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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
TWENTY-SECOND YEAR.
RMBV
EDWARD LYMAN BILL,
EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR.
J . B. S P I L L A N E , MANAGING EDITOR.
EMILIE
Executive Staff
:
FRANCfeS
BAUER,
THOS. CAMPBELL-COPELAND
WALDO E. LADD
GEO.
W. QUERIPEL
A. J. NICKLIN
Erery Saturday at 3 East Htt street, New Yort
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage). United States, Mexico
and Canada,$2.oo per year • all other countries, $4.00. '
• ,
ADVERTISEMENTS, $2.00 per inch, single column, per
insertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts a special discount
is allowed. Advertising Pages $50.00, opposite reading matter
$75.00.
REMITTANCES, in other than currency form, should be
made payable to Edward Ljrman Bill.
' " .
.
Entered at the New York Post Office as Stctnd Class Matter.
NEW YORK, FEB. 16, 1901.
TELEPHONE NUMBER, 1745--EIQHTEENTH STREET.
On the first Saturday of each month The
Review contains in its ' Artists Department"
all the current musical news. This is effected
without in any way trespassing on the size or
service of the trade section of the paper. It has
a special circulation, and therefore augments
materially the value of The Review to adver-
tisers^
sold $10,000 of merchandise to the people
who live in and around B——. These
are not fanciful figures, but obtained
after a careful examination of the books
of the express and freight agent. All
of these goods [were ordered by mail,
and in most instances cash was sent with
order. The amount of goods shipped into
B
the past year was equal in amount to
the goods received from the same sources
in the three previous years, which goes to
show that the mail-order habit is conta-
gious, and that there is good reason for
the alarm created by it among the country
merchants.
And what is true of the condition there
is true of nearly every small town in the
West. From interviews with postmasters,
express and freight agents the writer feels
safe in saying that not less than $200,000
of county money near B
has found its
way to Chicago stores during the past year.
The plan of the big catalogue stores is
very simple. They advertise to send their
1500-page catalogue free. When the cata-
logue comes the man who receives it finds
in the introduction on the title page that
the department stores are the only true
friends of the wage-earner and farmer; at
least that is what the catalogue says. The
information is given that the department
stores sell to consumers at the same prices
the local merchant has to pay to wholesale
firms. This is all very alluring.
A careful perusal of the catalogues,
which are all illustrated, shows that liter-
ally thousands of articles are advertised,
in fact everything the consumer wants to
eat or wear; everything needed on the
farm or for building purposes, in short
everything that can be found on sale at
any business place in a country town and
thousands of things that cannot be found
there. As an illustration of department
stores enterprise,it may be noted that on
receipt of $1, a Chicago department store
will send you a tombstone properly let-
tered, the balance, $9.75, payable to the
freight agent on delivery of the stone.
This has caused a great howl to go up
from the country monument dealers.
THE GREAT PIANO PROBLEM.
TT has been stated upon fairly good au-
thority, that one Chicago department
store, termed colloquially "a catalogue
house," sold nearly two thousand pianos
last year. In this statement, as far as fig-
ures are concerned, we must differ mater-
ially from the views of. our informant—to
halve the figures would approximate more
closely the actual number sold.
Whether the number was one or two
thousand is immaterial; the fact remains
that the catalogue houses are a factor to be
reckoned with in the future distribution of
the piano output of America. If, in two
or three years, these catalogue houses have
reached a point in the aggregate where
they dispose of thousands of pianos annu-
ally, then what point will they have
reached a decade hence?
That is a question which contains more
than an item of interest for the piano man-
ufacturer, as well as the piano merchant.
There are great big chunks of interest
that somehow will not be disposed of at
will.
It is a matter which is destined to grow
in importance with the years. We have
Scarcely any business man in the West-
taken some pains to investigate this en-
ern New York towns is exempt from this
croachment of what we may term the cat-
Chicago competition. It hits alike the
alogue house trade upon regular lines in
dry goods dealer and grocer, the carriage
small towns.
dealer and the furniture man, the piano,
The country merchants of the West are
the hardware dealer and plumber, the
becoming thoroughly alarmed over the in-
music dealer, the shoe dealer and clothing
roads made during the past three years by
merchant, the druggist and bookseller, the
the Chicago catalogue houses, and espe-
milliner and jeweler, the owner of the vil-
cially during the past three months.
lage grist mill and the village harness-
The town of B- , in Illinois, is a town maker. An order for a bag of middlings
of 1,200 people and a trading center per- is filled just as promptly by the depart-
haps of 4,000. During the past eleven ment stores as an order for a double-bitted
months Chicago catalogue houses have ax.
Even in Western New York this compe-
tition has been felt.
Not until the past year have the de-
partment stores cut into the grocery trade
to any extent, but to-day hundreds of
Western New York families buy a large
percentage of their groceries by mail from
the Chicago department stores. Several
farmers living just out of town buy
practically all their merchandise, includ-
ing clothing, groceries, dry goods, foot-
wear and farm implements in Chicago.
One farmer sent a draft for nearly $300
the other day for a bill of goods for him-
self and some orders for his neighbors. In
this way excessive freight charges were
avoided. On patent medicines the depart-
ment stores quote about the same prices
that the cut-rate drug stores in cities do—
that is, they offer many dollar preparations
for from sixty-five to eighty cents.
In one Allegany country town the mer-
chants have adopted a simple method of
meeting department store competition.
Each merchant keeps on his counter
a department store price list.
When
a customer comes in and begins to tell
how cheap this or that article can be pur-
chased by mail the merchant opens the
price list and agrees to duplicate any
article named therein both in price and
quality. Local merchants insist that
many of the articles furnished by the de-
partment stores are not as represented,
that instead of furnishing first quality,
they often furnish second quality, and
that considering the grade of goods they
furnish that they get a good price for
them. Then they assert that the item of
freight or express always paid by the pur-
chaser, is a matter worth considering. In
addition they say that the local merchant
is expected to "carry" country customers
from sixty to ninety days, but whatever
they buy from Chicago or New York de-
partment stores must be either cash with
order or cash on delivery. Then the local
merchant is always to be found and is usu-
ally ready to make good any error or de-
fect.
That the arguments they bring to bear
have no weight is seen in the steady growth
of the business of the catalogue houses.
They have secured a business which if it
continues to grow as it has will inside of
three years force out of business 30 per
cent, of the small merchants.
Some piano men will say that this has
no interest for them, that their position is
secure, that people will not buy pianos
that way.
Stuff and nonsense. They will buy that
way unless something is done to counter,
act the influence of the catalogue houses-