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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
What is the Remedy?
THE QUESTION RAISED BY THE REVIEW HAS CREATED WIDE-SPREAD INTEREST—CAN WE IM-
PROVE THE TRADE CONDITIONS AND IF A BETTERMENT CAN BE ACCOMPLISHED IN
WHAT WAV CAN IT BE DONE? WHAT SOME DEALERS SAY KEEP UP THE
WORK AND DO NOT LET THE INTEREST FLAG WHAT SAY YOU?
We have received many communications from leading- dealers in all parts of Amer-
ica anent the possibility of making certain trade reformations which shall be conduc-
ive to trade good.
The Review has unequivocally declared that the piano business as a whole to-day
is conducted on too close margins. Through The Review, the dealers of America are
willing to discuss the possibilities of the betterment of trade conditions.
If the business is not conducted on proper lines to-day can we make it so ?
What is the remedy ?
The views of the many prominent dealers which appeared during the last two
weeks were most interesting. This week's symposium is still another valuable
expression of opinion. The discussion will be continued in our next issue.
KOHLER & CHASE, San Francisco, Cal.
We agree with you that the piano deal-
ers of America, as a whole, are selling
pianos at too close margins. We also be-
lieve that the piano business to-day, as a
whole, is conducted on as proper lines as
other business open to extreme competi-
tion.
This seems to answer all your queries
excepting "What is the Remedy?" Our
reply to that would be "Combination."
In our opinion, local organizations are
always weak and short lived. National
associations lack cohesiveness and the
force of authority. The only remedy is
combination, in the form of trusts, if you
will, but it must be a combination of the
most successful manufacturers; not neces-
sarily all of them, nor all of any particular
class, but it must be a strong combination
of brains and capital.
Such an organization operating in all
prominent piano manufacturing centers
would placate local pride, and easily gain
local as well as a widespread reputation.
Manufacturing on different lines of value,
it would be enabled to reach all classes of
customers, and by a system of equity in
grading, an enviable reputation could be
established that would be unquestioned
wherever products of the combination
were known. Such a step would inaug-
urate a new era in the piano business, and
while it would not destroy competition,
would be independent of it. .
L. CiRUNEWALD CO., LTD., New Orleans.
We agree that we, as well as the major-
ity of dealers (especially in the West), are
selling pianos at too close a margin. We
acknowledge the fact that during the last
ten or twelve years there has been a
steady increase in the demoralization of
the piano trade, brought about by the
manufacturers and dealers themselves, and
it would be a hard matter for us to suggest
a remedy.
We understand that a good many of the
smaller manufacturers, and a few large
concerns, consign goods to a great many
so-called agents in the country, who dis-
pose of the instruments to their customers
at ridiculously low rates on monthly pay-
ments, returning the contracts to the
manufacturers (or wholesale jobber), who
in turn, to utilize money, deposit these
contracts as collateral with their re-
spective banks, in order to obtain money
to run their business; after several months
the pianos are usually taken up by the
agent for non-payment of the monthly
installments, as they are in many instances
sold to irresponsible parties; the bank,
who holds the contracts as collateral, is
thereby unprotected and unaware of the
fact, and holds these contracts still as col-
lateral (a very reckless and dangerous
business for banks).
Now this is a very important matter to
be arranged between the banks and the
dealers or manufacturers. In our opinion,
however, the only remedy for a better con-
dition of the present trade, is a universal
adoption of a plan, which we are afraid will
never materialize, viz., no pianos should be
sold to any party who is not able to pay at
least 20 per cent, cash and the balance
within- three years on monthly payments.
If a party is not able nor in a condition
to entertain such a proposition, the dealer
should not enter into any other agreement
with him and drop the matter; still some
dealers will do almost anything to affect a
sale, and have the parties on their books
for ten or fifteen years before the account
is liquidated, in the meantime frequently
spending a great deal of money for lawyers,
court expenses, etc.
In our experience it is a difficult matter
to bring dealers in the piano business to a
mutual understanding on this subject.
Each dealer will try his utmost to under-
sell his competitors either in price or on
terms, the natural consequence being loss
to him in the end. Unless the dealers
come together and make an effort to sell
only to responsible parties, there will be
perfect demoralization in the trade. Those
who are financially able will sustain it
until the others will have to throw up the
sponge sooner or later.
Furthermore, the consignment business
of manufacturers to these insignificant
country agents has been all along unprofit-
able, and as long as they are sustained
and encouraged by larger dealers and
manufacturers they will certainly remain
in the field and continue to corrupt the
business. The Piano Manufacturers' As-
sociation of America ought certainly to be
able to check this sort of business, other-
wise they will learn a lesson that they will
not soon forget.
THE WILEY B. ALLEN CO. Portland, Oregon.
The questions you submit put me in
mind of examination day when I was in
college and had questions propounded that
usually floored me; but not so much so as
those you have presented.
I doubt if the great massive mind of a
P. J. Healy, a W. W. Kimball, a Lucien
Wulsin or a Frank Lee would ever attempt
to solve the problem.
A few evenings ago Mr. Henry Spies sat
in my office and argued that all pianos are
" music boxes "—they all are composed of
the same component parts, wood, metal,
felt, ivory or celluloid—that there was no
art in the general get up of a piano; that
the same man building a certain make
to-day might be in a factory building some
other make to-morrow—that a piano is a
" music box " and that is all there is to it.
Now if this is so how can a trust or any
other organization exert any influence in
the conduct of the general piano trade ? A
trust cannot control all the wood that
grows or any of the other parts which go
to make up a piano; and there will always
be some one outside of the trust who will
build a "music box" and he will sell his
piano at whatever price he wants to and on
any terms he chooses, and his agent or
dealer will do the same thing.
The facts are the piano business to-day is
all right, but the greater portion of the men
trying to run the piano business are all
wrong. Cast your eye over the realm of
the piano world and see how many " bar-
nacles " there are in the trade—men who
are trying to run this most intricate busi-
ness without a cent of capital and who are
naturally very liberal when. it comes to
using somebody else's money.
They are the kind that have " all to gain
and nothing to lose." It takes money to
be a successful banker, but it takes a whole
lot more to be a successful piano dealer.
If the manufacturers would only quit
consigning their pianos or backing ir-
responsible agents, then the responsible
men or dealers in the trade would soon
adjust matters so as to run the business on
the proper lines.
E. A. KIESELHORST, St. Louis, Mo.
The only remedy I can suggest for the
demoralized piano business of to-day, is a
"general piano trust," to be operated in a
"humane manner."
My idea in detail
would be too lengthy for publication in
the department you have set aside for this
discussion, therefore I will not submit
same. I think, though, that the majority
of the piano dealers throughout the states
would favor a trust or combination such
as I would suggest, for it would reduce the
price of instruments to purchasers and
yet produce more profit, while employ-
ment would be given to all of the reputa-
ble men now in the business.
GIBBONS & STONE, Rochester, N. Y.
In my judgment you ask a very difficult
question; to answer, embodying it in as
small space as possible, should say:—The
piano business, both manufacturing and
retail, is demoralized, and there is only one
feature that can save it from utter wreck—