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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
surrounded with healthful influences, and what is better still, their
employment has been steady.
S
OME of the disturbers have pointed at the high wages com-
manded by the bricklayers in contrast to piano workers. Look
at the difference in the occupation. A bricklayer is exposed to severe
climatic conditions, and cannot secure steady employment. He there-
fore, should, of necessity, receive more than the piano man, but how
different are their working surroundings !
The same may be said of many other industries in which high
wages are paid, but when we come to consider the irregularity of
the work, and the exposed conditions under which the men labor,
together with occasional lack of employment, it seems that the
argument is all on the side of the piano workers, and most of them
have sense enough to know that they are getting good wages under
pleasant conditions, and it would be absurd for them to follow some
selfish labor leader simply to stir up things. It is well for them to
look before they leap, and because these men have used some intelli-
gence and reason in looking into the matter, they have failed to
accede to the demands of the organization leaders. They know that
a good warm, well-lighted, ventilated factory, with steady employ-
ment and good wages is a mighty sight better than walking the
streets, hanging around the corners waiting for labor leaders to draw
good salaries to "fix things."
It seems unfortunate that we should have a class of men who,
in order to make a pretense of earning their salaries, find it neces-
sary to foment trouble between employer and employe when both
are satisfied with the existing conditions.
T
HERE is no mistaking the fact that general trade conditions
are changed, and while this is the age of the specialist con-
ditions also favor generalizing in the vending of merchandise. The
catalogue houses are building up an enormous trade in every line of
manufactured products, and they are selling, too, a good many pianos
in remote country districts. Department stores in this city and else-
where are disposing of thousands of pianos annually, and they have
done this in spite of all the dire predictions that were made when
department store methods were applied to the retailing of pianos.
As a matter of fact it may be truthfully said that save in one or
two cases the methods adopted by the department stores have been
helpful rather than injurious, and it cannot be denied that they have
been powerful factors in distributing musical merchandise.
O
F course what we may term the legitimate trade, view with con-
siderable alarm, the constant encroachment upon their regular
domain, but when you come to figure it out, what is the legitimate
competition ? Much is said about it, but the way merchandising is
changing, it would be pretty hard to tell to-day in many lines what
are legitimate and what are not.
It was but a few years ago that stove dealers protested against
their product being sold by furniture dealers; also the carpet stores
likewise had serious criticisms to make; they said let every merchant
stick to his legitimate business, but the furniture dealer encroached
more and more upon the specialist. He annexed stoves, carpets,
crockery, silverware, pictures, baby carriages, everything that would
work into his business to advantage, until he carried about every-
thing except straight dry goods and notions. Then the dry goods
stores woke up and annexed furniture. About the time there were
lively comments and many of the leading merchants declared that
they would not buy goods of any manufacturer who sold the dry
goods store. They could not hold to the statement for all manufac-
turers were clamoring for department store trade. Gradually the
opposition subsided until to-day they consider the much-hated com-
petitor as legitimate.
P
RESUMABLY the times will change in this trade so that any
kind of stores which handle musical instruments will be
regarded in a very much different light than they are to-day—in fact
all merchandising, no matter by whom carried on, will be viewed
as legitimate in days to come.
The strongest menace to the retail lines is the steady trend to-
wards selling direct from factory to consumer. This is the new
menace to general warerooms. Whatever will be the outcome of this,
it is difficult to predict, for it cannot be denied that the catalogue
house people have a strong argument on their side. This weakness
lies in the fact that they sell cheap goods, but they sell them cheap.
Therefore the customer secures a fair value, and then when they
handle thirty million dollars' worth of merchandise a year, if they
make ten per cent, on the total sales, it is a pretty good proposition,
and what merchant is there who can do business on a ten per cent,
margin ? The retail stores throughout the country would have to
close up on such a thin margin of profit, therefore it cannot be denied
that the catalogue house people have gained an indisputable argu-
ment in their favor. Perhaps even they may be called legitimate
some day, for a little retrospect shows us that the legitimate dealer
of to-day is the tabooed, maligned and illegitimate dealer of yes-
terday.
I
T pays every salesman to be on time. Coming late denotes lazi-
ness and may be construed as meaning dissipation ; at any rate it
shows a certain amount of lack of interest, whereas being on time
denotes alertness and interest. Tardiness may seem a small thing
to the employe, but it is one of the things that are held in detestation
by most employers. Five minutes lost by an employe means an hour
lost by twelve employes who are five minutes late in starting, and this
amounts to quite startling proportions in the course of a year. And
it is just such little leakages of time and materials that sometimes
determine the profit or loss for a year. Think what it amounts to in
a year if a hundred men are late ten minutes each day in their work.
E
VERY piano manufacturer has to figure closely to-day on every
atom which enters into the construction of a piano. The dealer
is all the time demanding pianos for less money, and better pianos,
too, and the manufacturer is always trying to give bigger values, and
he has got to measure the cost of every screw and every atom which
goes into the makeup of the piano, and why should not a piano mer-
chant figure as closely in his own expenses ? And why should not the
salesman, if he desires to make himself more valuable to his em-
ployer, figure to make all of these points for him ? Punctuality is a
good habit to cultivate. It pays, and the employe who comes in late
presumably is not in the path of advancement. As a matter of fact
the path is leading in the other direction. It pays to come early,
even if "the boss" isn't around. It is more productive of monetary
standing, and besides that, if you wait every morning until the streets
are thoroughly aired before opening the store some one may be kind
enough to put the proprietor wise, and some fine morning he may
get down before you, and what then ?
E
VERY expense in business has to be carefully considered, be-
cause there can be no business without expense, but expenses
are often the cause of failure, and it is necessary to-day for the
piano men to consider every atom of expense in selling instruments.
A good many have not gone into this as carefully as they should,
and a good many do not know to-day what it actually costs them to
sell pianos. One piano man remarked the other day that his selling
cost was trifling, and yet we learned upon investigation that at least
a dozen important items were not computed in his estimate. Ex-
penses should be watched in every particular, for they are often the
cause of failure, and still necessary expenses are part of the corner-
stone of business success. Mostly everything in a business, good or
bad, beneficial or detrimental, emanates in its origin from the ex-
penses. We might call them the dynamo for generating the power
and strength of the business and often determining its stability or
destroying it.
E
XPENSES are ordinarily the cause of the manifold facts shown
in the various phases of business evolution. They are con-
cerned directly or indirectly in every circumstance that confronts us
in daily business life, and have a bearing on every transaction. They
act in their application as the mainspring and regulator, and are the
pivotal point of business. It should, therefore, be the foremost atti-
tude of every merchant to watch expenses to see that they are judic-
iously applied, and that they are based on an adapted system peculiar
to the existing and prevailing effects of the business. When you
hear a man say that it costs him but a little to do business, it is safe
to assume that that man has not gone into the subject of cost selling as
deeply as he should. Because there is no business to-day where the
selling expenses are light, surely not connected with the piano trade,
and because a good many men have not actually understood the
selling expenses has been one reason why we have not more rich
piano merchants than we have at the present time. They haven't
gone into the selling expenses as minutely as they should.