Door-to-door SELLING

Travelling salespeople were once a regular sight on our streets around the UK

- WORDS: JULIE POWELL.

A knock on the front door previously meant the chance to treat yourself to new makeup, win big or buy brightly coloured plastic containers. Travelling salespeople were a common presence, and many of us still remember them with affection.

Doorstep knowledge

Did your bookshelves groan under the weight of 32 volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica? The heavy leather-bound books with impressive gold lettering were printed for 244 years until 2012 (when they moved online) and sold door to door to families eager to give their children a head start. But even the company's own market research showed that most owners only opened the books once or twice a year. Encyclopedia sellers also became figures of fun: in a 1969 Monty Python sketch, a housewife lets a burglar in on the condition he doesn't try to sell her an encyclopedia!

IN THE MONEY