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Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
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THE
VOL. LXVI. No. 9
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., at 373 4th Ave., New York.
March 2, 1918
Single Copies 10 Cents
$3.00 Per Year
Keeping Closer Watch on Credits
T
IME and again during the past few months piano merchants of this country have been urged to draw
in on their retail credits, to insist upon better terms and thus endeavor to keep their business as close to
a healthy credit basis as possible. The advice is good, and has been acted upon to a large degree, partic-
ularly in the case of piano merchants who are finding their stocks of instruments limited, and who are
inclined to sell to those who are willing to make the best terms of purchase.
The shortening of credit and the insistence on better instalment terms will have no effect, however, unless
the merchant sees to it that those terms are lived up to by the customer, in other w r ords, that collections are made
promptly and fully. The terms under which an instrument is to be paid for within twelve or eighteen months
mean nothing unless the dealer actually gets the money. If payments on such a contract are strung out for two
or three years the whole effect of the short time selling is lost, and the contract may as well have been made out
for the full period in the first place.
A great many piano merchants are so intent upon selling that they do not give the proper consideration to the
question of payment. A piano is not well sold on any terms unless the purchaser is not only willing but able to
live up to his instalment agreement—to make payments exactly according to specification.
Carelessness and indifference in the matter of collections mean a steady increase in the amount of paper
in the dealer's hands and a steady decrease in the amount of his cash balance, and just now of all times such a
condition should not be tolerated.
Lack of cash and a superabundance of paper mean inability to meet obligations with the banks and manu-
facturers, and lead ultimately to requests for renewals on notes, or may have a more serious consequence. Just
now neither the banks nor the manufacturers are inclined to go beyond certain definite limitations in granting
renewals.
Conditions are such that every business institution must watch its own renewals and must depend, among
other things, upon the definite quality of the paper it handles for protection against any unexpected wartime sit-
uation that may arise.
The piano merchant who gives proper heed to his collection department and sees to it, in the first place, that
there is every probability of the customer being willing and able to make the payments contracted for, and then
watches every account carefully to see that payments are made at the stipulated time, or some very good reason
given for any lapse that may occur, will find himself in a position where he can place his cards on the table
before the banking officials, or the manufacturer with whom he does business, and get the consideration that is
due a man who conducts his business on a wise and sound basis.
It stands to reason that the retailer who does not show a proper conception of what he should demand as a
grantor of credit will not have any too high regard of his duties to his own creditors. It is by watching the col-
lection department of his business and making the customer realize that the instalment contract is a contract
that must be lived up to, that the dealer can make his paper sound and worth while, and of a quality that will
demand the respect of those from whom he may have occasion to borrow money.
When the retail piano merchant can say that the eighteen or twenty-four month paper, of his customers is
really cleaned up in the stated period, he is in a fair way of knowing that his business is in a healthy condition.
Just now it is most essential that piano paper be placed in a position where it will receive proper considera-
tion, for under existing conditions the dealer will find that the manufacturers are not so hard put for business
that they will compete to a dangerous limit (so far as their interests are concerned) for his paper. If he must
raise money it is more than likely he must go outside of the trade for it—to a local banker, for instance—and his
{Continued on page 5)