You have some delicious jellies, jams, canned fruits and vegetables that you wish to sell and you do not know just how to go about it. There are at your disposal several means of selling:
1. Through advertising.
2. Through personal letters to desirable shops, delicatessens, boarding-houses, colleges, etc.
3. By direct salesmanship; that is, by making personal visits to the buyers, either homes or stores.
4. Through jobbers to whom you pay a commission on all sales.
5. Through coöperative selling.
Perhaps the cheapest and easiest way for you to handle your problem is to employ the method so much used to-day and that is wayside advertising. Wayside advertising costs practically nothing and yet it pays.
Autos are everywhere these days. You cannot take a country ride without seeing many signboards at the farm entrances advertising chickens, fresh eggs, vegetables, honey, apples and canned goods. I have a friend who drives 50 miles every fall for her honey. She first found it by seeing the sign in front of the farm and now she returns year after year because she thinks no other honey is just like it. She would never have discovered it if that farm woman had not been clever enough to think of advertising her goods in this cheap way. My friend told all her other "auto" friends, so the country woman has a splendid outlet for her product now. If you live on a good road that is patronized at all by autoists you ought to get your signboard up at once.
We often pass a farm where the sign "Fresh Home-Made Candy" always tempts us to stop and buy. What autoist could resist that sign? And here miles from town this clever woman is carrying on a profitable side trade, which is netting her a nice little yearly income. Her candy is good; we go often and so do many others. She has turned her profession into a paying proposition. She could send her candy away by parcel post or by some other means, but she would not be so far ahead as she is now.
In addition to your wayside advertising you could advertise in papers, magazines, etc. Many producers believe strongly in advertising in daily and weekly papers. You can quickly find out whether this kind of advertising pays. Give it a trial at least. After you have spent ten or fifteen dollars in advertising you ought to know whether it pays.
Use one or two of the city papers near you, taking the publisher's advice as to the best day of the week on which to run the advertisement, the size and the position of the "ad." The first cost of getting your customers may seem high, but with good products you could soon build up a list of people to whom sales can be made year after year.
This form of advertising has many advantages. If your advertising copy is clever and you have some novelty to offer, you ought to receive many orders. If orders come, you get the full retail price, the shipping charges are paid by the customer, and cash comes with every order. And it means, if your customers are pleased, that you have permanent customers. The initial cost is great and there is a risk, but remember "it pays to advertise."
There are millions of city women who never can a jar of fruit or put up a single glass of preserves or jelly who will be glad to have you send your goods direct to them by parcel post. But you must get in touch with these women either through wayside advertising, magazine and paper advertising or by direct salesmanship, although very few women have the time for personal calls.
Considerable business can be done by letter writing to stores, restaurants and boarding-houses in distant cities. It may be impossible for you to go personally, in which case letters often bring the desired results. Make your letters business-like and typewrite them. Do not be discouraged if you do not get many replies at first as there are at least fifty per cent who pay no attention to such letters. But this form of advertising usually pays.
Another method followed by many home canners is that of marketing direct to the retail grocers, care being taken, of course, to protect these grocers by not selling to more than one member in a community. One of the great advantages, of this direct salesmanship is that little selling effort is required on your part after the first arrangements have been made. The nearby market plan is greatly to be recommended because you can keep in touch with your selling concern, build up a line of desirable goods and promote its sale by advertising.
Of course you can get more money for your goods if you have time and the opportunity to selldirect tothe consumers. You will of necessity have to sell cheaper to the grocers because they too must make their profit. Marketing direct to the consumer has a special appeal to many people. Where time is available and the community accustomed to purchasing in this manner, this method offers great possibilities. The profits are of course higher but the results more uncertain, for it is somewhat difficult to gauge the demands of the public, and the canner must assume the risk ordinarily taken by the merchant.
It takes time and patience to develop a list of customers but if you have time in the winter to do this you will find it will pay you well. If you can get customers who are willing to pay good prices for quality, scrupulous cleanliness and the homemade flavor, you will get a larger gross return than if you sold through merchants, but if your time is valuable it would scarcely pay you to take individual orders and deliver goods.
There is still another way and that is to market your home-canned products in large lots to jobbers, but if this plan is to be pursued successfully there must be a reasonably large pack and wholesale rates. This method produces more uniform profits year by year, for after a reputation is established the home-canner would not experience great difficulty in thus disposing of her entire output by contract, providing the quality was high and the price demands not excessive.
But the greatest and best way of all to find a profitable market for your things is to coöperate with other canners in your own neighborhood and find a market for quantity as well as quality. Delicatessens, club houses, tea shops, college dormitories, restaurants and hotels, all pay good prices for fine quality. No big buyer will bother to purchase one or two dozen of this or that. He wants dozens of things. One of the very best profitable ways to sell with little trouble is through quantities. Get all the women in your community to bring together cans of fruit and preserves, etc., to some marketing place. Find out how many jars of currant jelly you have, how many cans of peas and corn, how many of cherries, etc., and then notify your buyer or prospective buyer.
Coöperative selling has been undertaken and found profitable. In some cases, especially in localities frequented by the summer boarder or the automobile tourist, sales are made direct to customers who come to the salesrooms of the organizations or to their special sales; in other cases goods are sent by parcel post and other means. The women in the community can hire or beg a room where all the women of the community can sell their products for individual profit. This room should be located on the direct automobile road in order to attract tourists and automobile parties. An annual membership fee of from 50 cents to $1 generally is required for these organizations, and a charge of from 10 to 15 per cent of the selling price usually is made to cover the cost of selling. In a few instances the managing board has been able to secure an efficient person to take charge of the enterprise for a specified percentage on the sales.
