Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
MUJIC THADE
S64475
VOL. LV. No. 1.
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman BUI at 373 Fourth Ave., New York, July 6,1912
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Problems of Merchandising Distribution
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HE whole subject of merchandising distribution needs a more careful and scientific analysis than
many of us have seemed to think it necessary to make.
Sales-making- in all branches of the industry is changing—methods of reaching the public
are constantly changing, and no business man who expects to conduct a successful trade enter-
prise can be long indifferent to the radical changes which are steadily going on in every trade.
If we remain indifferent to those changes and fail to accustom our own business plans to harmonize
with them, then we must expect to suffer a certain defeat.
As for methods—as for plans—there seems to be no fixed' standard, no general trade recipe which a
man may learn and apply afterwards to his own field of distribution.
That is not possible, but we can analyze them all—we can then determine what particular fragments
or parts may fit in best in our own particular case.
I question whether there ever will be in the history of merchandising fixed or unchangeable plans
which may be adopted by-merchants in all lines as being specially applicable to broaden their own business
enterprise.
One man will naturally work out certain ideas and develop particular theories which he himself thinks
will win him the best results in his own territory, and another man may work along entirely different lines
in any section of the country, and yet both may win distinguished success.
The principle of efficiency is well defined as meaning the relation between a determined standard .and
the actual performance now in production; but it is difficult to devise rules which will apply successfully
to every business so that satisfactory results may be achieved; but men must have ideals, else 1 affirm they
cannot do good work. Then let us work for an ideal in the distribution of merchandise that will stand for
efficiency.
While there may be a variety of ideas and theories as to the conduct of individual business enterprises,
yet there is one governing standard which may be undeviatingly applied to the world of trade, and that is
the standard of business honesty—a standard which insures to every purchaser a full equivalent for the
money invested, and I believe that while methods may change and views of men may differ as to general
plans and theories, yet these fundamentals will exist as long as time endures.
The average merchant—I mean by that the small dealer—has but a limited ide"a of his function in the
great field of merchandising.
Search where you will, it will be found that the small merchant will say that there are too many com-
petitors in the field and that it is always the other fellows that ought to get out—not himself.
There are too many in almost any business field—no question about that; but you will find invariably
that it is the unsuccessful man who rests in this belief and does not attempt to make his position a stronger
one.
One may sit down and argue that too many merchants in a local field mean salaries, wages, insurance
and all other expenses which must be charged up to each individual business.
True, but one man does not want to quit to make it easier for his fellow merchant, so there is where a
careful analysis is necessary.
.
Personally, I believe that many of these smaller men must be ground out of existence because they
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