OP here, my friend and her husband found the name they were looking for. Tom Watt? thanks!
You win, @leebee!Tom something? We used to sell these products to raise money for Girl Scout trips. We'd each have our own red box filled with all kinds of things- household gadgets, dish towels, note cards, pencils/pens, cups/mugs, etc. We'd show the items to thevictimcustomer and they'd choose what they'd like to order.
Tom Wat kits?
We lived in the country and when the Watkins man would stop buy my mom would at least buy a bottle of vanilla extract even if we didn't need it. She said he was such a nice man and needed as much help as he could get. This was in the 50'sWatkins went door-to-door, but I think that would have been baking/kitchen items.