Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
JANUARY 23,
1926
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
The Background inWhichYou Present
Your Pianos to Your Trade
Strikingly Beautiful Warerooms Have Come to Be Widely Spread in the Retail Piano Trade and Have
Been Found to Bring Profits on the Investment Involved—The New Mason & Hamlin Rooms of
the Kieselhorst Piano Co., of St. Louis, an Example of the Way This Policy Is Being Carried Out
T
H E day has passed when any old sort of
store in which to display and sell pianos
is considered good enough to answer the
purpose. A great majority of piano merchants
not only realize this fact but has taken steps to
arrange and maintain establishments of a char-
acter in keeping with the artistic products they
offer to the public. Of course there still remain
those who, for lack of capital, lack of ambition
or some other reason, maintain store interiors
more suited for the sale of groceries or moon-
most elaborate retail piano establishments it is
possible to get instruments of real value which
suit practically every purse and that, in proper
surroundings, it is much easier to get a correct
idea of how the instrument would look when
purchased and installed in the home. More-
over, it was found that there was a strong ten-
dency on the part of the public, particularly
with the emphasis placed on the small grand
and reproducing piano, to buy instruments at
higher prices which, for proper results, required
It costs money to install a battery of sound-
proof demonstrating rooms with their decora-
tions, their rugs, comfortable furniture and at-
tractive lighting systems, but it has been found
that their effectiveness in cutting down sales
resistance generally offsets the higher initial
cost. Rare indeed is the retail piano establish-
ment of to-day that cannot escort the pros-
pective customer into an attractive room where
the decision regarding an instrument of quality
can be madi' at Irisure and under favorable
General View of the New
Mason & Hamlin Salons of
the Kieselhorst Piano Co., of
St. Louis, Showing Hand-
some Decorative Effects
A Corner in One of the
Salons Which S h o w s a
Mason & Hamlin Grand as It
Will Appear in the Home of
Its Purchaser
shine than for musical instruments. But these
are the exceptions rather than the rule.
It has not been so long ago when certain re-
tailers hesitated about arranging elaborate es-
tablishments in the belief that an imposing front
and an equally imposing interior were calcu-
lated to cause the prospective buyer of small
means to shy off and hesitate about entering.
It was felt that an imposing store gave the im-
pression of high prices and that the seekers
after medium-priced instruments were inclined
to patronize the more commonplace stores.
This theory was exploded long ago largely
through the medium of advertising which edu-
cated the public to the fact that in even the
attractive surroundings as an aid to their ex-
ploitation.
It is within the memory of the present gen-
eration when a single large wareroom was
deemed sufficient to house a full line of pianos
with perhaps two or three prospective cus-
tomers being taken care of at one time. It
meant that there was a conflict in demonstration
and likewise a certain amount of embarrass-
ment. Then came separate departments for up-
rights, players, grands and reproducers, and
finally the separate, tastefully decorated and
richly furnished studio where only one or two
instruments of the better class were placed for
demonstration purposes.
conditions simulating those found in the home.
The Review at various times has been priv-
ileged to present photographs of attractive piano
store interiors and there is reproduced herewith
a view of the recently opened new warerooms of
the Kieselhorst Piano Co. of St. Louis. The
two rooms pictured have been set aside for the
display and demonstration of the Mason &
Hamlin for which the company acts as repre-
sentative. The Louis XVI, style of decoration
has been followed carefully throughout both in
wall decorations and furnishings.
Although
there is much gold used with the various color-
ings, the decorator has succeeded in creating a
general effect, pleasing without being garish.