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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
I I
From the Editor's Note Book.
THERE WILL RE A DEARTH OF PIANOS—DEALERS WILL CLAMOR FOR THEM LATER A CHAT
WITH MR. LEITER ON THE EVIL WROUGHT HY DEPARTMENT STORES—WHAT IS THE
CURE? — S. ROSENBLOOM & SONS WILL NOT HANDLE PIANOS—TRADE AT
ALHANY DEMAND FOR BETTER GRADE OF PIANOS MALCOLM
LOVE IN HIS NEW FACTORY — ALDERMAN BURGESS
RUSHING IN ROCHESTER—CONFIDENT
CAPEN STRAY NOTES.
HERE is going to be a piano
famine between thistimeand
the holiday season. Depend
upon it. There is but little
accumulated stock and pia-
nos can not be cut out and put
together in a few hours like a suit of
clothes.
There is the material to get together, and
the different stages of the constructive and
compiling processes necessarily require
time—they can not be completed by the in-
stantaneous process— and I find dealers are
already complaining about the delay occa-
sioned in filling orders. Wait until the
real trade begins in November and De-
cember.
If there are not more yellow missives
handed to manufacturers telling them to
hurry orders, this year, than during any
previous season for ten years, then I will
admit my inability to diagnose the business
situation with anything approximating ac-
curacy.
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"You see," said Herman Leiter, as he
indicated by a sweeping hand gesture a
number of pianos which filled up the cen-
ter of the warerooms, " I have faith in the
piano business, and," he continued, "there
is plenty more stock on the way. I believe
we are going to have trade, a good trade
at that; and I hold the best way to catch it
is to have a well assorted stock of pianos.
When one expects to capture a share of
public patronage, he must have a line
sufficiently tempting to interest and hold."
What percentage of merchants show the
sagacity of Mr. Leiter of Syracuse and
have their business lamps well trimmed
and filled? One must be up betimes and
have plans well defined in order to keep
an even front with the ever grinding surgfes
of competition.
Mr. Leiter considers that the department
stores are the greatest foes to municipal
development, as well as being destructive
to the legitimate lines of trade.
"They are one of the greatest curses to
trade,"he said,"and herein Syracuse where
the business section of the city should be
constantly extending, it remains at a stand-
still. Why? Because our big department
stores have choked out the small dealer,
and the retail district is concentrated in a
small area instead of gradually expanding
as the city grows in population. Everyone
is injured by these big stores—the small
merchant, the property owner—and growth
of the city stunted in a way ; I some-
times wonder how it will all end."
"How are you going to prevent the
growth of the department store feature?"
I said. "Under one roof the products of
the whole world are offered, and too at
prices which attract the buyer. The peo-
ple catch the tempting bait and the big
store grows bigger while the little fellow
melts away into nothingness, and after a
while takes a humble clerkship in the
mammoth emporium—his individuality
gone forever. While I most heartily agree
with you in the statement that it is a de-
velopment of these close-of-the-century
days which at once works an evil to the
real estate owner, and swallows the small
shop keeper like a greedy Moloch—yet I
fail to see what brake can be placed upon
the movement. The department store is
only illustrative of the times, you can not
turn back the Niagara of sentiment rush-
ing in the direction of consolidation and
centralization.
"They tried to stop it in Illinois by
placing a special tax upon different lines
offered so that the scale increased in a
degree that would be practically prohibi-
tory, but the originators of the graduated
scale ran hard up against that document
known as the constitution. The very
moment you attempt to check a natural
tendency by legislation, you run square
against a powerful obstacle. A solution
will come, and perhaps in a different
manner than we expect. At the present
time, however, we cannot check the ten-
dency. It is the natural outgrowth of
modern conditions: you see you sell pianos
and jewelry and another man goes you one
better and so on until the Wanamakerian
period of expansion is reached. Every
true merchant is naturally desirous of
getting all the custom that he can and his
ideas expand with his business growth.
You cannot change human nature very
easily, and the spirit of greed and gain
is planted so deeply that in most cases it
would be a most difficult task to uproot it."
"Do you believe that the handling of
pianos will become general in the depart-
ment stores?" Mr. Leiter asked.
"No; that is one branch of the depart-
ment tree that has not thrived, neither has
it borne good fruit. In New York to-day
there is only one store that continues to
handle pianos, and even to keep the de-
partment bolstered up the concern has to
resort to the most outrageous statements
and misleading figures in its advertise-
ments. It was only a short time ago when
the firm published a table showing the
alleged cost of a piano to make and to
market. Of course the widespread dis-
semination of false statements which are
calculated to give the impression to the
public that they are being systematically
robbed by piano men is calculated to in-
jure the business, and consequently more
convincing argument is required on the
part of the salesman to dissipate the
erroneous idea.
"However, in making such an important
purchase as a piano, people will gravitate
naturally to an establishment where a spe-
cialty is made of those wares."
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There has been considerable talk to the
effect that the big furniture house of S.
Rosenbloom & Sons, of Syracuse, would
shortly add a complete line of pianos to
their stock. I believe one paper published
the list of instruments which they were to
handle. I am led to believe that Mr. Ros-
enbloom knows something of his own af-
fairs and he impresses me as being a clean-
cut business man. In response to my
query, he said:
"We had contemplated going into the
piano business, at least my brother was
favorably impressed with the idea, but we
have concluded not to go into it at present.
Whatever we may do in the future I can
not say, but we do not intend to add pia-
nos to our stock."
That disposes of the Rosenbloom rumor,
and the dreaded department store with the
piano annex will not be in Syracuse-—not
yet.
Both the piano factories in Albany are
busy. James S. Gray, of Boardman &
Gray, said: "Business has brightened up
a good deal with us. September was a
good month and October is beginning in a
way that gives assurance of good returns
for the month. I believe that we are in
for a term of years in which we will all
enjoy a fairly remunerative trade. People
will want better goods in all lines, and the
outlook is promising for high grade
pianos."
Mr. McKinney, who guides the destinies
of the Marshall & Wendell piano interests,
was absent in New York at the time of my
call, but the activity apparent within the