Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Hawkers are often underestimated. There is a view that it is difficult for them to become rich because they only sell ‘small change’. Unfortunately, that view has been shattered by King Camp Gillette.
He is an example of a successful hawker who consistently sells ‘small change’ and even started his own company which now makes a profit of IDR 104 trillion.
What’s the story?
The story begins in 1895. King Camp Gillette is a hawker who lives in Massachusetts, United States. Every day he sells around town. It doesn’t matter whether it’s hot or rainy, the important thing is that the merchandise sells so that life can continue.
While touring the city, Gillette heard the anxiety experienced by many men. Apparently they find it difficult to look handsome, neat and dapper. Feeling complicated every time you want to shave the hair that grows on your face.
Every time you want to shave your mustache, for example, someone has to sharpen the knife first. The process is long. Not to mention the risk of accidents that lurk. It could be that when you are shaving your mustache, the knife might stab your face. With all the fuss, they are basically already lazy.
On this basis, men tend to let mustaches, sideburns and beards grow irregularly. From here, Gillette had an interesting idea.
“What if I make a very small knife that has two thin sides. Then the two sides can be used repeatedly. Only when it becomes dull can it be thrown away,” thought Gillette to himself.
As explained in Cutting Edge: Gillette’s Journey to Global Leadership (1998), the man born January 5 1855 then rushed to make the thin knife in question. Long story short, it is a double-edged knife intended for shaving.
These findings were then marketed during hawker sales. Unexpectedly, razors made by Gillette are selling well. Many men feel helped by the findings. They ditched conventional razors in favor of Gillette-made blades in large quantities.
Gillette, who was overwhelmed with orders, was dizzy and surprised to see that his merchandise was selling well. He immediately rushed to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to ask for a solution. Who knows, MIT could make a razor printing machine.
Luckily, a researcher named Nickerson was able to make Gillette’s wish come true. Since then, there has been a large-scale production of razors which over time were connected with plastic handles to make it easier for users.
Slowly but surely, Gillette, who initially sold around town, successfully set up his own shop in 1901. In that shop, he began selling and naming his products with the Razor trademark. Initially the Razor only sold a dozen. However, after a year of being established, the shop was successful in selling thousands of razors.
As a business savvy person, Gillette is aware of the importance of copyright. He immediately patented his razor in 1904. As a result, any company that wanted to produce razors had to pay a license to Gillette.
Since then, he has become very rich because he has two sources of income.
Wealthy
It is not known exactly how rich Gillette is. However, looking at the popularity of razor production, one can project his wealth.
Imagine, quote Great Events from History II: Business and Commerce Series (1994), in the second year of sales alone the razor successfully sold up to 100 thousand. Even in 1915, 70 million units had been sold worldwide.
Certainly, the hawkers’ lives will become more prosperous. He has many houses and other properties in California. This also includes share ownership in many companies.
In Indonesia, Gillette razors were recorded as arriving in 1913 based on news reports De Sumatra Post edition of August 8, 1913. In that newspaper, Gillette’s advertisement was almost half a page and could be purchased at the M. Goldenberg & Co. store. Later, Gillette razors were translated into Indonesian as “razor”.
Unfortunately, King Camp Gillette’s life journey had to end on July 9, 1932. However, the end of Gillette’s life did not kill his razor business.
Until now, Gillette still exists in the world. In 2005, Gillette became part of Procter & Gamble (P&G).
The company claims that every year 750 million people use the world’s first razor. Thanks to this achievement, it is not surprising that the company said that sales of products created by hawkers in 2022 will reach US$ 6.6 billion or Rp. 104 trillion.
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