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Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
VOL. LXIII. No. 23
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lymao Bill, Inc., at 373 4th Aye., New York, Dec. 2, 1916
Select Your Customers
G
O into any part of the country that you will at the present time, and prosperity is in the air. It may
be, as the pessimistically inclined declare, a false and bubble-like prosperity, but nevertheless everyone
is doing business, and a big business, too. There is less unemployment than there has been for years.
Money is plentiful and people are spending it. All of which leads one to inquire as to what the piano
merchants are doing to get their share of this prosperity.
You hear talk of high costs—not talk, but facts. Every time a piano manufacturer places an order for
supplies, he has to pay more for them. A part of this increase has been passed along to the retailer, who in turn
has been compelled to raise his prices to a certain extent. But all this has not apparently affected the demand for
pianos.
For the first time in some years there is earnest talk of a possible piano shortage. Certain successful
dealers are already complaining of the difficulty in getting instruments in sufficient quantities to meet the unusual
demand. We again ask, are the retailers taking the fullest advantage of this opportunity?
While the piano merchant complains that he cannot get sufficient instruments to take care of his business,
he places himself in a position to choose his business. In other words, if he has two customers in sight for one
piano, he is in a position to assert his prerogative and give that piano to the customer who either pays cash, or
who is willing and in a position to make the best terms from the piano merchant's standpoint. Are the dealers
doing this?
When you visit the groceryman or the butcher he greets you with a suave assurance that sugar, eggs or
chops have gone up in price since your last purchase. He has been doing it for months, and in a great number
of cases he takes time by the forelock and beats the market to it a little. In other words, he gets the increase
before he pays it.
The average piano man works on a different system. He apologizes for pianos costing more. He offers
to offset it by reducing his terms of payment. In other words, he has not the faith in his position to stand on
his rights and demand that the prospective customer share the increased cost equitably.
For a piano man to get a proper price for his instruments, to insist on short terms, with big first payments,
and to select his customers and turn down questionable business in favor of that which is unquestionably good,
does not in any sense reflect a purely grasping nature. He owes it to himself and to his business to take advantage
of the opportunities that now present themselves.
Even the most optimistic business men know and admit that even though the present prosperity may have a
foundation much more solid than even we credit it with, it will not last forever. In six or twelve months perhaps,
there may come a downward sweep. The dealer who is watching his sales now, who is making good sales and
letting the poor ones slip, who is getting real money, and the proper amount of money for his instruments, is
going to have sufficient cash to take care of his obligations when conditions are not as satisfactory as they are at
present. On the other hand, the merchant who has been shipping out pianos on long time at a small margin
of profit and to doubtful risks, will find himself with little cash, but with a great volume of questionable paper
on his hands. Even in good times the best piano paper does not compare with a first mortgage or real esate as
collateral. When money is tight and times are hard piano paper does not represent an asset that will replace
cash in swinging a large business.
With the cutting down of employment comes repossessions. The man who cannot make fair payments now
will not be able to make any payments at all when his job is gone. These are facts and not the talk of the ordinary
alarmist. The piano merchant who takes advantage of the present opportunities with proper effort is going to
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