Wholesale grocery concerns are interested in big things—orders can be placed with them. Soda fountains in towns and cities are excellent customers for the freshest eggs they can get. They are encroaching more and more on the trade of the restaurants and lunch rooms. Many serve light luncheons and would be interested in good butter, preserves and jams. When you get a list of names and addresses write to several dozen places, tell what your organization has in the way of guaranteed eggs, homemade products and what kind of service you could offer in the way of regular shipments. When orders come it is an easy matter to look up at your local bank the responsibility of any customer, so there is little risk. Or cash can be insisted upon with every order, although large concerns prefer to pay after receipt of goods and bill.
Each woman in this coöperative organization must keep her goods up to a certain standard, for an inferior lot of goods sent to a large firm might ruin a reputation.
Three things govern the sale of canned products—appearances, quality and price. So many things enter into consideration of prices obtainable that it is difficult to set a standard which will be applicable to different sections. The quality of the pack, its neatness, the method of marketing and many other matters must be considered in deciding this all-important point. As a general proposition, however, if the products are uniformly high grade, prices may be obtained which are somewhat in excess of factory-made products marketed in the same manner.
Like any other new industry, the selling should be developed slowly in order to minimize the possibility of loss and to assure stable business. One should study the situation carefully both from the manufacturing and marketing standpoints. Plan the season's campaign before taking up the work, and do not let the enthusiasm of the beginner interfere with good business judgment.
The selling when rightly managed can be made a successful business or it can be turned into a liability through careless, unbusinesslike methods and insufficient or unwise planning. Properly handled it will pay well for the investment of time and money, and offer opportunity for the disposal of surplus home-canned, home-grown, homemade and home-prepared products of all kinds.
LIVING UP TO CONTRACTS
Care must be taken not to contract for more than can be delivered. This would be bad business, and business principles must govern in selling home products just as in other enterprises if one is to be increasingly successful from year to year.
Occasionally a quantity of fruit which will not meet the rigid requirements of the canning business can be turned into preserves, jellies or fruit juices. Preserves and jellies should be marketed in glass, and fruit juices in bottles, although some manufacturers are now marketing some of these products in fiber cups. This line of products will require some additional equipment, but there is a steady demand for such homemade things and many women are deriving profits through the sale of their tastily prepared jellies, just as pickles and condiments have lined the pocketbooks of ambitious housewives before now.
Home canning for the market is essentially a matter of specializing and of giving the consumer a better product than he is accustomed to purchase. Too much emphasis cannot be placed upon the maintenance of a high standard for home-canned goods. Care should be taken that every jar measures up to a rigid standard, for a single one which falls below grade will neutralize the reputation and standing obtained by the sale of a dozen jars of perfect product. A quality is necessary which will warrant a money-back guarantee on every jar.
THE USE OF LABELS IN CANNING
Labels for both tin cans and glass jars should tell the truth as to the quality, weight and kind of product within the pack. Before adopting a trade-mark and label, consult the Bureau of Chemistry, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., as to label requirements for canned goods prepared for the market.
It pays to show samples of all your canned goods at county and state fairs. You may win many premiums. Goods which are canned with preservatives should be debarred from all exhibits.
PACKING GLASS FOR SHIPPING
Wrap each glass or jar separately in rumpled newspapers or excelsior and pack in barrels or boxes. Line these containers with papers or excelsior.
Strong corrugated parcel post boxes can be obtained for this purpose. Wrap each jar with excelsior or paper before putting it in its proper section. If sending large amounts send all boxes or all barrels, do not mix them,—sending half barrels and half boxes—as large concerns like uniform packages.
PACKING TIN FOR SHIPPING
Two dozen cans is the regulation shipping case. Have the shipping boxes of uniform size. Put the two dozen cans in the box and nail on the top. Be exceedingly careful not to drive nails into the cans. On both ends of the box paste labels such as are on the cans, telling what the contents of the box are.
Address the box carefully using marking ink or a regulation tag. If a tag, tack with small tacks on the top of the box. Write your own name and address on the tagdistinctlyas the sender. Be as careful of the tacks as you were of the nails. Always get a receipt from your express agent if shipping by express as this will be necessary in case of non-receipt of goods.
Send to the concern or individual to whom you are sending the goods a list of the things you have sent. This is called an invoice. Keep a copy of the invoice for yourself so if any question arises you will know what you are talking about.
SHIPPING TERMS
C.O.D. means collect on delivery. The purchaser pays the price of the products to the transportation company before they are delivered.
F.O.B. means free on board. For instance: if you send a shipment of canned goods to Chicago at $6.00 per case f.o.b. Charles City it means that you deliver the canned goods to the freight depot at Charles City and the purchaser pays both the price per case and the freight. If you deliver them f.o.b. Chicago it means you deliver them to the freight depot at Charles City and also pay the freight to Chicago.
Bill of Lading with Sight Draft Attached is a call for the money before the purchaser can take the products from the freight office.
Drop Shipment. If a wholesale firm requests that you ship direct to another firm buying from him, thus avoiding two shipments, this is called a drop shipment.
Lot Shipment. If you ship two or more barrels or cases as a "lot shipment" to the same destination they may be sent at a cheaper rate than if each were shipped separately.