commenced to bust and in the end 
not one single concern remained as 
an outstanding industrial institution. 
Now comes the other side. Early in 
the century the automobile appeared 
on the scene and I think the Oldsmobiic 
was the first to be advertised. The 
price of this car was $650. As with 
the bicycle there was a very great 
demand, but in this case no oppor- 
tunity for competition in price. Nu- 
merous manufacturers started mak- 
ing .automobiles but each one was 
trying to outdo the others in the 
matter of quality. Instead of prices 
going down to a point which meant 
ruin for the makers, prices went’ up 
in keeping with quality and _ today 
such mighty concerns as Ford, Gen- 
eral Motors, Chrysler, etc., are still 
going strong. 
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