In the vast closet of my memory banks, I recall a kid in the neighborhood who was always asking if our parents would be interested in reading Grit. It was a dime, as I recall, and my folks weren't interested. But many other parents were, and the kid had nice stuff that he had obtained for himself as a result of his entrepreneurship.
He plied his trade hard. While the rest of us were of playing, this kid might be parked outside of Moonwink Grocery with his cloth bag full of Grits, patiently racking up the occasional sale.
Grit prospered for many years with the aid of its preteen sales force. Founded as a local Williamsport, PA newspaper in 1882, it slowly but surely increased its readership until, by the late 1950's, it was close to a million with a local, a Pennsylvania, and a national edition.
Grit's mission statement was simple: report the news, but keep things upbeat. People could read the nasty realistic side of the news any time, but Grit readers would come to appreciate its overall optimistic tone.
And most of its readers bought the papers one at a time from youthful salespeople. Kids sold grit up until the mid 1970's, and at its peak years of the 1950's, over 30,000 kids were distributing more than 700,000 copies.
Grit had something for everyone. There were the daily news headlines, the women's section (Grit had a large female audience), the family section, the comics for the kids, and serialized novels. It would frequently take a nostalgic look at things, something I can relate to. ;-)
As I said before, my parents weren't Grit readers. But I was introduced to the newspaper when my father brought home a few boxes of stuff he had obtained at an estate auction, one of his favorite places to get cheap stuff. One box had a stack of Grits in it, and I spent many pleasant afternoons reading them in the storage shed where they were stored. It was fascinating stuff.
Indeed, there has always been a market for tasteful, conservative journalism. Readers Digest has long thrived dishing up such stuff. So has Capper's Weekly, which reached much the same readership as Grit. And Grit continues to survive today, even though kids no longer sell it.
Now sold as a glossy magazine on the shelves of stores with rural clientele (e.g. Tractor Supply), Grit has a respectable circulation of 150,000. Its focus nowadays is on issues affecting farmers. The nostalgic articles are largely gone, replaced by more pressing issues like burning wood at the maximum efficiency, properly shearing alpacas, and which SUV is the best value.
But think way back, and I'll bet you can remember a fresh-faced kid with a cloth bag slung over his shoulder parked at a busy location, selling "America's Greatest Family Newspaper."
How about you, readers? Did any of you ever sell Grit? Please share your experiences.
Comments (9)
Here's my story of being a Grit salesman wannabe, along with a Grit ad from a 1963 Boys' Life magazine:
http://tulsatvmemories.com/pop.html
Posted by Mike Ransom | February 13, 2008 2:22 AM
Posted on February 13, 2008 02:22
I remember always seeing ads for Grit but I had no idea what it actually was. I guessed it was like a Readers' Digest-type pub.
Posted by Rhea | February 13, 2008 10:23 AM
Posted on February 13, 2008 10:23
I sold Grits as a Kid back in the 70s! I was a terrible salesman but I loved looking at all the prizes I could win. I think I finally got the real working printing press I always wanted.
Posted by Mike Burleson | February 13, 2008 6:06 PM
Posted on February 13, 2008 18:06
My brother sold them in the '60s in Mulvane, KS.
He picked up quite a bit of pocket change, if I remember correctly.
Posted by Doug | February 14, 2008 7:54 PM
Posted on February 14, 2008 19:54
Several of my friends sold Grit back in the 70's. I never was a legitimate salesman but helped out my buds sell them at the local grocery stores. My recollection of the Grit magazine was more like a current tabloid but with more down-home articles rather than celebrity trash. You didn't get rich selling the newspaper but you could earn some interesting prizes. Maybe we need more things like this to keep the current teens busy and out of trouble!
Posted by Jeff | February 15, 2008 8:35 PM
Posted on February 15, 2008 20:35
Do people still go door to door selling Grit newspapers? Thanks
Posted by Lee Roy Ledford | December 17, 2008 3:22 PM
Posted on December 17, 2008 15:22
I do remember the Grit newspaper. My dad used to bring it home every Sunday. Mom and us boys went to church and he went to the hardware store to catch up with his friends. He always brought home a copy and I would spend the afternoon reviewing its every page. Does any one remember the bald headed boy in the comics? He had a dog as I recall. I can not remember his name.
Posted by Paul Crawford | February 27, 2009 3:27 PM
Posted on February 27, 2009 15:27
I sold the grit newspaper in Antioch Tennessee in 1956.
There were 11 faithful customers on my route and I made 44 cents every Saturday.As cokes were 5 cents as well as candybars,44 cents would last a while.The movie was 14 cents as well.
Posted by Pete Mason | January 17, 2010 6:34 PM
Posted on January 17, 2010 18:34
I sold grit in the early seventies in Chattanooga, Tennessee. My favorite locations to sell were Pruett's Food Town, a local grocery store, the Krystal restaurant, a popular hamburger drive in, similar to White Castle to northerners and in Kmart parking lots. When I first started selling the tabloid, I was very motivated and ambitious, hoping to earn lots of money and win some of those great prizes. After two or maybe three months my enthusiasm had waned with the realization that every person who walked by was not interested in buying what I was selling. The rejection was a depressing slap in the face to a naive young salesman. From that point on my mother had to force me to get out and pound the pavement to sell my 90 copies each month. I eventually understood that rejection was part of the sales game. I also employed my younger brother to share in my profits, prizes and misery. We would always start out selling at the Krystal drive-in hamburger joint and would go in and order a burger and a coke as soon as we had sold enough papers to pay for it. Basically we were eating our profits in advance. Next it was on to the grocery store where we would stand at the door and bark our sells pitch- "would you like to buy a Grit"- to each shopper entering or leaving the store. Persistence finally paid off for us, as our mother forced us to sweat it out until all copies were sold, customers began to expect us to be there and sales improved. Another good location was the Kmart parking lot where we targeted men waiting in the car while their wives did some shopping. Their boredom was our profit. Although we never got rich, we did learn some valuable lessons about running a business and about life in general. I was not a great salesman and neither was my brother, but I would not trade those weekends we spent together. Two squirrels just trying to get a nut or in our case a hamburger and a Coke.
Posted by Tony Kilgore | February 1, 2010 10:21 PM
Posted on February 1, 2010 22:21