One phase of the jobber's general service to manu facturers, retailers, and the public alike is brought out in the following article which appeared in Print ers' Ink: By the operation of a "transfer station" at Waverly, N. J., the Pennsylvania Railroad in one year "saved" 11,342 freight cars. In other words, instead of sending a carload from some small town in New York State direct to some far away destination and reshipping various small shipments at innumerable places en route, the car is rushed to Waverly, where it is unloaded and its contents consolidated with those for the same destinations from many other cars from differ ent places, so that solid carloads can be sent through to each of the towns for which shipments were included in the original cars.
The jobber is the "transfer station" of the business world. He receives large shipments from manufacturers, subdividing each shipment and consolidating the subdivisions so that a small quantity of each manufacturer's shipments are sent in one large aggregate to each retailer. This is just the same as making up carload lots of shipments from various towns to some one town as is done at the Waverly station. If we stop to think what an expensive and inconvenient thing it would be for each manufacturer to make many small ship ments to retailers, and how much it would add to the cost to consumers, we will cease to look at the jobber as adding unnecessarily to the cost of distribution.
Many people who believe in the jobber's service, question whether his function in sorting and reship ping goods received by him from the manufacturer is an economical one. It is said that in some lines, merchandise on its journey from the manufacturer to the retailer thru a series of brokers and jobbers, has to be crated and uncrated, packed and unpacked, assorted, and freighted so many times that an ap preciable amount is added thereby to the price to be paid by the consumer.
One suggestion to remedy this condition provides that the jobber shall act solely as a sales agent and a collector, and that he shall not handle any goods. It is further suggested that all his orders be taken on the "drop shipment" basis; that they all be sent to the factory for filling; that the retailers be encour aged to buy in the smallest possible amounts; and finally that the manufacturer ship these small amounts direct to the retailers by parcel post. Advo cates of this view maintain that this would not only save the many expenses of reshipment, but that it would also permit dealers at all times to order goods in small quantities and so to keep complete assort ments in all lines continually thruout the season. The scheme would, in some cases, doubtless accom plish this latter result if the plan worked, but it is doubtful whether it would effect any saving in ex pense, because the manufacturer might have to in crease his price to cover the new item of storage. In many kinds of business the cost of a large number of small parcel-post shipments would be in excess of the freight charges on much larger quantities, even when one or more reshipments by freight were made after the goods left the factory and when the cost of suc cessive handling was added. 011 the whole, there is reasonable doubt that such a plan would be practica ble under present conditions.