Music Trade Review

THE
12
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW
JULY
7, 1923
WASHINGTON DEALERS TO ELIMINATE CLASS DISCOUNTS
NONE OF THEM HAD PIANOS
Take Stand That There Is No Favored Class Among the Buying Public-Demand Has an En­
couraging Increase-Investigation Shows No G reat Amount of Long-term Leases Now Being Made
An Italian Salesman's Method of Adding Names
to the House Prospect File
WASH1NGTON, D. C, July 3.---With record hot
weather durin g the first ha lf of the week \Nash ­
ington music dealers, in common with al l other
lines of business, experienced a con siderable
let-down in trad e. The hot spell, whi ch has
visited Vvashington during the last two weeks,
together with a month of conv entions, circus es,
carnivals, etc., had a very notice a bl e effect on
the trade and mos t of th e retail ers reported it
a very quiet period. Howev er, the la s t few day s
of the month saw a break in the weath e r, and
with the days considerably cooler now busin ess
is pickin g up very enco ura gingly.
The Washington music dealers hav e joined
w ith other merchants of the city in an attempt
t o put an end to the class discount s which, for
many years, have been a so urc e of m uch enl ­
bar rassment. Through the Merchants and Man ­
ufacturers' Association the merc hant s ha ve gone
on record as being opposed to any class dis­
counts and have made thi s dec is ion pub lic in
a letter written to th e Federal Employes' 1.:nion,
whic h is comp osed of Government cJerks.
" There is no place in Washington for a fa vor ­
ite buying class," it is stated in this letter. "W e
believe that the public can buy with co nfidenc e.
If you and your ass ociates know of an instance
where a business is doing an unfair thin g we
will apprec iate it if you will call it to our at­
tention.
"We have never been able to Jeel that a di s­
co unt of any amount to a parti cular cla ss of
people can in any sense be con strued as fair
dealing. A commodi ty must be offered an d sold
to . the public at one and the same price, no
matt er who the purchaser may be. vVe be­
lieve that any business hou~e that sell s to one
customer at a lower price than they would sel l
to another is la cking in business integrity. Such
actio n would not be countenanced by the ~{er­
chants' and Man ufactu rers' Association."
The general condition of tra de, a lthou Rh
s low ed down by the weather, is very go od at
present. There a re a good numb er of cash
sales being made an d what paper th ere is is
largely shor t-term. The re h as been no g rea t
amou nt of long-term paper in ·Was hington now
(or many months and this is very e nco ura gin g.
Payments are prompt an d th e Ilumber of re ­
possess ion s is so small as to be a lmost negli­
gible. Many of the piano sales ar e made on a
A youn g Italian, who claimed to be with out
previous exp eri (' nce in th e piano tr ade, appli ed
r ecent ly to a Brooklyn piano dealer for the po­
sition of o utsid e sales illan. Bus iness was s low at
the time so he was e ngaged at once, and, afte r a
few words of in s truction by the manager, left
the store to make house-to-house call s.
In
hardly two hours he returned and the dealer in­
s tructed him to put the names, if a ny, of fam ­
ili es found to be without pianos into the pro s­
pect file. "Sur e, I know," was all the young
Ital ian sa id, and proceeded to fill out ~ i xteen
card s for the file before going home. The fol­
lowin g day ten mor e nam es were added as being
" Without Piano," and two of the first day's
g roup came in and purchased cheap instrume nts
from Gius eppe, who m e t them on the floo r by
appoi ntmen t.
A wee k passed and th e pro spect file grew
and grew. Hardly a day passe d without th e
addition of six or seven new cards by the yo ung
man. His sales, too, began to materialize beyond
any expe ctations of th e dealer. For a whi le the
proprietor merely looked on with ap proval, re­
specting th e yo unger man's reticence, but at la st
h e co uld no lon ge r retain his curio sity as to the
m cthod o[ finding so many famili es without
pianos when only out in the field an ho ur or
two eac h day. " Where do yo u get all these
nal11 es, Joe ?" he asked at le ngth. "Pre tty good,
e h?" the Lat in answered evasively. "Come on,
be a sport. I just want to find out your system
for the sake of my other men. Ho" man)
familics, having pianos, do you call on each day
before you get six nam es wit hout one?" asked
(h e dealer. "::-Jone," laughed the fellow, enjo yin g
his employer's confusi on.
"'vVell now, listen here, Joe," said th e dealer
s uspi c iously; "if you mean to say that you call
on o nl y six or seven people a da y and find them
a ll without pia nos, somebo dy is giving yo u those
names. Come now , who is it ?" h e as ked, get ­
tin g impatient.
