PLAN No. 383. SELLING LIMES BY MAIL
Fully as delicious and healthful as lemons, if not more so, limes are not nearly so well known or in such general use as they should be. Dispensers of fancy drinks, however, know their value, and will pay good prices for them.
A Seattle man who knew considerably about the prices charged by wholesale and commission houses for limes, and the dilatory manner in which they filled small orders, wrote to a New York importer of limes asking their lowest quotation on limes in barrel lots, and was surprised to learn that they could be bought for 80 cents per hundred, prepaid, whereas the wholesale houses charged $1.25 per 100, and the buyer paid transportation charges.
He bought fifteen barrels of the limes at that price, and then wrote to several soft-drink dispensers whose names he had obtained, offering them fresh limes at $1.25 per hundred, prepaid, and agreed to fill the order the day it was received. A large number of orders came as a result of this letter, as the saving of transportation costs was quite an item, and he filled the orders so promptly and satisfactorily that he soon had 200 regular customers. His net profits amounted to 25 cents per hundred, after buying his limes, packing, and prepaying parcel-post charges to his patrons.
Although he still retains his position with a railroad company, and draws a good salary, this little side plan of selling limes by parcel post is netting him a good weekly income.