Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, AUGUST, 1940
D
ID you place a substantial
order this Convention? Could
you get the same prices after
October first as for deliveries
before it? If so, how do you know but
that you Ye paying too much for prior
to 10/1? Planning to raise retail prices
by $10-$20 on October first, when the
40-hour week starts? Are you planning
a Wage Law Increase Sale for Sep-
tember 16—a 2 weeks special to save
$$$ for "the people"? How much time
have you cut off this year in buying
from factories? With bank money rot-
ting and 1 % considered swell by the 3-
ball boys, did you get any financial
ideas? Why do so many piano dealers,
in buying radio, phonographs, records,
etc., still pay by note? Think the gag
on music teachers a good one? Get any
clue on easier selling of grands? Do
you think the grand is washed up as a
scintillating seller to the public? Think
it is due to the new public concept for
a PIANO?
D
ID you hear of a good selling
theme for Fall? What did the
factory tell you as a new sell-
ing idea to aid moving the
pianos bought? Catch an idea for
tuning and repair work? Hear anyone
mention a new kink for handling the
trade-in? Can you tell in advance what
models will SELL, or are you still
guessing? Can you explain why people
like a brown mahogany finish, or a red
walnut finish? Learn anything new on
the sell-up angle? Do you stilt give
away benches, or do you try for an extra
$10 for a chair? Make any comparison
of selling costs with fellow-dealers?
Are your costs favorable or are they too
high? If latter, what's the hitch and
will it be charged? What checks did
you make as to the proper layout of your
store? In the store, is the proper dis-
play by lines or by price groups? Did
you decide to go after organ business
more intensively? Many more quiz-
tions could be mentioned but if you
have the "answers" to the foregoing
few, you'll be assured of a substantial
business for 1940. So few people real-
ize that a piano dealer, with radio, band
instrument, record and other allied
product departments, not only rates
high for skill—right at the top group
of foremost US dealers—but his rami-
fication of unit sale from 5c to
$5,000.00 requires the profitable hand-
ling of a price range far more compre-
hensive than that under which any
other dealer has to work. So the com-
plete, good music dealer is unique in
the commercial arena, even if he has
never received his just acclaim until
right now.
S
O while we have attended a won-
derful Convention, a supreme
music trade show and absorbed
a system full of enthusiasm to
go home and work, one can't help see-
ing the amazing specimens of design
styling of pianos, and then to think that
the marketing of such has not had any
comparative stream lining. The whole-
saling is done now about the same as
20 years ago, except that the boys ride
in planes perhaps, while the retail sell-
ing is still subject to the same formula.
True, a whisk broom has been used
here and there to brush off a little dust,
but the human element of buying and
selling, and the need for personal stim-
ulation is still handled with the same
prescription.
» *
P
IANO business enjoys no such
national stimulus as motor
cars, e.g., where the attention
of the country is focused on
new lines every year, and the public
pays money to buy, and there are many
other examples — flower shows, boats,
cosmetics, appliances, etc. Pianos
must be contented with the individual
activities of its dealers, locally, and it
is probable that not one person in a
1,000 (piano sales in 1940 will be 1
piano to each 1,000 persons) ever hears
that piano styles change each year.
And the people who can spot a piano
by the year (they can with cars) would
be entitled to the financing charges on
2,700 pianos.