Music Trade Review

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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 WAY 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 three
weeks were most interesting. This week's symposium is still another valuable
expression of opinion. The discussion will be continued in our next issue.
C. F. GROBMANN, Milwaukee, Wis.
Talking from my own standpoint of
twenty-seven years of experience, and con-
sidering the piano business from a profit
standpoint, I hold the solid opinion that
the business is as profitable as ever it was,
with these exceptions: there are more
dealers than formerly, consequently the
profits, though just as good, are not so nu-
merous.
From a business standpoint, pianos can
sell and are selling as much as at any time
in this trade, but the purchasing power is
not so much in evidence, and, in conse-
quence, the profits instead of going to the
once few dealers who made it their special
and only business, is now distributed
among the mass of sewing machine agents,
bicyle dealers, auctioneers and department
stores.
Formerly a purchaser bought his piano
from a regular piano dealer, but now he or
she buys it from any of the above "ped-
dlers."
Where is the root of the evil?
First, the supply house. Anyone can
go there and buy all the parts necessary
for a piano, put them together, label it
with a name of their own choice, go to a
bicycle dealer, sewing machine agent, or
pump peddler and say:
" Here is a $500 monoply price piano,
which I will sell you for $88," and the
peddler grabs for it like a trout for a
winny, and he certainly sells it to some-
body.
Second, this transaction puts the legiti-
mate manufacturer to thinking, and he
goes to work and builds a competing
piano, goes to the regular dealer and says:
" We have got just the piano you want for
$90. If I can't sell you my legitimate
goods, let me sell you this." Not suc-
ceeding in planting a dealer with his $90
piano, he will hunt the town high and low for
some peddler who will buy it and does buy
it. Now what can the dealer do? If those
boxes were out of existence it is questiona-
ble whether a "peddler " would dare invest
in the price of a first-class piano for fear of
not being able to get his profit in selling
it. True, some of the dealers have been
compelled to handle some of these boxes
and even gone so far as to advertise them:
A $350 piano for $160, with $5 down
and $5 per month. Now what in all crea-
tion can the .poor public do? So long as
cheap boxes are in the market so long will
there be a mass of cheap peddlers. This
cheapness has led many dealers to believe
and say the piano trade is getting to be
commercial instead of artistic, as was
formerly. This is a mistake. The busi-
ness has always been, and will continue to
be commercial so long as a manufacturer
or dealer makes his living out of it.
But there is a vast difference between
high-grade commercialism and stencil
commercialism.
The piano business is just what the
manufacturers and dealers make it.
W. A. DEAN CO., Sioux City, la.
The retail piano business as it is carried
on is a good deal like loaning money, as
the most of it has to be done on the in-
stallment plan. There are many objec-
tionable features. Many dealers set pianos
out on trial and sell them a good deal like
the cheap auctioneers do their business.
The first legitimate bid above cost takes
them.
Dealers who do business this way have
about as many prices as customers, and
have to keep continually changing their
instruments, or else their location. We
do not believe in delivering any piano un-
less price, terms and details are settled
before the instrument leaves the store.
Many manufacturers try to get an agency
in almost every county, and do not seem
to take into consideration that if a dealer
does any business that amounts to any-
thing, that they must have pianos of sev-
eral makes or compete on same make, and
if either sells, the one that cuts the lowest
makes the sale.
We have in mind a certain person who
was in the store to-day from a small town
about forty miles from here, who says he
was offered a piano of a certain make at a
price that we know is not more than $20
in excess of what the piano costs at the
factory.
This dealer in the small town does not
sell more than one or two pianos in a year.
In an adjoining town same thing occurred
about six months ago; neither of the par-
ties have sold yet, but that particular piano
is virtually killed in those towns, as far as
money maker is concerned. As a rule it is
impossible for any dealer to handle any
make of piano successfully where the man-
facturer insists upon having the agencies
too close together. Where agencies are
too close, a dealer scarcely knows what
piano to recommend when a customer
comes in his place of business. Again,
many dealers, whether in city or country
towns, if a purchaser comes into their
store from some distance, and wishes to
buy for cash, will sell him at almost cost
rather than miss the sale.
We do not see any way to remedy it,
except for the manufacturer and dealer to
work nearer hand in hand. The manu-
facturer should take the success of the
dealer into consideration. No dealer can
afford to tie to any manufacturer if he
cannot make money on their goods.
No dealer can make a complete success
with any instrtiment unless he has control
of the retail prices within his territory.
After taking everything into consider-
ation, the piano business same as any
other to be successful must have some
one back of it who understands the details
of the business, and who is capable of
managing it successfully on business
principles.
ROBERT WEBSTER, Brooklyn.
Is there a Remedy? May it not be the
condition of the purchasing public from
which the piano trade is suffering? It is
well enough for the dealer to tell what
terms ought to be made in piano sales, but
the purchaser's ability to pay must govern
the terms.
Any plan for improving the conditions
of trade, which does not include the im-
provement of the purchaser's ability to
pay must necessarily fail. The Dingley
tariff having failed to give us good busi-
ness, good wages, and high prices all hope
for improved ability to pay seems to be
lost, and the only remedy left for impaired
profits seems to be that some, and several,
of the piano manufacturers must quit.
A. A. TAYLER & CO., Tacoma, Wash.
As to whether the 'music dealers of
America are selling goods on too close a
margin we are unable to express an
opinion from lack of information. We
believe the same eternal rules apply to the
piano as to other lines of business. The
competent man succeeds when circum-
stances are favorable and he sometimes
succeeds against unfavorable ones. The
incompetent fails. It has never been our
impression that the piano man sells on too
small a margin of profit. Rather it is the
other way and this tempts him into extrav-
agances of expense in conducting his
business and into the foolishness of
sacrificing all profit on a sale in order to
beat a competitor expecting that a sub-
sequent safe will keep his average of profit
high. This is one way of conducting the
business that is not on a " proper" line.
On the whole however the business is con-
ducted as it should be. Large combina-
tions of capital will continue and increase,
either by the growth of houses already
existing or by the coalition of smaller ones
into a larger concern. The tendency of
the times is that way.
A remedy for some evils would be that