PLAN No. 271. FRUIT PRESERVED AND MARKETED BY A WOMAN
To help her husband rise from a $10-a-week clerkship to a factory of his own, where he is making more money in a day than he formerly made in a month as a “hired man,” is what a New York woman accomplished by a little idea that came to her one day.
Having made a practice of visiting the large markets late in the evening, and buying over-ripe fruit for a small price, as much of it would not keep over night, she suggested to her husband that, as he quit his work at 5 o’clock every day and had a half-holiday on Saturdays, he should visit these markets as late as possible on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays, buy fruit at low prices, bring it home and let her can or preserve it. Then on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday evenings, he could carry samples of the canned or preserved fruits on his bicycle to clubs, hotels and the best residences, let the chefs and cooks sample them, and take orders.
Her husband thought the suggestion a good one, so he bought the fruits, berries, etc., as cheaply as possible, near closing time of the markets, and she canned or preserved them in the best way.
The fruit sold readily; he found many orders waiting for him when making his second calls, and the first week their profits were $30, or three times the amount of the husband’s salary. Of course, he resigned at once, and they enlarged the scope of their operations to such an extent that in a year or two they had removed to a suburb, rented a piece of ground, where they raised cucumbers for pickles, which she pickled according to a recipe that created a tremendous demand for them, and later they established a factory for putting up fruit which has made them good profits every year since it started.
Plan No. 272. “Not What I Have, but What I Do is My Kingdom”