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THE: MUSIC TRADE: REVIEIW
He would be at best a ministerial officer whose duties could be per-
formed by the merest tyro.
Now, it is, after all, confidence which is the cornerstone of
credit. We know of many piano dealers to whom has been extended
liberal credit, simply because manufacturers had implicit confidence
in the moral stability of these men. Their property rating amounts
to naught, but while they were short on coin they were long on
confidence.
arguments to change our original opinion. Some department stores
in at least two cities of the Union have conducted their business on
a broad, substantial, progressive basis. Far from injuring the retail
trade, they have upheld it by dignified advertising.
Some of the wisest piano manufacturers who linked arms with
the department store men insisted that prices on their product should
not be mentioned in their advertisements, and if they were, they
could not be below the regular list price.
\ A 7HILE recently chatting with the manager of one of the most
F course this rule is applied to regular styles and not those
important retail piano concerns in the far West, the con-
out of date.
versation turned upon the benefits to be derived by the adoption of
the one-price system.
The manager spoke in the most complimentary terms regarding
the positive stand which The Review has taken for years in urging
When the department stores have quoted cut rate prices on
certain makes, it has had a tendency to discourage dealers in adja-
cent territory from pushing those pianos with the same vigor which
perhaps had previously characterized their efforts.
the adoption of one price for pianos at retail. He stated that he has
been influenced by The Review arguments in favor of the one-price
system and had established it successfully. In fact, he waxed elo-
quent upon the subject and stated that the results have been more
than satisfactory.
We mention this because there are still some dealers who will
fail to comprehend that the one-price system means business honesty
—that it means advance for them as well as for the industry which
We know of one instance where a dealer not a thousand miles
from New York intended to take on a certain piano. He corre-
sponded with the manufacturers, had been visited by their traveler,
and was ready to place a large order, but out came a New York
paper announcing a cut rate price by a department store on the in-
struments which he was considering. The papers were circulated
in his neighborhood, and he at once stopped further negotiations
with the manufacturers.
they represent.
Last w.eek a well-known department store advertised "$265 for
Rigidity of price is business advance upon sound lines.
a superb upright piano, made to retail at $400; sold in various stores
Another subject which is bound to come up for consideration
throughout the United States at $400."
by the retail piano merchants in conjunction with the one-price sys-
Now, it did not take the dealers very long to find out what
tem will be, whether or not large cash discounts should be allowed
particular piano was referred to by the advertisement.
from prices that are fixed.
needless to add that there has not been enthusiastic pushing of that
\ | OW, why not, provided we concede that the one-price system
particular piano in regular trade circles.
*• ^
A Jl ANUFACTURERS are becoming more and more impressed
is an absolute necessity, make the price the same to everyone,
And it is
and insert the interest clause in the contracts of those who desire to
*• * *
make time payments?
beautiful veneers. There is more attention paid to special woods
We know of an establishment—one price at that—where a
with the advantages of having their instruments encased in
than ever before in this industry. Novelties and rare figurings are
piano was placarded to sell at $400. On this a discount of 10 per
considered most desirable. Our new possessions in the Orient are
cent, was allowed for cash, thus bringing the retail price down to
going to supply some of these novelties along these lines, and it is
$360. Now, was not the cash customer receiving too great a benefit ?
probable that within the next few years that the piano salesmen may
If there is to be a 10 per cent, discount, why not ticket the piano
accustom himself to the following words: narra, tindalo, camagon,
$360 instead of $400. The cash customer by such a system makes
elbanao, calamansanay, tucancalao and alintatao.
$40 on the first day, whereas a time customer pays interest on $400
from the date of purchase.
I S there not too great a discrepancy between the two purchases?
* . As long as the dealer is receiving interest on the purchase,
why should he not consider cash and time alike? It is a question
well worth considering, and we are rather of the opinion that the
dealer who advertises the price to everyone the same on the same
day is moving along pretty substantial grounds. He is following
lines which are usually considered absolutely sound by the best mer-
cantile and commercial authorities.
They hardly can be called jaw breakers, because each word has
that soft, smooth sound peculiar to the Spanish. They are the names
of woods which soon should attract the attention of piano makers.
R
ECENTLY while we were discussing the commercial possibili-
ties of the Philippines with General Fred Grant, he stated
that it would be difficult even to approximate the present value of
the timber on the public lands in those islands. The statistics of
the War Department show that several hundred varieties of native
woods are brought to Manila from the various islands and are dis-
posed of at a fair price.
\ A 1 E never have seen cause to modify our original opinion of the
We speak of this particularly because alarmists have expressed
department stores as piano distributing factors. At the out-
fears that the American forests are not liable to endure for more
set we claimed that under the proper auspices it was possible in
than fifty years at the present rate of consumption of timber in the
two or three great cities in the land for department stores to assume
United States. There are now in the Philippines over forty mil-
prominence as vendors of pianos.
lions of acres of virgin forests which represent a value difficult of
Now the developments of the past three years have not supplied
estimating. Piano men will have no cause to worry evidently.