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REVIEW
THE
VOL. LXXXI. No. 11 Published Every Saturday. Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., 383 Madison Ave., New York, N. Y. Sept. 12,1925
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Taking Season Out of Seasonable in
the General Music Store
The Retail Music Store Which Carries All Lines of Musical Instruments Meets the Varying Shifts in
Public Demand by the Variety of the Stock Carried—Proper Accounting in Handling
the Various Departments Essential to the Success of This Type of Business
O a great many members of the retail
music trade the coming of September,
representing as it does the official open-
ing of the Fall season, means merely a shifting
of gears, so to speak, and not picking up speed
from a dead stop. Those trade members have
accepted the general music store idea and find
that, by handling well-balanced lines of instru-
ments, they have managed to overcome in a
large measure the seasonal tendency of the
business.
Optimistic statements to the contrary, there
never has been, and probably never will be,
any great demand for pianos in the Summer
until the public changes its living habits. It
is not because piano music is not appreciated
then. It is due to the fact that, with outdoor
entertainment holding sway, with vacation ex-
penses piling up, and with the permanent home
deserted so far as. the individual's means and
circumstances permit, there is far from being
a tendency to put several hundreds of dollars
into an instrument. Pianos have been, and are
being sold in the Summer, and many, of them,
but the big turnover naturally comes during
the Fall and Winter months.
T
Instruments for All Seasons
Where pianos alone are handled, the busi-
ness, as it is at present constituted, may
be made to average up a substantial year's total,
but regardless of the campaigns that are car-
ried on during the vacation months there is
bound to be a certain amount of lassitude and
free time. Where, however, other lines are
handled, this free time can be utilized to ad-
vantage in making additional profits and at the
same time cutting down on the overhead.
It is found, for instance, that, although the
larger types of talking machines do not sell
very rapidly during- the Summer, there is a
most substantial demand for portable models,
those that can be carried about in the auto-
mobile and transported easily to bungalows
and camps. This means that, given proper at-
tention, there can be built up a very substan-
tial volume of record business, which means
small unit values, but which can be developed
into a surprisingly large gross.
Outstanding, too, is the demand for band and
orchestra instruments, which appears to be even
stronger during the Summer months, particular-
ly among amateurs, than it is during the Win-
ter. This is because students take advantage of
leisure lime to purchase instruments and pre-
pare for the organization of school bands and
orchestras during the coming term, or capital-
ize the freedom of the holiday season to join
r
HE development of the general music
store, which has been one of the out-
standing features in the music trade during
the past ten years, has effectually removed
the seasonable variations which this type of
merchant is bound to meet when he handles
but one line of musical instruments.
This
type of store has demonstrated its success
beyond the shadow of a doubt and is the
store of the present as well as of the future.
It is no panacea for all trade evils, but ii
goes far to ameliorate them effectually and
make the merchandising problem simpler.
local musical organizations either for pleasure
or for the income which can quite generally
be realized by the competent small orchestra.
All Eggs in One Basket
The idea of the merchant putting all his eggs
in one basket, so to speak, by concentrating
on a single line whether it be pianos, musical
merchandise, talking machines, radio or sheet
music, is perfectly sound if he is in a position
to gauge his income on an annual basis and
weather the several months of slow business
that are experienced each year, with his over-
head continuing on a normal basis and the sell-
ing distinctly subnormal.
However, experience has demonstrated that
handling a full stock of musical goods of all
kinds, or at least several lines, not only serves
to balance things over a dull season, if those
lines are well selected, but has the additional
advantage of making the store a recognized
center for musical equipment, making it possi-
ble to register several sales to the same cus-
tomer, a feat not always possible where a
single line is handled and the customer is sup-
plied once and forever.
Proper Accounting
There are those merchants who, for one rea-
son or another, have not enthused over the
profits realized from the general music store
plan. In practically every case, however, it
has been found they have figured the entire
business as one unit and have not seen to it
that each department stood upon its own feet,
and either made a profit or was dropped from
the list. The practice of averaging up a busi-
ness, and making the profits of a good depart-
ment cover the deficit of a poor one, is un-
sound, and those who have realized the fact
and have kept such business records as will
enable them to tell which line and which de-
partment is producing, and which is not, have
been able to keep their businesses in sound,
profitable shape.
The general music store is not a panacea for
all trade ills, for it is subject to fluctuations
just as is any other type of store, but it is not
by any means so likely to suffer from the sea-
sonal characteristics of any one line or group
of lines, primarily because it enables the active
dealer to keep working his territory with fresh
appeals regardless of what sales have already
been registered.
One has but to peruse business reports from
various sections published in The Review each
week during the Summer to realize that a di-
versified stock tends towards business health.
In one section dealers report that pianos are
moving slowly, but that band instruments are
in strong demand. In another, pianos may be
selling at a substantial rate for the Summer
months, while the talking machine business is
off. And so it goes.
Handling diversified lines does not in any
sense mean turning the music store into the
type of establishment known as the "variety"
store, handling everything from notions to
farming implements. The music trade itself is
in a position to offer a sufficient variety of
stocks to enable the energetic dealer to inter-
est his prospects throughout the twelve months
of the year. He may not be able to register a
December volume of business in July, but he
certainly can keep the red ink out of the ledger
for that month and put a little money away.
The seasonal character of the music busi-
ness in certain of its phases is not simply a
state of mind, as some high-pressured trade ex-
ecutives would infer. On the contrary, it is
very real, and cannot be overcome by even the
energetic dealer, so far as one line or group of
lines is concerned.