Short excerpt from "Out of This World," a 1954 sales training film outlining importance of cellophane as transparent yet protective food wrapping for the convenience of housewives doing grocery shopping.
Out of This World (1954)
Man: Take a look. A loaf of bread: an important food, a healthy food, and a basic food that can be served in more than 100 different ways. And give a look! Not just one kind of bread, but a whole variety. And not only bread, but a whole variety, but a whole variety of all different types of baked goods.
Woman: Are you, by any chance, trying to say this business of yours is important?
Man: That’s exactly the way I feel about it.
Police Officer: Uh oh, there’s something about that guy’s tone of voice I don’t like.
Man: But just because we’re important in the food picture doesn’t mean a guy can sit back and take it easy on this job.
Woman: Why not?
Man: Well, because folks have to go to stores to buy my stuff.
Woman: So?
Man: So, in these stores there can be as many as 3,000 different food items that are just itching to latch on a part of their food money, including a few other brands of baked goods. So, it’s one great big scramble. Up and down the aisles the shopper goes, and what she’ll buy, nobody knows. For sure, that is. But every food item tries to make the grade, by looking so doggone good she just can’t resist buying. Appetite appeal we call it. And how do you get it?
Woman: That’s just what I was going to ask you!
Man: Well, one way, is to let the shopper see the actual product. Yeah, so you can write this down in your notebook. For making the best impression, nothing beats seeing the actual product. Now one way to get it is with modern packaging. But that’s not all! Now, for best appetite appeal, you also have to have good displays. Displays that sell. And believe me, top salesman are using all the tricks in the book to get them: tying displays with go-together food products, meal suggestion displays, and a lot of others. So when you stop and think about it, this job of mine is anything but dull.
Woman: But still, doesn’t it get monotonous doing the same routine things every day?
Man: No, every day is different on this job! Every store is different, depending on what bull’s-eye I’m working on.
Woman: Bull’s-eye?
Man: Sure! You know, a while back, I decided this could be a better paying job if the guy used his noggin. That’s when I set up three bull’s-eyes. Here they are: grocer goodwill, “plus” volume, and selling displays. The things I’m aiming for in every store on my route. Any time you can do something to make yourself better liked in the store, or up the volume in the store by even one loaf of bread, or get a new display idea, it can mean more dough. I’m just crazy enough to like the feel of more money. That’s why I keep aiming for those bull’s-eyes.
