The Fur Stole Story

Another interesting town in Wyoming was the home of the Green River Ordinance, named for the town where it originated. This local law prohibited door-to-door salesmen from working in the municipality. It was later ruled unconstitutional but it was supposed to be in full force at the time we were there. Needless to say, our crew boss took this as a direct challenge and we worked the town hard. Actually, we sold more units in Green River than in many towns of its size.

Two of our crew were picked up for violating the Green River Ordinance. They were working after supper while we were playing pool in a local establishment. A phone call broke up the game on the table next to us but we heard the man who was called out say that he would be right back. We found out later the man called out was the municipal judge and he took just five minutes to fine our crew members ten dollars each and get back to his pool game.

That incident might indicate how honorably the judge and his friends stacked up. Upon his return, the judge, being told it was his turn, asked whether he was shooting stripes or solids. There were a lot more stripes on the table and he was told those were his to shoot. Before he left for the courtroom I had observed the judge was doing well with solids, but apparently the judicial activity had dulled his memory. The disadvantage probably caused him to lose that game but with his windfall from our compatriots he had enough to pay off his bets on the game.

The principle of finding the problem and solving it came into play one afternoon at a neighborhood grocery store. This type of business was quite common in the forties and even later until large discount stores took over. It enabled the owner to live in the back and run the business from the front.

I had to demonstrate my cleaner between customers to the man and wife who owned the store. I spent a good part of the morning talking to the couple and just felt it in my bones they wanted to buy the vacuum.

I went to lunch and came back in the afternoon to continue trying to get them to buy. It finally came out. They had just bought a new meat cutter and were concerned about having to make more monthly payments. As is the case many times, they were embarrassed about not having enough money. Consequently, it took most of the day to make that revelation.

The solution was simple. I told the man to run a want ad in his local newspaper offering to wash cars, including a thorough cleaning inside (using the attachments provided with the cleaner I was about to sell him). This was something new (upright cleaners did not have attachments). And he could vacuum cars while his wife waited on customers. And the income would make the payments on the cleaner. The idea struck a chord and they signed up immediately.

As I illustrated earlier, the poorer parts of town were better for contract sales. But I learned the opposite of that one day when I knocked on the door of a fine looking home on the outskirts of town. It turned out to be a fox farm. They raised the animals and then made fur stoles selling for $150 each - a lot of money in those days.

My point in telling this story is that these people were obviously more experienced in business than I was and would not be incensed over me rounding off the price as I had offered on my first sale.

The lady I demonstrated to thought the cleaner was great but she said she had just bought another brand and her husband would “kill” her if she bought another one.

However, if I would be willing to trade a fur stole worth $150 (according to her) for my $99.50 cleaner, we could make a deal. Since my commission was $35 that meant I was getting the stole for $64.50. I agreed to this very astute (I thought) deal.

The problem was I didn’t have the $64.50 to pay the wholesale cost of the cleaner. I had just been selling enough to pay expenses on the road. I called Mother and even though she was smart enough to know I had probably made a bad deal, she wired me the money and I sent her the fur stole.

Now tell me this. Where does a middle class working woman of modest means wear a fox fur stole, even if she had the other clothes to go with it? That was something I didn’t think about. Years later, in helping move Mother from one apartment to another, I discovered the stole in a closet, undoubtedly unworn since I had sent it to her.