home. As an inducement to contracting for large quantities to be
delivered in weekly or bi-weekly periods, the house-to-house dealer
generally gives some household article, or the like, as a premium to
establish good-will and to retain the trade of his customers.

New impetus was given to the method of selling coffee by mail when the
parcel post system was adopted by the federal government in 1912; and
since then this plan has become an important factor in retail
coffee-merchandising. Generally, the mail-order houses confine their
sales efforts to agricultural districts and small towns, soliciting
trade by catalogs, by circular letters, and by advertisements in local
newspapers, and in magazines which circulate chiefly among dwellers in
rural districts.

The majority of wagon-route distributers depend upon the lure of their
premiums, and on personal calls, to develop and to hold their coffee
trade. The leading wagon-route companies, sometimes called "premium
houses", maintain offices and plants in large cities adjacent to the
territories to which they confine their sales efforts. At strategic
points, they have district agents who engage the wagon men that do the
actual soliciting of orders and that deliver the coffee. All wagon-route
companies handle other products besides coffee, specializing in tea,
spices, extracts, and such household goods as soap, perfumes, and other
toilet requisites that promise a quick sale and frequent re-orders. Some
of their competitors complain that they handle only the more profitable
lines, leaving the independent local grocer to supply the housekeeper
with the items on which the margin of profit is comparatively small.

Wagon-route coffee-retailing began to make itself felt seriously about
the year 1900. At first, the premiums usually consisted of a cup and
saucer with the first order, the customer being led to continue buying
until at least a full set of dishes had been acquired. Later, the range
of premiums was expanded; until today the wagon man offers several
hundred different articles that can be used in the home or for personal
wear or adornment. Practically all the leading wagon-route concerns
favor the advance premium method; that is, a special canvasser induces a
consumer to contract for a large quantity of coffee and other products
in return for receiving the premium at once, though the coffee is
delivered only as the customer wants it, generally two pounds every two
weeks. T