"Sure, somebody g ive me names. He give me
names and addr ess. My fath er and brud t h ey
all in th e movin g va n biz, fi,ve trucks, and eac h
day the y move five, six, ten peep, see no piano
on trllck, gi ve me his name. Sure."
tra de-in basis; but these trade-ins are usually
quite easi ly disposed of either in the ordinary
run of bu s iness or in a special sa le.
A big sale of used pia nos and trade-ins is
being run by the .'\rth ur Jordan Piano Co. und er
the direc ti on of Frank H. Kimmel, manager,
and promises to overcome the handi cap of ad­
verse weat her conditio ns to a good exte nt. This
is one of the bi gges t sales that has b ee n put
on in thi s city for some tiul e. The Jordan Co.
adver ti sed that it would pay the round-trip fare
of a ny customer living withi n a fifty-m il e radius
of \Nas hin gton an d that it would pa y the freight
on out··of-town shi pm ents w ithin a 100-mile
radi us.
Maurice O. Beckham, of the American P iano
Co., droppe d in at the Jordan establishment
while in town, calling o n th e Ampico dealers.
C. H. Morrison, travelin g representativ e for
the Hall e t & Davis Pia.no Co., was another
visito r in town durin g the we ek, spe ndin g a
day with IvI cHu g h & Lawson, 1222 G stre et,
~orthwest, Hall e t & D avis agents in tltis ter­
ritory .
Th e Stief! bran ch at 11 08 F st reet, Northwes t,
r ecently so ld a piano to Mi ss K itt y Bea le,
Col umbi a record star and a m ember of th e
Metropolita n Opera Co.
Homer L. K itt, of the Horner L. Kilt Co.,
1330 G qreet, Ieft the last of th e wee k for a
short business trip to New York.
Fran cis X. Regan, sales manager for the Kitt
Co., repo rt s disposing of a Kna be with the
Amp ico to Trinity Co l1 eRe in th is city, th(' in ­
s trumen t being placed in the studio of th e musi­
cal instru cto r a t the university. Small instru­
ment sales at the Kitt store are holding up
extremely wel1, Conn saxophones, for which this
firm has the exclus ive agency her e, being very
much in demand and movin g briskly. The Conn
line of instr um ents was installed but a short
time ago, but sin ce its ins tallation ha s been
one of th e mo st acti ve departments in the store.
Louis & Co., at Seventh and G stree ts, north­
west, hav e a prominent display of Hohner har­
moni cas in their window.
The Handy Mus ic Co. has taken over two
rooms a bove its mu s ic stor e in Camden, N. l,
an d mad e t hem · into dClllon s tration rooms for
its Victrola line .
A good-sized shop for rep a iring and rebuild­
in g pianos has just been installed at 177 Pacific
street B rooklyn, by the Sterli ng Piano Co., of
that city. An entire floor in a loft building has
been tak en for this purpose and seve ral repair
men have bee n added to this d epa rtment. It
is the aim of the Ste rli ng P iano Co. to maintain
one o f the mo s t comp lete repair shops in the
East, and th e moving of the departm ent to a
separate building frolll the ba sem ent of its Co urt
s trect re ta il showrooms.
The highest class player
actions in the world
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"The valve unit that made the
STERLING OPENS REPAIR SHOP
player famous"
NEW STORE IN SPENCER, W. VA.
SPENCER, V\:. VA., July 3.-A n ew variety and
mu sic st ore has just been opened in the Go ff
Building on Mark e t street by Raymond Goff.
The conce rn will ope rat e und er the name Ru­
belle Variety & Music Store.
MASON MUSIC CO. CHARTERED
SAN ANTONIO, TEX., July 3.-The Mason :M usic
Co., Inc., has just been incorporated with a
capitali za tion o·f $20,000. The following are
offi cer s in the company: G. 'vV. Parish, L. E
Robinson and ]. 'vV. Mason.
The new "Amp/tion Accessible Action" is th e last word in scientific play"
achievement. It has the comp lete valve action assembled in a "Demou ntable
Unit" giving instanl accessibility.
AMPHION~ACTIONS
SYRACUSE
-Your Guarantee
BOOT MUSIC CO. CHARTERED
NEW YORK
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."
DENVER, COLO., July 2.- -Corporation papers have
ju st be en filed for the Boot Music Co. by Albert
]. Boot, Da vid L G in sberg and May L. Boot.
The concern w ill have a capital stock of $19,500.
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