A couple of days ago I got off on the subject of door-to-door salesmen — I forgot to mention that were pretty famous door-to-door saleswomen during that time, and maybe even today. I’m referring to the Avon Lady. I honestly don’t remember seeing, or hearing about, Avon Ladies when I was little, but maybe it just wasn’t a thing around Maysville.
I do remember, when I was older, Avon advertisements on TV and I remember they always started, or ended, with “Ding Dong, Avon Calling.”
But regardless if I remember it, Avon has been ringing the doorbells of housewives since 1886.
The Avon enterprise was the brainchild of David H. McConnell, a New York traveling salesman who sold books (what else?) door-to- door. McConnell was an excellent salesman and he came up with the idea of using vials of perfume to entice his female customers to open their doors (and pocketbooks) to him — and his books. When he realized the perfume was a bigger hit than the books he was selling, he changed his course.
With the assistance of one of his employees, a Mrs. Albee, McConnell sold perfume under the name California Perfume Company. McConnell realized that the best way to market his products to women would be to hire women to sell them. Seems obvious today, but I guess someone had to take that first step. At age 50, Persis Foster Earnes Albee was hired to travel by buggy and train doing door-to-door business all around the northeast. Albee soon began to train a fleet of female salespeople to do the same — and the Avon Lady was born!
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