Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
ii
From a Traveler's Note Book,
t
THE PERSISTENCY OF THE NEWSBOY ON THE TRAINS—FOSTER & WALDO AN ENERGETIC
FIRM WHO THINK, NOTHING OF PURCHASING A HUNDRED OR TWO PIANOS AT A
SINGLE ORDER HAVE THE CASH TO PAY FOR THEM, TOO—HOW SOME
OF
*.
THE GREAT NAMES HAVE LOST PRESTIGE ADVANC|
OF THE CHEAP PIANO MODERN COMPETITION IS
NOT IN EVERY WAY PLEASING.
HE persistency of the newsboy,
or rather the newsman, for
there are many bearded men
who sell newspaperson trains,
is somewhat astonishing.
Sometimes I think that if one
followed up the after-lives of these vendors
of necessaries on trains that it would be
ascertained that they, in nine cases out of
ten, become successful merchants, because
such never-slackening persistency must win
in the end.
On my way up from Birmingham to
Chattanooga there was a young man who
was constantly going through the train,
hurling books and things into the laps of
the passengers, and I feel positive that the
young man will succeed in almost any field
in life where he deals directly with the
public. He might do well in the piano
business. He was wan and nervous, and
his smile was as bitter as this life itself.
He passed through the train continually
trying to sell, first of all, novels—all the
latest, you know; then papers, then chew-
ing gum, then illustrated guides, then rail-
road maps, then bananas and oranges.
He placed his packages upon the knees of
patrons, made them smell the fruits; no
refusal seemed to repulse him, no indiffer-
ence discourage him. He was a bird of
prey, hungering and seeking to live.
That young man would make a great
fellow to pull door-bells in the piano busi-
ness. He would succeed, because no re-
pulse would down him.
The day has gone by in the piano trade
when patronage is gained without hard and
persistent work. Time was when the mat-
ter of selling pianos was an easy task, and
it was little or no trouble to dispose of a
goodly number of pianos.
But those times have changed, and I
question seriously if they ever will return
again. It requires men of more of the
business element to succeed in the piano
business to-day than it did years ago; it
requires tactful, resourceful, energetic
men.
I have in mind a firm in the Northwest
upon whom I called a short time ago who
always have impressed me with being piano
men of the new school. I refer to Foster &
Waldo of Minneapolis.
Foster & Waldo do not believe in main-
taining an establishment in which many
thousands of dollars are sunk in rents and
expensive methods in keeping up wareroom
appearances. They believe in maintaining
comparatively inexpensive quarters, pat-
ronizing printer's ink liberally, and behind
the whole conduct of their business have
plenty of hustle, and plenty of means to
carry out any project they might undertake.
Foster & Waldo have, on the corner of
Nicolett avenue and Fifth street, one of
the most prominent corners in Minneapolis
and easily accessible from all parts of the
city. This firm while they have a number
of well-known makes which they carry con-
stantly in stock, yet I question if there is
another firm in the country that are so
keenly alert to a bargain as Foster & Wal-
do. If pianos are offered them at the right
price, they think nothing of ordering a car-
load or two and paying for them in spot
cash. There is no time work with Foster
& Waldo. They are business men, they
want good value for the money. They
are always on the lookout for bargains and
they always have the cash.
The pianos which they sold in 1896 far
exceeded their 1895 output, this notwith-
standing the depression of the times.
Such a condition of affairs speaks in
trumpet tones for the energy of Foster &
Waldo. With a steadily increasing busi-
ness in spite of the unfavorable business
conditions means that the firm have
really solved the problem of distributing
pianos. With an output as certain as they
have, the matter of a purchase of one or two
hundred pianos in a single order is only an
ordinary transaction with them. There is
no question as to the business energy of
Foster & Waldo.
*
*
*
*
Traveling over America as I have for
seventeen years, I have been afforded am-
ple opportunities to study" the oft-shifting
tides of trade, and when I cast a retrospec-
tive glance over an experience of a dozen
years in this trade it is interesting to note
the many changes which have occurred.
During the past few months I have vis-
ited hundreds of dealers scattered all over
the country east of the Rocky Mountains,
and I must say that it takes considerable
time always after I return from a trip to
thoroughly adjust and digest as it were all
the opinions formed, and to arrive at a
correct position in the consideration of the
advance or retrograde movement of the
different firms.
There is no mistaking the fact there are
some names in this trade which were strong
a few years ago, and which are notably
weak to-day. I mean by that some of the
names which stood high in the annals of
music trade affairs have been slowly but
surely undermined by the gradual wearing
away process, and the friction caused by
meeting hard and stern competition.
There are some who have receded from
positions that I question if they will ever
again occupy.
The last few years have been crucial years
in this and every other industry, and the
men who have forged ahead under such
conditions are the very men who will main-
tain that hard won prestige when things
shall have brightened in an industrial sense
all over this continent. It is the men
who have won a hard fight who will have the
good sense to hold a position.
*
*
*
*
It is true there is a cry that some of the
dealers have used some of the older and
best known names simply as a drawing
card, or better, in the vernacular, as stool
pigeons to attract trade—in the meanwhile
disposing under the shadow and on the
vantage ground gained by great names,
cheap pianos. There is no question but
there are strong and logical grounds
for the assertion that in many cases noted
pianos have been held by dealers for selfish
purposes. The very demand for the in-
struments has been stifled and trade di-
verted to the pianos which paid a larger
profit. They have failed in many cases to
give to the possessor and developer of a
great instrument, a fair return for the
agency held under their direct espionage.
It is one thing to have a piano of a conti-
nental wide reputation and to get people
of wealth and standing, musical taste, in-
telligence and all that into their warerooms,
and then through energetic measures di-
rect their attention to cheaper instruments,
claiming that they are just as good as So
and So's who charges something for his,
name.
Such a course is unfair and trenches close
to dishonorable, but the men who would
submit to this course of treatment and see