Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
MARCH 22,
1924
Competition in Relation to Location
How Competition Must Be Considered in Opening a New Music Store—Often Where It Is the Most Active Is
the Best Location—The Advice of a Western Manufacturer in Connection With This Problem
—Seeking the Line of Least Resistance Usually a Profound Error
B
USINESS men are not necessarily lazy,
but the "seeking the line of least resist-
ance" is generally thought to be a merit.
Probably so, but the line of least resistance as
it appears on the surface is often the line of
greatest resistance.
A prominent Chicago manufacturer told the
writer of a man who came to him and said he
had accumulated a little money and thought he
would like to open a piano store somewhere.
He wanted to handle the manufacturer's line
and thought that possibly he could suggest a
good place to locate. He said he did not have
very much experience in such matters, although
he had sold pianos for other people for several
years and felt that he needed guidance. The
manufacturer suggested a certain small city and
then found that the applicant had more ideas
on the subject than he had professed. "Why,"
said he, "that is the very last place in which I
should like to run a store. You see there are
so many other stores there. I should like to
go where I would have little or no competition."
Then he mentioned a town he had his eye on.
"Now that is where you are going wrong,"
said the manufacturer. "Don't you know that
the best place for a man, especially one who
has not had a whole lot of experience, to locate
is where there is competition?" Noticing the
look of astonishment on his visitor's face, he
continued, "You see, in such a place you have
the advantage of having had experienced men
do the preparatory work for you. The ground
has been cultivated. There are a lot of pianos
and talking machines and small goods to be
sold in the town I have mentioned, but prac-
tically everybody who has not bought is a pros-
pect because everybody has been worked and
everybody is thinking about the subject." Then,
continued the manufacturer, I gave my friend,
the would-be locater, another jolt. I told him
that I picked out that town because the com-
petition there was of a particularly mean char-
acter. Before I suggested the town for my
friend, however, I knew that he was a good
man, would be a clean merchant and was, withal,
a fighter. I explained to him that I figured the
people of that town were about tired of the
disreputable methods that had been used and
that he would get the confidence of the people
almost immediately by following, as I knew he
would, upright methods, and that they would
like his aggressive but clean advertising.
A Bad Location
"Now, the town you mention, especially
among those where competition was at a mini-
mum," I said, "has often been considered as a
location by some of our dealers, but it was
avoided because it is particularly dead. Why,
half the population is made up of retired farm-
ers who are not buyers of anything except the
very bare necessities of life.
'
"Even if this were not true in so great a
degree, do you not see that the creation of a
demand there would be the work of an experi-
enced man and of a pioneer at that?
"Well, after a. while my friend was brought
to a realization of the truth as I conceived it.
He followed my suggestion as to the town" in
which to locate, and everything I prophesied
has come to pass. He's had the time of his
life, the fight of his life, he's of Irish extraction,
and he has enjoyed it immensely. Also he is
making money and, by the way, has practically
O
N
revolutionized selling methods in that town. It
has been cleaned up under his influence and
competition."
Of course, it must not be gathered from this
that anyone, the writer or the manufacturer
who has been quoted, advises a man to start
a store in a commercially overcrowded district.
In all these articles it is to be assumed that
going to extremes even in commendable meth-
ods is not advocated.
Now take Chicago. There's Shea, Grosvenor,
Walsh, Schoessling, Bowmann and quite a few
other men who spent their years in the Loop
in either the retail or wholesale branches of the
music business, but who in the past two years
have opened up music stores in the outlying
districts of the city. It's no cinch running a
a neighborhood store either, with the tremen-
dous competition both from other neighbor-
hood stores and from the big stores in the
"loop." But this is not a neighborhood store
story, primarily.
Another thing I have frequently seen, and it's
positively inspiring. I've seen men with a lot
of confidence in the trade, and incidentally in
themselves, take hold of run-down stores and
build them up into notable successes. I know
some stories, true stories, along this line that
take the rank of commercial romances and
sometime I'm going to tell them in these col-
umns. After all, it isn't the location so much
as it is the man. Music trade history is full of
instances of men who have won the fight under
great handicaps by dint of hard and intensive
work and the exercise of a keen intelligence.
There are plenty of detailed considerations in
this matter of locating a music store, and as
this article is on its face merely of an intro-
ductory character the subject will be pursued
at a future time.
Majority of Association
Members Oppose Exhibits
everyone to make better use of it and to under-
stand and appreciate it."
Rural communities and small towns are ex-
pected to form one of the strongest links in
the chain of the first National Music Week cel-
ebration in May. The observance in the smaller
communities should be relatively as extensive
and as widely representative of all groups as
. in the big centers of population, though the
form or organization may be somewhat dif-
ferent.
Recent additions to the National Music Week
Committee include Mrs. Oliver Harriman, presi-
dent Camp Fire Girls; L. J. Taber, National
Master National Grange; Mrs. A. H. Reeve,
president National Congress of Mothers and
Parent-Teacher Associations; Olive M. Jones,
president National Education Association of the
United States; Robert E. Speer, president Fed-
eral Council of the Churches of Christ in
America.
These new members of the committee, repre-
senting as they do organizations of national
importance in a wide variety of fields, indicate
the widespread and rapid growth of the Music
Week idea, and the appeal which it has made
to leaders of important activities all over the
United States.
Responses to Questionnaire Sent Out by Na-
tional Piano Manufacturers' Association Serve
to Uphold Executive Resolution
Following the adoption at the mid-Winter
meeting of the executive committee of the Na-
tional Piano Manufacturers' Association of a
resolution barring exhibits from the convention
hotel in June, there appeared to develop some
objections to the resolution from those who
felt that the holding of the convention offered
an opportunity for the manufacturers to display
and the dealers to inspect the new instruments
produced during the year.
Taking cognizance of these objections the
National Piano Manufacturers' Association on
March 4 sent out a questionnaire to its member-
ship asking the individual members to declare
themselves either in favor of or opposed to ex-
hibits in the official convention hotel.
The majority of the manufacturers replied to
the questionnaire, 21 per cent being in favor of
exhibits and 79 per cent opposed. The results
are particularly appreciated by the executives
of the Association, who feel that in presenting
and passing the resolution they acted in accord-
ance with the desires of the majority of the
membership.
Secretary of Agriculture
Endorses Music Week Plan
Joins Other Government Officials in Support
of Movement—Important New Members
Added to National Music Week Committee
The latest prominent Government official to
endorse the National Music Week to be ob-
served throughout the country from May 4 to
10 is Henry C. Wallace, Secretary of Agricul-
ture, who in a recent letter said:
"I am glad that you have called my attention
to the efforts which are being made to make
National Music Week a success. I am entirely
in sympathy with this movement. Good music
is now more generally available than ever be-
fore, and the establishment of Music Week, it
seems to me, is an excellent way to induce
K
B £ E
Paige Completes Alterations
TERRE HAUTE, IND., March 16.—Extensive altera-
tions have recently been completed in the W.
H. Paige & Co.'s music store at 642 Wabash
avenue, adding greatly to the appearance of the
place and contributing additional space and con-
venience. A new broad stairway has been
erected in the rear of the store, leading to the
mezzanine and to the piano department on the
second floor. All of the former booths have
been dismantled and in their place the Unico
system of soundproof glass booths has been
installed. In addition to these the store has
been provided with a number of Audaks.
R. W. Dilley's New Store
MONTROSE, CAL., March 14.—R. W. Dilley, re-
cently of Glendale, has opened a large and com-
plete music store at 817 Montrose avenue. He
will carry a full line of nationally known pianos
and phonographs.
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