I think i was born 1971 close to the end of the door to door general sales era since i do remember the salesmen coming with their little basket of samples but that ended well before i was a teenager.
Door to door sales companies 1950s.
I remember the fuller brush man my mom bought cleaning supplies.
I was born too late to see the ice man.
Industry consisting of companies selling door to door office to office or at private home sales meetings.
Later referred to as direct sales the big names in the 50s were fuller brush avon and stanley.
Rather than relying on marketing to bring in new customers the sales rep walks from one place to another doorway to doorway in the literal sense engaging prospects in conversation.
Not to worry though the watkins man also sold many other useful items like vanilla extract and spices for cooking and baking.
During the 1950 s as many as 2 percent of th us population was involved in door to door sales.
According to the link they did indeed phase out the door to door division in 1981.
You never know when you might need some liniment or salve.
By the 1950s of course many interior and even exterior doors had lost all architectural relief and were a single plane of wood either solid and intercut with decorative glazing or for many types of interior doors with a hollow core.
We had milk delivered.
Watkins was another company that would send salesmen out to sell door to door.
Two movies even had fuller brush in the title 1948 s the fuller brush man starring red skelton as an annoying door to door salesman and 1950 s.
In addition tupperware pioneered the home sales.
We even had a boy who would come around with his.
An egg man would come around once a week.
I m talking about companies like jewel tea.
A favorite for more utilitarian areas the five panel door is composed of horizontal panels top to bottom.
A fellow would come around in the summer with fruit and veggies from his farm and of course the avon women later.
I wasn t aware that they had a chain of supermarkets as.
Those were staples in most medicine cabinets.
The watkins man she bought flavorings such as vanilla etc.
Door to door sales d2d sales means that the sales rep is participating in door to door prospecting which indicates a system of direct contact with individuals.
John metcalf from ushaw moor was also a baker who came round door to door.
Jackie hindmarsh who lived in doric road worked for a coal merchant from durham being a well known resident of new brancepeth he built up a sizable round in competition to rowland brothers during the miners strike in the 70s he managed to supply his regulars when rowlands couldnt we did have to accept coal and coke.
Anytime i tried to google phrases like door to door companies to work for i would get a bunch of garbage sites pulling up outdated or irrelevant companies for what i was looking for.
The forerunners in the direct selling industry include the fuller brush company brushes brooms etc electrolux vacuum cleaners and avon cosmetics.