TA11 HR, ALASKA
Dorothy !!. Roll-Editor
Published once a reok at Primer, Alaska, for the I!; tanuska V- llcy Fanners Cooperating
Association for tho purpose of giving news of the Associations "ork, probloms find
Accomplishments. 1
StTBSCHIFTIQN RATE $1.75 per ’’ear $1.00 for six months 10£ a copy
CO* PS hfcE III SALESMANSHIP ■ SAy^ LtAl Ei<
According to .Roy H. Park, Editor of tho Cooperative Digest, one of. the biggost veat
nesses in the Cooperative system of doing businoss is salesmanship. Ho has this to
say in regard to his recent observations of Co-ops.
"Evcrymherell found that the form co-op leaders are interested in streamlining their
operations t.Q do. a bettor job at less cost. They knor competition is back. ILny of
they say this - is good because it "ill p"t the ballganc back on a field where the co
ops play'best—-getting farm supplies to the farm and farm products to market at the
lowest possible cost. •.
"There is one "eokhesS, howover, in the co-op marketing team. They arc good at get
ting the bases loaded, but then they need more home run battdrs who can rin the game
by getting tho high dollar for tho farm products that arc sold. Regardless of the
type of marketing sorvicos renddred, most of the co-op have not het learned how to
soli in competition with other big firms. They can run rings around the other boys
when it comes to procurement and are good at grading and transportation! But the other
boys have enough heavy slugging saloanon on their team to got a sufficiently larger
amount in the market to make up for inefficiencies in procurement and asscmblying.
wI\ir thorn or o, most marketing co-ops started on the theory that you mould sign up con
trol of the product and then release it through orderly marketing. That principle
just doesn’t hold rith the lav; of‘supply and demand. It has never rorked except in
a for speciality crops such -as citrus and cranberries—and the credit for success
there should go moro to the selling ’’know-how” of men like C«I!, Chaney and Paul Arm
strong, than to control of the crop. To have a monopoly, you must have only a for'
producers and they must have kindred interest. The six million'farmers in America,
rith ridoly different types of products and different interests, just don’t lend them
selves tp a monopolistic set-up,
"I:\ fact,” Hr, P;irk says," rhat re end up rith in many marketing co-ops is the re
sponsibility to sell all the products the farmer nuts through it. This can easily
mean building un large inventories,'or elso a larger supply of perishables on hand
than can be handled at a fair price, A market must be found and that may mean cutting
the ’'rice,"
Hr. Park said that some of the Co-op people rith rhom'he talked frankly admitted that
they had been saving pennies by pinching bn sales cost, and losing dollars by failing
to get the top price in the market places,
ll-'. Porks, in hi3 comments, did not mention the fact that Co-ops have in the past re
lied to a great extent, on the quality of their products to sell themselves. This
has, of course, "been a big asset in marketing of Cooperative products. For example:
Lend 0’ Lakes is knom for its good butter, The ’Washington Co-op for top quality eggs
and poultry, etc. On the other hand, live rire salesmen and good advertising can
put other products of lesser.quality on the market in competition rith the farmers’
co-ops. The last feu years has brought a'^out a decided inersaso in the amount of
advertising done by cooperatives. Whether it is attributable to koenor competition
or the general barage of attacks started by the NTCA is hard to say.
T7hencvor the demand exceeds the supply, ro have a tendency to become lazy in the mat
ter of'advertising and salesmanship. It is true, wc have all me can do to fill tho
demand, but right at this point is whoro a competitor can slip in so quickly and
snatch that trado—that one wakes'up wondering how .it all happened. So no matter how
good everything seems to bo going, we must always bo on our toes. This means in pro
duction of tho finest quality, efficient service,, good advertising and salesmanship.
CROP PLATS
From ’lashington—Farmers apparently plan to take voluntary action to prevent a possible
sharp increase in production of-nost crops this year by planting loss land, A Ul'A
survey shors that producers’plan to seed a little less land than last year, T^oy hac
been expected to plant more.
But recent doclines in fam prices —• coupledrith the fact that farm production costs
arc still high—v.'cre said .to be .discouraging farmers from going too heavy on Spring
planted crops,
0”ly in the case of one crop—oho at—Trill 'the acreage'be up sharply. The prospective
combined acreage of livestock feed grains—corn, oats, barley and grain sorghum—
is smaller than last year. The, com acreage mould be the lorcst in more than 50 years.