advertising value. Food-show
demonstrations require more elaborate equipment, consisting of a
decorated booth, educational booklets, posters, and exhibits of
different kinds of coffee, both green and roasted, whole bean and
ground. Generally, coffee packers co-operate with retail demonstrators
by supplying gratis the coffee to be brewed, if the names of their
brands are suitably displayed. They supply also posters, signs, samples,
and booklets for free distribution.

Window displays form one of the best means of advertising at the command
of the average grocer, and one of the least expensive. A popular coffee
display consists of a series of educational "windows," starting with
green beans in the bags in which they are shipped from the growing
country. Generally the bags, mats, or bundles are obtained from the
wholesale house, and are filled almost to the top with some inexpensive
stuffing, the green coffee being spread over the top to give the
appearance of a full bag. Pictures showing how the coffee is grown,
harvested, prepared, and shipped, are frequently used in such a display.
The next exhibit consists of whole roasted coffee spread thickly over
the window floor to create the impression of bulk, accompanied by a few
pans of green coffee by way of contrast, and with pictures showing
scenes in coffee roasting plants. A barrel, lined with blue paper, and
lying on its side with roasted coffee beans spilling out, serves as a
centerpiece for such a display. Following this, comes a coffee package
window, accompanied by pictures showing how coffee is roasted, ground,
and packed. This completes the series; but there are many variations
that have proved successful as trade builders.

[Illustration: EDUCATIONAL WINDOW EXHIBIT

This window won first prize for the western district in the $2,000
window-trimming contest of National Coffee Week in 1920. Action was
furnished by a small electric pump, which kept a steady stream of coffee
flowing from a coffee pot into the coffee cup]

_Meeting Competition_

Since the advent of the wagon-route distributer and the chain store, the
independent retail grocer has been faced with the problem of how to
regain at least a fair measure of the coffee trade he has lost. The
grocer is not only concerned about his profits on coffee sales, but on
other goods as well; for a trade investigation has shown that a large
percentage of the regular customers of the retailer are held to the
store b