e United States, about
seventy-five percent was ground ready for brewing.

The larger wholesale houses generally confine their operations to the
section of the country in which they are located, but some of the
biggest coffee-packing firms seek national distribution. In both cases,
branch houses are usually established at strategic points to facilitate
the serving of retail customers with freshly roasted coffee at all
times.

In recent years, too, it has become a general practise for the home
offices, or main headquarters, to advertise their product in magazines,
newspapers, street cars, and by mail and on billboards; while the
branches solicit trade in their territories by means of traveling
salesmen, local newspaper advertisements, booklets, circulars, and
demonstrations at food shows.

_The Wholesale Salesman_

The traveling salesman is probably the most effective agency in securing
the retailer's orders for coffee. A good coffee salesman not only sells
coffee, but he teaches his customer how he can best build up and hold
his coffee trade. He acquaints the retailer with all the talking points
about the coffee he handles, how to feature it in store displays and
advertisements, how to stage demonstrations and to work up special
sales.

If he is a _good_ salesman, he does not permit the merchant to buy more
coffee than he can dispose of while it is still fresh. And he shows the
dealer the folly of handling too many brands of package coffees. If he
sells coffee in bulk, the efficient salesman has also a sound working
knowledge of blending principles, and is able to suggest the kinds of
coffee to blend to suit the particular requirements of each grocer's
trade. In short, he takes an intelligent interest in his customer's
business, and co-operates with him in building up a local coffee trade.

_Some Coffee Costs Analyzed_

In estimating the price at which he must sell his coffee to make a fair
profit, the wholesale coffee merchant has many items of expense to
consider. To the cost of the green coffee he must add: the cost of
transportation to his plant; the loss in shrinkage in roasting, which
ranges from fifteen to twenty percent; packaging costs, if he is a
packer; the items of expense in doing business, such as wages and
salaries, advertising, buying and selling, freight, express, warehouse
and cartage, postage and office supplies, telephone and telegraph,
credit and collection; and the fixed overhead charg