Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 January 1900 — How Lipton Started. [ARTICLE]

How Lipton Started.

The Home Magazine tells this story of Sir Thomas Lipton's start in business: Young Lipton went to London with a borrowed capital of about SSOO. He rented a small shop, spent one-half of this sum In purchasing a stock of tea, getting it cheap for cash, and the other half he put in a separate box to be used entirely and exclusively for advertising. That was the time when SIO,OOO-per-day advertising houses were an unknown proposition, so that it was not surprising that Lipton’s friends shook their heads at his scheme. But the scheme worked to perfection. Marking his goods at the very lowest figures—which were lower than those of other tea merchahts, for it was not customary at that time for merchants to pay cash for their stock—Lipton got ready for his advertising. He bought two of the fattest hogs that could be found anywhere In London, had them carefully scraped and cleaned, tied pink ribbons aronnd their necks, and sent them waddling through the crowded streets, each led by a man dressed in pink, and having between them another man carrying a banner upon which were inscribed the words, "We are going to Lipton’s pink tea. Come along yourself!” Of course the shop was crowded within an hour. The low prices caught the people’s fancy, too, and business became so brisk that, instead of serv-. Ing behind the counter as he had orig*' inally intended for about a year, Lipton was compelled to employ a dozen clerks to.||o that work, while he attended exclusively to the getting out of new advertising dodges.