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Hot Drinks in Small Towns

It is a mistaken idea that because you are located in a small town you cannot cause a demand for hot drinks. There is no department of your business as profitable during the cold winter months as hot drinks if handled along proper lines. These lines are easy. The only question is that of catering to your customers' tastes. The apparatus in itself is very inexpensive and the supplies are within easy reach of every dealer. If he can be made to realize that it is a money-maker he will not hesitate to try it. And when he does try it he is satisfied. There are two features to be continually borne in mind and upon which depends your success-quality and cleanliness. Base your work on these two requirements and your trade will be correspondingly good. Your urn must be bright and shining, your cups dainty and appetizing, and your service beyond reproach. All these are necessary to establish a good reputation, and when established you must live up to it. The making of a good cup of chocolate or beef tea is not a difficult matter, nor is it an easy one. Great care must be continually used in getting just exactly the proper amount of ingredients. It must not be too sweet if chocolate, but sweet enough. It must not be too strong or salty if beef tea, but seasoned just right. There is chocolate that your customers will drink because they are cold and it is hot, and again, there is chocolate that people will walk out of their way for on a cold night. If you serve the first kind you can pay expenses, but if you serve the latter you can make a handsome profit in not only your soda department, but in your general trade. You will get as a result of your efforts a satisfactory interest on your investment. Of course your common sense will tell you that you cannot serve lukewarm, thin beverages and expect to satisfy your patrons. You know they won't stand for it, so do not give them an opportunity of complaining, rather compel them to compliment you. And they will if they like your drinks. There are hundreds of hot drinks beside hot chocolate, teas and broths, there are hot syrup drinks which are new, delicious and refreshing, some non-alcoholic beverages that set the blood a-tingle with warmth and cheer, they are pleasing and when you once get your customers interested you will find it easy sailing. One druggist in an Iowa town of 1,200 writes us an interesting letter as follows: "I installed a neat and serviceable hot soda urn early last winter and in seven days I had fully made up the amount expended on the urn and supplies and am now drawing a handsome interest on my investment. The inhabitants of the town I am in number about 1,200, but it is the county seat and every Saturday the farmers and their families come in from the country. I never used tables for my soda fountain, never thought they were necessary until now. I found that I could not accommodate all my customers at the counter, so bought two tables and intend getting two more. My greatest demand is for hot chocolate with the ladies; among the farmers it is a luxury. The men seem to like the clam bouillon best. Nothing of this sort was ever served here before and we are 'it,' especially on Saturday. Hot soda is the proposition. If the other druggists need money to pay for bon-nets for the babies, and coal, they had better get a hot soda apparatus. Christmas time is approaching and I am going to have the biggest sales I ever had." Our friend has the right idea and his idea will mean money to him. He will draw a class of people in his store who probably would not go unless in need of medicine. Perhaps one will see a bottle of perfume, another a new inkstand, a book, writing paper, or any one of a thousand things a druggist carries besides his drug stock. He will get his customer to buy things at Christmas by putting them before him in a way that is sure to win. You can do the same. In a confectionery store one always expects to find a hot soda apparatus, as well as a soda fountain. In small towns, where a confectionery store receives the support of the citizens, it stands to reason that the hot soda trade in winter would be equally as good as ice cream sodas in summer if you get the people into the habit of believing that they need refreshments quite as much in winter as in summer. If you have skating in your town, which, of course, you have, advertise hot drinks for skating parties, get the young people to drop in after their out-door exercise for a hot beverage just as they did in summer for a soda. The business won't come to you unless you convince the public that you have just what they want. Don't think that because you live in a small town you cannot sell hot drinks, because you can. Suppose two ladies step into your store, and you give them a hot chocolate; it is well made, they are cold and it just happened to be what they wanted. They tell Mrs. So-and-So at the missionary meeting that afternoon, or at the thimble party at Mrs. B's that they did not know that Sampson made such fine chocolate. Others try it and the result is, if your beverages are good, that you get a lot of free advertising. Suppose a man drops in; he has had a long drive in the country; give him a good strong beef tea, put a few crackers on a plate and the seasoning. Ask him how he likes it, strive to please him and you will satisfy him, he will tell others and he will come again. That is what you want, that is profitable business. There are so many bouillons, froths and soups that one could have a splendid assortment with a very small outlay. Chicken broth is a general favorite, while tomato bouillon is a close second among the men. Put window strips up so that the public will know that you are serving hot beverages. What could be more gratifying to your out-of-town customers, who have had a long, cold drive, than a steaming cup of delicious broth, bouillon or chocolate. Put yourself in their places and see how you would enjoy it. There is nothing like it. Think how much holiday advertising you can get when you put your novelties out on sale before Christmas. Have you thought of its advantages in this way? There is money in it and who among you does not need it? Big or little, city or town, every druggist ought to carry hot soda. There's only one way to go at this question. If you take it up with a sad face, and the fixed idea that hot soda is going to be a failure, why, the chances are that hot soda is going to accommodate you and be a failure. The druggist who wants to make the most of his opportunites must saturate himself with the idea that it's up to him to make hot soda a success in his individual case, whether it takes one year, two years, or three years. This idea acquired, then go ahead. One of the main reasons why you ought to carry hot soda is that it is a giant help toward keeping your soda department lively all the year 'round. You don't want your soda fountain throughout six months of the year to look like an excavated section of ancient Pompeii. You want it to be like the rest of your store-alive, busy, stirring, bringing in the sheaves. Another reason why you should carry hot soda is the fact that it pays a large percentage of profit. People can be educated to drink hot soda, and the best way to start their education is to have it. Climate counts for little. Hot soda sells better in Mobile, Ala., than in some of the lake cities. In many Southern cities, people begin drinking hot soda in August and Sep-tember. This is peculiar, you say? Not at all. Don't people drink boiling hot coffee every day in the year? It's all a matter of habit. Make up a list of the hot flavors you propose to carry, and also lists of the cold soda flavors and mineral waters you intend to keep in stock all winter. Once the list is determined on, never permit the fountain to be without any of these flavors. Use a tasty soda water menu on your counter, which will serve as a souvenir to the customer. Never issue any matter about hot soda without attaching a list of cold flavors that will always be on hand. It is well to remember that advertising not only brings in material profits, but that it marks you as a progressive man and raises you both in your neighbor's estimation and in your own. It gives you a wider scope in life. It gets you out of the rut. Remember, that a piece of advertising matter may bring in results months after you have forgotten that you ever put it out. The man who advertises sends salesmen into the world who may bring in orders years after they have been dismissed from their originator's mind.