Music Trade Review

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AN ATTRACTIVE
MUSIC STORE
IS A REAL
BUSINESS ASSET
Above—Interior view of
new store of Luebtow Mu-
sic Co. Right—The unusu-
\ ally attractive exterior.
O
NE of the most encouraging
signs in the retail music trade
is the interest that many dealers
have shown in the decoration
and equipment of their retail establishments.
Although approximately eighty-five per cent
of piano sales are actually closed outside the
warerooms and through the medium of
direct contact in a customer's home, never-
theless the final selection of the instrument
is usually made in the warerooms and attractive quarters play
no small part in adding satisfaction to the deal. Moreover, there
still remains a substantial portion of the public who first must
see the instruments they desire and they make their decision at
leisure. This class is influenced to a surprising degree by store
surroundings and frequently take distinct pride in the fact that
they were able to buy an instrument at a store noted for its
exclusive qualities.
Although the movement for more attractive retail music
stores has been going on for a number of years, it is unfortunate
that there can still be found dealers who believe that the instru-
ment itself is the thing and that any sort of quarters are good
enough to display it in. It is a matter of congratulation that
the number of these careless and unprogressive dealers is steadily
growing fewer and that the number of really attractive stores
is growing in like proportion.
The Review on numerous occasions has published interior
and exterior views of particularly attractive music stores and
has again the privilege of showing both the outside and the
inside of a retail music establishment in the modern manner,
that of the Luebtow Music Co., at 4630 West North Avenue,
Milwaukee. Perhaps the original character of both the build-
ing and interior arrangement is due to the fact that the
proprietor of this establishment is a woman, Miss Lillian
Luebtow. She did not, however, depend upon her own talent
for decorative effects but enlisted the services of leading archi-
tects and interior decorators in order to secure an attractive
ensemble.
Here is a music store
that is distinctly homelike,
the rich carpetings, easy
chairs and the attractive
draperies are all designed
to put the customer at his
ease and consequently
make him receptive to an
energetic sales talk.
The Luebtow House
was started by the father
of Miss Luebtow, now
deceased, and he was in
the music business for
forty years in Milwaukee.
Miss Luebtow later ran a
music: store for six years, then sold it out and bought and man-
aged a fox farm. Now she has returned, through love of the
music business, to the piano line and has opened a beautiful new
studio which is luxuriously appointed and decorated. It con-
tains a large grand salesroom accommodating sixteen grand
pianos, and the lines she carries are Kranich & Bach, Schumann,
Hazelton, and Luebtow. Two smaller rooms are devoted to
displays of uprights, one room for records, private office, cashier,
and bookkeeper's quarters, and several music studios.
Music dealers who are in the rut so far as their establishment
is concerned may learn much from Miss Luehtow's activities,
for she has produced a building that is not only a credit to the
locality, but serves in itself to attract attention to the musical in-
struments sold therein. In short, four plain walls, antiquated
furnishings and poor lighting arrangements do not make the
type of music store that is likely to get business today in competi-
tion with modern establishments in other lines. First impres-
sions do count and the money that is invested in an attractive
store and in effective window display space pays dividends in
sales, provided the proper effort is there.
That a large percentage of music dealers believe in the
sales value of an attractive store is indicated by the number
of retailers who, during the past year, and with business con
ditions as they are, have seen fit to make substantial invest-
ments either in new quarters or in the remodeling of old in
preparation for an increased volume of business that is
believed to be in the offing. In every case the change has
resulted in stimulating sales.
THE
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW,
July.
1931