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THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
T
EDWARD LYMAN BILL, - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPUJLANE, Managing Editor
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F. H. THOMPSON.
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The directory of piano manufacturing firms and corporation^
Directory of P l a a o
on another page will be of great value, as a reference
Manufacturers found
for dealers and others.
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Price
Paris Exposition, 1000 Silver Medal.Charleston Exposition, 1902
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NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 16, 1907
EDITORIAL
T
HOUSANDS of miles of travel and a personal inspection of
. hundreds of retail piano establishments throughout the coun-
try since the beginning of the year demonstrates a number of things.
First, that January trade was not up to expectations in almost every
section of the country. Dealers who w r ere looking for a lively Janu-
ary in business circles have been disappointed. There have been a
number of contributary causes which have held back business. To
begin with, the weather has very seriously militated against trade
success during the past month, and a great'many people who were
waiting to take advantage of January bargains did not materialize
in the numbers that the dealers fondly anticipated. As a result, it
may be said that the stocks in the retail piano establishments
throughout the country will average from 12 to 15 per cent, more
than last year, and this will account, in a degree, for the slowing
up of orders which have been in evidence at most of the factories
throughout the country. Dealers have been well stocked, and they
have not reduced the number of instruments in the same way that
they expected during the first part of the year.
S
ECOND, it must be conceded that the dealers who were urging
rush shipments in November and December were anxious to
get in plenty of instruments before the anticipated rise in price came
on Jan. 1. Hundreds of merchants all over this country believed
that a rise was inevitable, and they proposed to stock up to the limit
when the old rates were in vogue. They did not hesitate to make
large purchases, believing that they could save considerable money
by so doing. As a result, the warerooms contain to-day a greater
number of instruments than is usual at this season of the year.
This condition of affairs has necessarily caused a material slow-
ing up on trade in wholesale circles during the month of February.
There is, however, nothing in the trade outlook as we view it that
should cause the slightest apprehension as to the business of the year.
As long as the purchasing capacity of this country continues in the
same generous proportion that exists to-day, it means that we have
an absorptive power that will easily take care of several hundred
thousand pianos annually.
HERE is a noticeable tendency on the part of men in all lines
of trade to curtail somewhat the terms of credit which have
been generously extended in times past. This is true in the dry
goods, boot and shoe and hardware trades, and it is beginning to
be noticed in the piano trade. The move should be encouraged,
because, instead of meaning a weakness, it constitutes an element of
great strength. We have reached a point in general business where
it is well, perhaps, to exercise a degree of conservatism which has
not been strongly in evidence during the p?st few years. Pianos
which are sold on long terms of credit to the dealers encourages the
granting of more time to their customers. The dealers figure that
if they have a long extended time in which to make the payments
on pianos they can perhaps go a step further and grant to the pur-
chaser a time extending deferred payments far beyond three years.
I
T is well to curtail such a time business. Pianos which are sold
on payments extending over three years' time are put out on
conditions which may at any time develop tendencies which will
greatly depreciate the paper assets held by the dealers. A curtail-*
ment of credit all along the line will help to strengthen the trade
in every way rather than to weaken it.
The Review has advocated this policy for some months past,
and if piano manufacturers and dealers simply inject in their own
affairs business conservatism which is now in evidence in other
trades, they will be taking the proper move to safeguard their in-
terests in the event of a business depression coming suddenly upon
us. Men who make a careful study of the business situation do not
discover ominous clouds on the business horizon which portend
trade depression.
B
UT we cannot forever keep climbing up in prices. Things
cannot go on appreciating without a break coming at some
time. It may, too, come when we least look for it, and if we are
strongly fortified by having the national business interests safe-
guarded in the way of conducting business on conservative lines,
by the reduction of credit terms, it will be better for the entire
industry, as well as for the country as a whole. Bankers and finan-
ciers urge conservatism, and their advocacy of this policy does not
have its origin in doubt which they hold as to a sudden drop in
the business of the nation, but if business of all kinds is run on a
sound foundation, it will be better for every industry, and the fall
will be shortened when it comes.
T
HE piano business varies somewhat from others, in that it costs
more to sell pianos at retail than almost any other line of
manufactured products. When it is figured on a conservative basis
that it costs from $50 to $85 to sell a piano—and in some cases the
amount exceeds $100—it will be readily seen that a long period
must necessarily elapse from the date the sale is made on a $5-a-
month basis before the dealer is returned sufficient money to cover
the selling expense of the piano. Then add to that the time required
to cover the wholesale cost of the instrument, and it will be seen
that a period of years will have elapsed before he is beginning to
make money out of his investment.
T
HE time of payments should be shortened and the amount of
monthly payments increased. There is no time like the pres-
ent to put such rules in force. Times are not good unless merchants
and manufacturers are making money, and we should not delude
ourselves with the idea that we are making money simply because
we are doing business. There are too many men in the piano busi-
ness, and any other line, for that matter, who have not figured out
systematically what it costs them to do business, and meanwhile they
are resting in the security that because they are getting out a lot of
pianos that they are making a good bit of money. But are-they?
No man should fool himself, and the more careful the analysis of
the trade situation the more we believe that men will incline to the
belief that pianos should be sold on shorter time, and deferred pay-
ments increased as to size, so that the whole period of instalment
should not extend over three years from the date of the sale.
W
E have received as trade legacies a lot of traditions which
have really hampered the industry in its growth, and the
quicker a lot of these old-time theories are exploded once and for all,
the better it will be for the industry, for it will move on, and to a
clearer, purer and better business life.