Home › At the Fountain › By E. F. White

By E. F. White

To the average confectioner the question of how he shall manage his fountain during the winter months so that it may not make a loss, even if it yields him no profit, comes as regularly as the season itself. Many of our larger shops now find that the so-called hot soda business compares very favorably with the cold soda business. The man who has been thus successful does not need my assistance or my advice to help him make it pay. Even the most prosperous, however, may, if diligent, do some things to help increase his business. Certainly it is not safe to rest upon "past glory," for when we do we are more than likely to see it fade away; we find that we have lost the confidence of the public and that our valued trade has departed with the glory. We live in times when the march of progress is forward, and if we are, in the language of the day, to be in it, we must keep up with the procession. Otherwise we soon find that we are a back number and that our more energetic competitor has now the patronage we have lost.

With this brief "word to the wise" and advising every one to keep improving, I am going to try to see if I can't help the smaller dealers who find the struggle a hard one.

I can fully appreciate your position, and I know how hard it is to decide what to do. I am going to assume now that your business, though comparatively small, has been established long enough for you to know about what to expect. You know that your candy business will pay and therefore are not worrying about general results. The new man, who is just starting in business has to push his business in all lines and try to secure his share of the patronage, and success or failure is still the unsolved problem; but with hope he struggles, trying his best to meet the demand of the public in all lines, and usually faithful effort is crowned with success. Assuming then that your business is established, and that you know the candy department will pay without reference to the soda fountain during the winter months, and that although during the summer the fountain did its share toward paying expenses and making profit, we are facing the winter with the knowledge that during past winters our fountain has not been a financial success, to say the least, and the question is, what shall we do this season?

Can you afford to close up your fountain? Feeling reasonably sure that the cost of running your fountain during the winter will exceed its receipts, the question of closing up the fountain comes to us. I will say at the start that with rare exceptions this is a very poor policy. If your store is small and your candy trade so large that you really need the space for the display of goods, then it may be advisable to dispense with the fountain altogether. But unless for some such reason you need the space it is always good policy to keep the fountain going and aim to make it do its best. If the small druggist can make his fountain pay him either directly or indirectly, then surely any energetic confectioner can do the same if only he will try. If your fountain is not a direct financial gain it may be indirectly, and so before we allow that part of our business to be neglected we should study it from every standpoint. Many people indulge in a glass of soda-yes, of ice cream soda-even in the coldest days of winter, and if your customers desire such a beverage and you haven't it they will be very likely to drop into the shop of your neighbor, Up and Doing, and secure the desired beverage, and more than likely, if they were out for a pound of candy, they will buy it where they buy the soda. Thus you lose the profit on the pound of candy, and it may be you have lost a customer, and for this reason it pays you to keep your fountain going.

Again, you may argue that even if you do continue to keep the fountain running it is not going to pay to put in hot drinks, as you may not even make the price of gas. This is a great mistake; a line of hot drinks today is almost an absolute necessity to the man who desires to build up his shop; but it is not necessary to have every hot drink one can think of. You may have your menu as small as you like, but, if small, have those few drinks just as nice and tasty as it is possible for them to be; have them so good that he who once drinks them will be sure to want them again. If your place is very small you might limit yourself to just hot chocolate, beef tea and malted milk. These will all keep a long time, so that you have absolutely no waste. When a customer inquires for some drink that you do not serve you can, as a rule, persuade him to drink one of the beverages you do serve, and if it is all that it should be it is more than probable that he will be pleased and the next time he wants a hot drink he will come to your place and will recommend your shop to his friends. I have never known any one cold drink that would help a man build up a reputation as rapidly or with such permanent results as would a nice cup of hot chocolate with whipped cream, and the reason is that where many confectioners and druggists can dispense a good glass of soda very few of them do-even if they can serve a real good cup of hot chocolate, so you see there is a chance at the top for you if you don't want every 5-cent piece you take in to be all profit. If you are content with a fair margin there is no reason why you should not secure a lion's share of the business in your community.

Hot drinks may be made use of in other ways. As an advertisement of your fountain and store, for instance, nothing can be used to better advantage. Some cold day when a customer drops in for some little thing, looking chilled and as though the outer world were not treating him just as well as it might, it often pays to ask him to have a cup of chocolate with you, at the same time remarking how cold and disagreeable the day is. You may think it hard to figure the profit there. It is hard to figure the profit from the sale of postage stamps, but it is a fact that has long since been acknowledged that it does pay to sell them. The cost of such politeness is never lost; the couple of cents that the drink costs is made many times over if your customer is thereby induced to come again. Do not think for a moment that I intend to suggest that it would be policy to offer a drink to every customer; far from it. Discretion must be used, as there are many who do not like to be asked to accept something that they do not pay for, and you must be careful not to offend; this is specially true of the ladies.

