Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
EDITORIALLY
HAND-TO-MOUTH BUYING
MEANS HAND-TO-MOUTH SELLING
BAND AND ORCHESTRA INSTRUMENTS—
W H O IS TO SELL THEM—AND HOW?
H
T is about time that manufacturers and dealers in band and
orchestra instruments came to some understanding as to
territorial rights and terms, particularly with a new school
season in the offing and the opportunity it presents for the
organization for new instrumental groups. Either the manu-
facturer should sell direct entirely and eliminate the dealer or
he should not sell at all except through the dealer. There is
no middle course—no compromise.
Within the past decade, which has witnessed the greatest
development in school bands and orchestras, the music trade
of the country has lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in
potential profits through the desire to install band equipment
by every possible means and with profit as a secondary con-
sideration. Under existing conditions the amateur market
represents the greatest and livest outlet for band and orchestra
instruments, yet the competition for this market has rested
principally upon the discounts that could be allowed.
Manufacturers declare that the majority of dealers do not
carry sufficiently representative stocks to take care of local
band requirements, yet when the dealer does invest his capital
in a complete wareroom stock he finds the manufacturer or
the jobber, with some few notable exceptions, underbidding
him for the sale wherever possible, often offering a discount
almost as large as that given him as a dealer, although he
must maintain his store with his stock, sales and service de-
partments. We have known cases where dealers lacking a
few instruments desired for a new band have gone to great
lengths to get them surreptitiously for fear that a direct call
to the manufacturer would mean the loss of the sale.
The discount situation has reached a point where school
musical authorities have developed into poker players, the wel-
fare of the youngsters and the quality of the instruments
taking second place. If the band and orchestra instrument
trade are engaged simply in educational work of an altruistic
nature, well and good. If its members are in business for a
profit then get that profit, whether it comes from the school
band or the individual musician. And the time to start is now,
at the beginning of a new school season.
A N D - T O - M O U T H buying may serve the immedi-
ate purpose of cutting down inventory and bills pay-
able but in the long run the evils growing out of the
practice frequently outweigh, by a large margin, any
possible benefits. This is quite evident in the music trade as
well as in practically every other line of business as retailers
persist in carrying as small a stock as possible and keeping
their replacement purchases at the lowest figure.
Retail piano stocks throughout the country have been at
rock bottom for months with many dealers depending upon
used instruments and repossessed stocks for sales. Where they
have managed to sell some new instruments it would appear
that they ordered only one new piano after two had been dis-
posed of at retail. To all intents and purposes they have been
in the second-hand instrument business, and quite content to
remain there.
The fallacy of the practice is evident upon a visit to many
stores—fortunately not the majority. The used instruments
shown on the floor outnumber the new pianos two to one: in
fact in one store visited recently, which advertised several
excellent makes of pianos, there were just two new grands,
three new uprights and at least a dozen used instruments of
various ages. What is there about a showing like that to
stimulate interest in new piano buyers? Does the dealer
really feel that he can sell a new grand, sight unseen, by
demonstrating an old upright or close a deal for a parlor grand
by displaying the tonal qualities of a four-foot-six instrument
even of the same make? If he can, then he is a super-sales-
man; a very rare individual in the trade.
If the dealer really has the desire, and the financial re-
sources, to take the piano business seriously, then he should
carry on .hand a representative stock of new instruments for
display and sale and relegate his used stock to warehouse or
basement where it will be available but not conspicuous. The
more representative and attractive the stock the easier the sale.
It's not good business to ask the customer to wait until the
desired piano can be obtained from the factory, unless it is
designed to special order. Many a sale has been lost by such
tactics.
Hand-to-mouth buying really means that the dealer expects
the manufacturer to carry the stock burden—to make up vari-
ous styles of pianos and have them on hand for rush orders.
When there is a delay in shipment the manufacturer is blamed,
little consideration being given to the fact that if he carried
a representative stock in his factory at 'the call of fifty or a
hundred dealers, the investment would prove ruinous. The
small irregular orders slow up the factory, make economic
schedules impossible and add materially to the production
expense. Yet they talk of lower piano prices.
The dealer who will invest his money in a decent stock of
new pianos is going to be a better and more successful salesman
for he will have the incentive to move that stock and get a
quick return on his capital. Where there is no such incentive
selling lags. Buying only as pianos are sold means drifting
with the tide, and there is too much of it.
I
CONCENTRATE ON HIGHER-PRICED
RADIOS TO MAKE A PROFIT
N
UMEROUS music merchants who have been in the
habit of dealing in comparatively large units, with
average sales running well over a hundred dollars
on new merchandise, have become discouraged with
the present trend of the radio market and the apparent inclina-
tion of radio manufacturers to see how much they can offer
for a minimum price, particularly in midget sets. They
declare, and rightly, that there is no profit to be realized in
stocking, selling, installing and servicing a radio receiver at a
price considerably less than $100 and often on an instalment
basis. Were they simply dealing in such merchandise exclu-
sively they could be callous regarding the customer's good-
will and let him take care of himself after the sale is made,
but as music merchants they are compelled to keep the buyer
THE
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW,
September, 1931