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Musicirade Rewiew
Published Monthly
FF.DKRATED BUSINESS PUBLICATIONS, INC.
420 Lexington Ave.
New York
Music
Industry
Serving
the Entire
Vol. 90
January, 1931
No. 1
Single Copies
Twenty Cents
Annual Subscription
Two Dollars
THE NCW YORK
PUBLIC LIBRARY
582090 A
ASTOR, LENOX AND
TII.DEN KOUNDAT1ONS
SCHfFEGLER BROS. USE
iA\\ (Channels
to
i i ~W~ S the piano business coining back? You
I
bet it is! In fact, it's arrived!" Al-
I
bert Schwegler, president of Schwegler
Bros., Buffalo, N. Y., is talking. Not
broadcasting in the Schwegler radio studio on
the third floor of the store, but quietly dis-
cussing the piano situation on the sales floor
of the recently enlarged new Schwegler piano
department.
Something surely is "in the air" when one
of western New York's largest retail music
stores, selling nearly a million dollars' worth
of radios alone, goes after the Buffalo piano
business in this big manner. And what's "in
the air" is not only the completion of many
piano sales since the recent beginning of the
Schwegler piano "drive," but also a firm con-
viction in the Schwegler heart and mind that
a good start has been made towards a total
local rejuvenation of the piano buying and
selling industry.
Just how do Schweglers sell pianos? Briefly,
through salesmen's contacts, newspaper and
By ROBERT K. DORAN
radio broadcast advertising, window displays
and O.K. departmental showings.
But let's be a little more specific. Let's
get down to cases and discuss window dis-
plays first. Schweglers display pianos prac-
tically all the time. The wide window facing
the piano department is reserved for piano
showings. Occasionally, however, this window
may show radios, but the piano suggestion is
never absent. There will be, for instance, a
piano to one side, serving as a "background,"
with a shawl or drape thrown across and an
attractive lamp casting delicate rays on a por-
tion of the keyboard.
Many passersby, looking at this display,
looking at this piano so tastily "filling a cor-
ner," get ideas. They note how nicely a piano
fills the "space" and feel that a piano in their
own homes would accomplish the Same result.
This leads to Schweglers' "decorative sell-
ing." "Al" Schwegler thinks that pianos are
being sold and will continue to be sold, even
in greater quantities, for three simple reasons:
First, there is the entertainment feature, which
is growing more or less passe due to the popu-
larity of radio. Second, pianos play a big role
in the process of adult as well as juvenile edu-
cation. Third, pianos are highly decorative.
"It matters not why people buy pianos," ex
plains Mr. Schwegler, "as ldng as they buy
them If a woman wants a piano to provide
entertainment for her family and friends, this
is reason enough to induce her to make the
purchase. If another woman buys a piano
that her seven-year-old daughter and nine-year-
old son may take piano lessons for strictly
educational purposes, well and good. But if
a third party merely wants a piano for its
decorative value, who are we not to encourage
her in her desire, and sell her the finest piano
possible? Undoubtedly this last woman will
(Please turn to page 18)