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APRIL 13,
THE MUSIC TRADE
1918
REVIEW
11
CONDUCTING A RETAIL PIANO BUSINESS IN WAR TIME—(Continued from page 9)
always be the same. The maximum percentage
for rent, advertising, for salaries, and all over-
head expense should always be the same and
every dealer who debits each sale with the items
that should go against it and sees that those
E. Paul Hamilton
items are proportionate, cannot help but do a
business on a profitable basis.
"The eagerness to get sales, the frenzy to get
more and more sales, has always been respon-
sible for all the evils that the piano trade has
had to contend with from time to time.
"The desire to beat records prompted over-
production, over-production was responsible for
over-selling on long terms on part of the fac-
tories to the retailer. The retailer counting on
long credit and financial backing from the fac-
tory—over-expanded and this resulted—fake
sales—puzzle scheme sales—forced sales on
long terms with free gifts—twenty-five-year
guarantees—free exchanges for higher-priced
instruments and nothing down and a dollar a
week sales. It seemed as if anything went, as
long as a piano could be sent out and a signed
lease placed with a manufacturer or bank as
collateral for further credit.
"Then—some of them woke up
To-day
when credit is harder to obtain, when produc-
tion is on the decrease and the manufacturers
are not vying with each other to get the other
fellow's business, to-day at last the retailer is
beginning to realize that to sell fewer pianos
with a safe margin of profit is better business
than a large volume of business and its larger
volume of worries and responsibilities.
"To-day when he knows he must have cash
to pay his taxes, the dealer begins to believe
that he could sell pianos and insist on larger
down payments and monthly instalments. To-
day when cabinets and music rolls, stools,
benches, covers and scarfs have gone up in
price, the retailer suddenly discovers that per-
haps pianos and player-pianos could be sold
without free gifts.
"To-day when a dealer is not overstocked
with instruments he is almost persuaded that
it is better to refuse a deal than make a ques-
tionable deal which might eventually mean a
repossession.
" 'Tis an ill wind that does not blow some
one some good, and I firmly believe that con-
ditions to-day will force most piano dealers to
adopt ways and means to conduct a profitable
business whether they want to or not. Let us
only hope that they will see fit to continue to
do so when normal times and conditions are
with us again."
More Business Than Usual Is De Moll's Motto
WASHINGTON, D. C, April 8.—As O. J.
Moll, head of O. J. DeMoll & Co., views
present situation in the music trade, it is
of opportunity for the merchant who has
courage to discount the future and change
De
the
one
the
his
O. J. De Moll
methods where necessary to conform with the
new conditions. "I would like to change the
slogan from 'Business as Usual' to 'More Busi-
ness Than Usual,'" said Mr. DeMoll. "If the
piano merchants will just realize the conditions
as they exist now, look a little into the future
and discount conditions which are sure to come
177ie frest/cnout/t
musical name
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about, they will do more business than usual
and incidentally get better first payments and
better terms than ever before. In most every
manufacturing town in the United States the
factories are busy and the employes getting
higher salaries, and there is no reason why the
initial payment should not be more and the
monthly terms increased.
"If the piano merchants are selling goods to-
day on the same basis as they did a year or two
ago, they are making a great mistake. They
cannot expect the manufacturers to carry them
in these strenuous times as they have been car-
ried before.
"I had the good fortune a short while ago
to hear Mr. Selfridge, of the Selfridge depart-
ment store in London, and the part of his
speech that interested me most was the fact
that they are selling pianos in London and are
doing quite a business. Many families that had
been wanting a piano for some time have two
or three girls who are now working and who
have longed for a piano for years. Everyone
in the family now working they are able to buy
one.
"These conditions exist here in Washington
now and probably elsewhere. It is a very rare
thing now to come across a person who wants
work, who cannot get a position. My sugges-
tion to the piano merchants of America is to
carry out the following rules for 1918:
"1. Figure out the amount of goods you can
use and get them into your store as quickly as
possible.
"2. Have your credit department watch your
collections carefully, and see that your sales-
men get good first payments and good terms.
"3. Occasionally buy in a good second-hand
piano.
"4. Take your salesmen into your confidence,
and have them know conditions as you see them."
PIANOS
Eliminate Unnecessary
Expenses in Retailing,
Says Rudolph Siegling
CHARLESTON, S. C, April 8.—"The only way
we know of to successfully conduct a piano busi-
ness during these uncertain times," declared Ru-
dolph Siegling, president of the Siegling Music
House, Inc., this city, "is to cut expenses as
much as possible and not to buy any more goods
than one can possibly handle. Also, endeavor
to work off all trade-ins at a good price. This
can be easily done, as pianos are very hard to
get—on account of the freight situation. There
is no reason why—if new pianos go up in price
—that second-hand
pianos should not do
the same.
"The different re-
ports on trade con-
ditions indicate that
while some sections
of the country are
enjoying good trade,
due to the war work
b e i n g carried on,
other sections a r e
suffering, a n d this
makes it very hard
to tell the best way
Rudolph Siegling
of conducting a re-
tail business to meet all ^conditions. At the
present time the South is enjoying great pros-
perity, which makes it easier for retailing than
some other sections of the country."
Col. Hollenberg Gives
Some Valuable Maxims
For Present-Day Success
LITTLE ROCK, ARK., April 8.—Asked regarding
his opinion as to ways and 1 means for con-
ducting a retail piano business on a profitable
basis under wartime conditions, as based on his
Col. F. B. T. Hollenberg
own knowledge and experience, Colonel F. B. T.
1 lollcnbcrg, president of the Hollenberg Music
Co., said:
"I'm of the opinion that I could give you the
full and complete receipt for conducting all
other lines of manufacture, banking, commerce,
agriculture, railroads and all other branches of
business and could give you this full receipt in
comparatively a few words.
"As in all of these other industries, all that
it takes is to work hard, understand your line
of business, advertise judiciously, select capable
men to assist you, be friendly with your com-
petitors and others in the same line of business,
(Continued on page 13)
ORGANS
ESTEY PIANO COMPANY NEW YQnK CITY
producerfarthe
dealer mtneTrade.