RETAIL MERCHANDISING OF ROASTED COFFEE Page 7

Premiums for Retailers

House-to-house dealers are the largest users of premiums among coffee distributers. Most of them operate under what is known as the advance-premium method.

The plan followed by house-to-house dealers until about 1910 was to issue checks redeemable in premiums after a certain amount of tea, coffee, or other products had been purchased. This practise has not been entirely abandoned; but in most instances, the premium is now handed to the consumer in advance of the initial purchase, in consideration of the buyer's promise to use a stipulated quantity of tea, coffee, or other merchandise. The driver of the wagon generally carries a portfolio illustrating numerous premium items redeemable through the purchase of varying amounts of merchandise.

Many retail coffee stores also employ premiums, using both the old-style and "advance" methods. This type of store, however, is being supplanted by the chain grocery store.

Some independent retail grocers use premiums to a limited extent. These usually carry a small line of premiums, featuring a piece of kitchenware, or other inexpensive item, with bulk coffee.

It is significant that one of the largest chain-store organizations in the United States—the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company—uses few premiums today, although its business was founded on the premium idea.

An Americanized English Grocer's Shop

Ernest Carter's store at St. Albans, England, operated under the name of Thomas Oakley & Co., has a distinctly American atmosphere, accounted for by the fact that the fittings were supplied by an American manufacturer, the Walker Bin Co., of Penn Yan, N.Y. The tea and coffee department is shown in the foreground. The coffee is roasted in the window

Trading stamps, which are sold to grocers and other merchants by firms making a specialty of this form of premium-giving are little used nowadays. The average retail grocer is antagonistic to trading stamps, as a result of the methods of certain unscrupulous stamp-dealers. Legislation against trading stamps is in effect in many states.

SOME PACKAGE COFFEES THAT ADVERTISING HAS MADE FAMOUS