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EDITORIALLY SPEAKING
TRADING DOWN TO THE GUTTER
MEANS A LONG TRIP BACK
S
O long as memory serves there have been both whole-
sale and retail organizations in the trade who have
represented destructive rather than constructive forces.
They have battled for volume of business without
profit rather than been content with less business but a fair
margin of returns. Sensational advertising, slashed prices
and all that goes to upset the business has been an all too
common practice even when conditions were normal. This
type of concern is still with us and of the several outstanding
offenders it is difficult to choose one more culpable than
another. The existing situation has seemed to panic hun-
dreds of legitimate dealers who, in normal times, would allow
the destroying agents to go their own way and for themselves
stick to sound, profitable methods.
T H E REVIEW office has received a number of inquiries
within the past few weeks for the names of manufacturers
who could supply pianos at a price that would make it possible
for the ordinary dealer to meet this cut-throat competition.
Some dealers are not content to fight for higher standards
in piano values and maintain price levels that, while low, at
least give the buyer something fairly decent for his money.
They see the answer to the problem only in meeting fire
with fire and in localities where the fight has been severe
pianos have virtually been dumped into the gutter in a des-
perate selling effort.
It is hard to tell a man who sees his sales glimmering
away because of the work of some price-slaughtering concern
in his territory that the thing to do) is to stand pat and
maintain his own quality and price standards, yet in the long
run he is going to lose less through that policy than he will
if he crawls down into the gutter with the competitor. There
is going to be a day of reckoning, there always is, and it is
going to be a hard job for the purveyor of "fine grand pianos
for $185" to regain the confidence of the public and rebuild
his business on a profitable plane. Every piece of junk un-
loaded on the public now is killing the sale of a decent piano
for some years to come at least and is likely building up
trouble for the retailer who must make good on the natural
deficiencies of the instrument.
GETTING BACK TO A SOUND BASIS
AFTER THE ELECTION EXCITEMENT
W
I T H the national elections out of the way, one
excuse for marking time by business has been
eliminated for another four years, and whether
the music tradesman, as an individual, is satisfied
with the result or not the fact remains that a majority of
the population of the country have made known their desires
at the polls and must therefore abide by their choice without
undue complaint. It is certain that the party elected to
power is not going to make any radical changes in the con-
duct of the government, despite more or less wild statements
by both sides during the campaign. The business interests
are and have been aligned with both factions and even under
the new administration a Republican minority is going to
represent a balance wheel on Democratic activity.
We hear of orders placed before election in this and other
lines of trade with the proviso that they be filled only if a
particular candidate was elected, and it is somewhat significant
that these qualified orders were about equally divided between
the two camps. Certainly the politicians put on a lively
show, but when all is said and done we need anticipate little
upset. The problem of getting business back to normal is
not one for legislative halls but rather rests with the markets
of the world. It's economic, not political.
THE CENSUS FIGURES FOR 1931
OFFER INTERESTING COMPARISONS
E
LSEWHERE in T H E REVIEW this month is presented
the official preliminary report of the 1931 Census of
Manufactures as prepared by the Government and
the figures should be of interest to every individual
in the trade, for, although they are not encouraging, they at
least give a fairly accurate picture of musical instrument
production last year as compared with 1929.
In many
respects they are not so much out of line with the showing
made by a number of other industries which, under normal
conditions, might be considered to offer more essential prod-
ucts to the public.
In analyzing the figures it is noted that there were 51,370
pianos manufactured during the year, valued at $12,780,746,
representing a decrease of 60.8 per cent in number and 66.4
in value. It is the general opinion that the number of pianos
made has been slightly exaggerated in the report, although
not to the extent as in 1929 when the industry was credited
with the production of some 130,000 instruments.
The
significant fact is that the decrease in value is only about 6
per cent greater than the decrease in units, which indicates
that, despite price slashing in certain quarters, unit values
were maintained to a surprising degree.
In the case of pipe organs the decrease in valuation was
only 1 per cent higher than the decrease in units, although
the manufacturers did less than half the business they did
in 1929. Band instrument values decreased 49.3 per cent
in comparison with a decrease of 42.8 per cent in units,
indicating a generally lowered price range, but the greatest
discrepancy was found in the case of string instruments,
where a decrease of only 3.2 per cent in the number of units
resulted in a decrease of 36.6 per cent in valuation.
For sake of comparison also we have published some of
the figures of the 1927 census, when 218,140 pianos, valued
at $67,000,000, were listed, as compared with 51,370, valued
at $12,780,000, made last year. When the drop off in the
number of player-pianos is considered, amounting to some
57,000 units between 1927 and 1929, with a further reduc-
tion since, the situation does not seem quite so deplorable
so far as the straight piano is considered.
Radio, to which a goodly number of music merchants
have devoted a major share of their attention for some years,
fared no better than other divisions of the music trade, the
census report showing a decrease of 59.8 per cent between
THE
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW,
November, 1932