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THE
MUSIC
TRADE
been particularly interesting to note the information conveyed in
the replies which we have received thus far. With a few excep-
tio'ns they all indicate a depleted number of instruments in the
retailers' hands at the present time. As compared with last January
the amount is materially decreased. This is easily understood when
we consider that when the panic struck us in the early fall with its
cyclonic force there was an immediate cessation of orders. Dealers
began to draw upon their reserve stock rather than drawing upon
the manufacturers, and while the holiday trade was disappointing,
yet the warerooms were not overstocked before Christmas and but
little additional stock was ordered. So at the beginning of the year
the retail trade of this country starts in with fewer instruments on
hand than is usual at this season of the year. It may be said that
some instruments will be taken back on account of the inability of
the purchasers to meet the deferred payments and afterwards resold.
Every week the possibility of the "comebacks" interfering with the
regulars sales is becoming less remote because there are more fac-
tories resuming, consequently less people out of employment.
O
F course there are instances here and there where dealers carry
stock fully up to the average, but viewing the country as a
whole it may be stated that the warerooms stocks are depleted so
that dealers must be forced to order frequently. Just at the present
they are not likely to order in large quantities for two reasons.
First, because piano 1 shipments in winter are attended with more
or less danger to the stock in transit. The freezing weather and
uncertainty of the time of arrival of pianos carries with it an ele-
ment of doubt as to condition of the highly finished instruments
when shipped in extreme winter weather. Another, the principal
reason, is the fact that dealers propose to move ahead on rather
cautious lines. They do not propose to stock up in a large way,
therefore it is reasonable to expect that orders will come in in a
gingerly way for a few weeks yet.
I
N the general trade bargains will now be in order and the news-
papers will teem with special sale announcements. Nineteen
hundred and eight does not differ from other years in this respect
for the ambitious shop owner enters his store the day after Christ-
mas, and as he gazes about at the depleted stock and listless clerks,
he decides that instant action must be taken to instill some life into*
trade. Stagnation is fatal and undesirable and a stock of goods
bought for special selling is not to be thought of. Something must
be done and that right away. The first thing that is generally do'ne
is to take a quick inventory of all goods bought specially for holiday
selling. These then are heralded forth in advertisements in the local
papers.
P
IANO merchants cannot follow out the same plan because their
lines are so restricted. They must figure o'ut some special
form of attraction to capture the slow and timid dollars. Price cut-
ting on regular lines should not be indulged in. It hurts business—
it injures future trade more than helping out present needs. There
is hardly a piano business in the country that is worth dignifying
by calling it an establishment which has not a lot of odds and ends,
"comebacks" and some instruments of antique patterns that can
be put forth in special sales without injuring the reputation of regu-
lar instruments by an unhealthy slaughtering of price. If such
stocks are carefully gone over and placed in a salable condition and
then fairly go'od space is taken in the daily papers, and that space
well utilized by relating in good forcible English a description of the
special bargains, the dealer will get results. Announce the fact
eloquently and plainly that the price knife has cut deeply into the
vitals of every one of the instruments which are specially adver-
tised. Tell why. It pays to take people into your confidence. Then
keep pounding away on such sales for a week or ten days or two
weeks and use good sized space in your newspaper announcements
and you will be surprised to see what a tremendous effect this sale
will have towards cleaning up unsalable stock, pianos that have been
wall room flowers for some time—the flotsam and jetsam of years,
and enable you to get these unproductive goods into cash and good
instalment accounts. The bargain proposition can be worked intel-
ligently without injuring in the slightest regular stock, but do not
unwisely rush into a price slaughter of regular instruments. It
takes a long time to regain a piano reputation which may have
been injured through a slaughter sale.
REVIEW
So-called luck is another name for hard work.
There is nothing worth the winning that is not worth fighting for.
Put up such a stror.g argument that no one will desire cancellations.
Have you made plans for a broadening of your business during 1908,
or are you contracting?
Was there ever a time when alertness in every nerve was not neces-
saiy to win out? If so, what was the period?
Battles on the field of salesmanship are usually won by the men who
do the largest amount of intellectual planning.
him.
No man can ever make much headway unless people have faith in
One never appreciates how valuable character is until it is lost.
Usually it will be found that the man who tries to escape hard work
nearly always is hustling harder for a living than almost anyone else.
Of course business is not easy to win just now, but tell us pray when
was success ever within easy reach, just sort of dangling before us, so
to speak?
There should be no juggling with business dishonesty. We want the
real simon pure article nowadays, we have seen enough of the other kind
among the manipulators in high financial circles.
MISTRESS FOR THE
having quarreled with my
Gebhart—"Why? Has
Carsone—"Worse than
OCCASION.— Carsone—"I shall always regret
wife."
she gone home to her mother and so forth?"
that! She had her mother come home to her!"
NOT TACTFUL.—"I met Mrs. Hardup the other day, and she looked
queer and evaded me when I asked her what her husband was doing now."
"No wonder."
"Why, what is he doing?"
N
"Time."
HELPING HER.—"You loved her very much?"
"So much that when her first husband died I married her that I
might share her grief and so lessen it."
"And how did it work?"
"Fi~e! I'm sorrier now for his death than she is."
WHY NOT?—Tommie was having his hair cut and the barber got the
shears pretty close to the boy's head, so Tommie began to cry.
"Oh, fie! Tommie!" said his mother; "you don't cry when I'm cutting
you a piece of pie!"
"Well, I do if you cut it too short."
HOW IT HAPPENED.—A certain member of the fashionable Metro-
politan and Chevy Chase clubs at the National capital has all his life
borne many quips by reason of his exceedingly diminutive stature.
Last spring the diminutive clubman took unto himself a wife, the
daughter of_a well-known Federal official, who is said to be as witty as
her father.
"Mrs. Blank," said a friend one day recently, "I have just seen your
husband for the first time since his marriage. Do you know, he seems
shorter than ever."
"Why not?" asked the wife with a smile; "he's married and settled
down."
PIANO DISCOUNTS BEATEN.—"Mark Twain is the most interesting
character in American literature to-day and has made more money out of
it than any other author," said A. S. Swanson, representative of one of
the great publishing houses. "He lives just around the corner from our
place, so we see him very often. He is never so happy as when telling
a story, and is often seen doing so in a group of congenial spirits. He
was telling me that recently he went into the sales department of our
house, and being attracted by a particular book asked the price.
" 'Four dollars,' said the clerk.
" 'Well, now,' said Mr. Clemens, 'I am a newspaper writer. Don't I
get a discount for that?'
" 'Certainly,' replied the obliging clerk.
" 'I am also a magazine writer. Do I get something off for that?'
" 'Yes,' said the clerk, 'you get a discount for that.'
" 'I am also an author. Don't I come in on the author's discount?'
" 'Yes, sir; you get the author's discount.'
" 'In addition,' said Mr. Clemens, 'I am a stockholder in this house.
Does that entitle me to something off?'
" 'Yes, sir,' the clerk returned.
" 'Now,' continued Mr. Clemens, 'I would like to state that I am
Samuel Clemers. Does that fact entitle me to another rake-off?'
" 'It does,' said the clerk after a moment's hesitation.
" 'That's good,' replied the author; 'now how much do I owe you?'
" 'We owe you 80 cents,' said the clerk."