photo #9037047

‘Stop Me and Buy One’ . In 1922, the ice-cream manufacturers T. Wall & Sons Ltd., London, created a sales force who travelled round the streets on box-tricycles which displayed the slogan ‘Stop Me and Buy One’ . It all started from a butcher’s shop in St James’s Market, Westminster. T Wall & Sons Ltd had made sausages since 1786, but in 1913 its chairman, Thomas Wall had a eureka moment to increase summer sales and save the jobs of his employees. He realised that sausages aren’t the most refreshing snack during the summer. So, he decided to experiment and started serving up delicious ice cream to cool down the customers instead. . It was Cecil Rodd, one of the employees who came up with the slogan "Stop Me and Buy One" after his experiments with doorstep selling in London. At first, the sellers made their way through the streets via horse and cart, and thenlater on with their famous ‘Stop Me and Buy One’ tricycles. . So successful was the strategy that the number of Wall’s tricycles on the road increased from 10 in 1922 to 8500 in 1939. Sales rocketed from £13,719 in 1924 to £444,000 in 1927. During WW2 the manufacture of ice cream was severely curtailed, and the tricycles requisitioned for use at military installations. The end of the road for the friendly, familiar tricycles came in October 1947 when Walls sold 3,300 of them, opting instead to invest in freezers for shops. . Source : various