One thing more in the way of indirect gain. If your fountain is kept up during the winter, it gives you a good start in the spring when the first warm days come unexpectedly upon us. If your fountain is not running the soda drinkers who have been sleeping, so to speak, all winter are awakened by the warmth of the spring day and catch you napping, and are forced to go to your neighboring competitor, which is the very thing you don't want them to do if there is any way to prevent it. If you are ready for them they are pleased, and they come again and become steady customers. If you decide to run your fountain, decide at the same time that you will run it properly and that your hot and cold drinks, too, shall be extra fine. Remember you are not going to depend upon your fountain to make money -at this time of the year your candy counter is doing that. What you want to make your fountain do is to help you make a reputation, and you can afford to see that it does. Have your service neat and attractive. Make a cup of hot chocolate on your counter look so attractive that other customers will be induced to try one. If you go to work along these lines the chances are that even though the profit on each drink may be less than if you put out poor drinks, the increased demand for them will more than make up the difference; and more than one man has found that by such methods his fountain, in place of being an expense during the winter, has become a source of profit, and an inexpensive advertisement for his shop. That confectioner, big or little, who thinks he can neglect his fountain, summer or winter, and says he doesn't care about the fountain business, is making a great mistake and will live to rue it.

Having decided to serve and to serve well, the next question that confronts you is what to serve. Of course you will serve chocolate, as it is the one thing in great demand. In some cases this might complete the list, and if made extra fine would be enough; but most of us can carry others to advantage. Beef tea can be produced in liquid form and will keep for an entire season, and as it can be secured in small quantities there is not much chance of losing anything by keeping it. Liquid beef is preferable to solid extracts, as they must be reduced to a liquid with a little water to be ready for quick service, and spoil easily when thus prepared. Beef tea should be seasoned with a little pepper and salt, and some like the addition of a little celery salt. This may be put on your menu as "Beef and Celery," without extra expense. By having a bottle of tomato ketchup on hand you can prepare "Beef and Tomato," or, as some term it, "Tomato Bouillon." If you use sweet cream at the fountain you can prepare "Lactated Beef" or "Cream Boviline," by adding a little cream to a cup of "Beef Tea," or "Beef and Tomato," the latter being the more pleasant. Thus you see that quite a menu can be obtained from a few simple things.

You can also keep malted milk with hardly any outlay, and as there is a demand for it served cold, as well as hot, if you have any left at the end of the hot soda season you can use it during the summer months. While speaking of malted milk I want to say that it is very popular when properly served, but if it is to be handed out in that dishwater fashion so common in many shops it were far better to throw it all into the ash barrel.

First of all let me say that you can't serve malted milk for 5 cents and give a beverage that is fit to drink and make any profit. If you don't sell more than one a day charge 10 cents for it; but serve it right. The secret is simply to use enough powder and to dissolve it so that it will not be lumpy. In serving I use about 2 heaping teaspoonfuls of the powder to an ordinary soda mug. This fills the mug from one-quarter to one-third full of the powder. Be careful to see that the powder is not lumpy. (To prevent this I keep my malted milk in one of the show jars that the Horlick people provide for that purpose, not filling it over two-thirds full and shaking it every day). If lumpy it will not dissolve readily. Now add a dash of salt, fill quickly with hot water and stir very rapidly to prevent the drink from being lumpy. I have said that a little salt should be used to season, and unless the customer states that he desires it without salt when ordering I always use a little. In addition to the salt some like a little pepper, celery salt or sugar, and some like a little whipped cream on top, while others desire a little spice, such as nutmeg, mace or powdered cinnamon. A couple of salt crackers served with malted milk are appreciated by your customers.

By the addition of a little of your hot chocolate syrup to a cup of malted milk you have a "Malted Milk Chocolate," which is one of the popular hot drinks of the day.

There are a few hot beverages that can be prepared from the cold soda supplies. Every one has lemons on hand, so the hot lemonade is easily added to the list and is prepared the same as a cold lemonade save that hot water is used, and if a pleasant aromatic effect is desired, the rind may be left in the glass. Hot lemon is prepared simply by adding hot water to the cold lemon syrup, which during the winter should be made stronger. Hot ginger and ginger ale are prepared in the same way and with no extra outlay of any kind. Hot ginger puff is made by adding a little cream to a hot ginger and topping it off with a little whipped cream. So you will observe that you can, with a very small outlay, have quite a menu. To these may be added clam bouillon, tomato bouillon, chicken and oyster broth, and many others, if you desire, or there is a demand for them.

Having decided what you are going to serve, it only remains to push your drinks a little. If you have sufficient trade have an attendant especially for the fountain, particularly during the busy hours; if not, then you must instruct some of your candy salesgirls how to wait on a customer properly. Plan it so that the fountain receives reasonable attention, to say the least, and you will not regret it.

One more thought: Expensive outfits are not necessary, but neatness is, and cleanliness attracts as much, if not more, than gorgeous display. Never mind if the fountain yields no profits at this season; it will help the candy department to yield more. I hope, however, that a little more attention will be the means of making the fountain a source of profit every month in the year.

Hot Soda and Cold.