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The American Music Trade Weekly
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SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1923
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. LITTLE GRANDS
There is nothing surprising in the popularity of the diminutive
Grands. The wonder is that the beautiful little instruments can be
produced for the prices now asked by the manufacturers. Of course,
the secret rests in the problem of quantity production. And that, in
time, rests upon the great demand.
In a recent newspaper advertisement, a large city piano dealer
says that the upright will be dead within six years. He believes that
the little Grand presents sufficient attraction to push the upright off
the stage entirely, just as the upright crowded off the square.
When the very small Grands first appeared, there were experts
in acoustics who denounced their makers for their "impractical" in-
novations. The little Chickering Grand was one of the first, and the
late Henry F. Miller promptly met its appearance with a scientific
argument designed to disprove that so small an instrument could have
any tone worth speaking of. Hut the little Chickering Grand de-
fended itself so effectively that very soon other manufacturers de-
voted their energies to the effort to produce equally diminutive in-
struments, steadily decreasing the size until today we have many of
the little beauties of such dainty structure as to seem like toys when
compared with the parlor Grands of a quarter-century back.
Today there are two western industries each of which is cap-
able of turning out an average of fifty small Grands daily. It seems
almost incredible, but this writer has visited one of the two industries
and knows that the miracle has been accomplished. And the great
February 10, 1923
possibilities alluded to are not too great for the actual demand. Ship-
ments have been made by which the almost incredible output of small
Grands has been exhausted, and orders taken by the manufacturers
only for future deliveries. It seems impossible, and nothing could be
more significant of the change which has come over the piano in-
dustry and trade.
We do not believe that the upright will disappear within five, ten,
or twenty years, if ever. It will have its admirers for an unlimited
time to come. But nothing can stop the growth of the little Grand.
The really marvelous economy in prices, due to great productiveness,
insures the growth of small Grand popularity. Ten years ago, had
any expert predicted that Grand pianos would in time be sold to the
trade for prices comparable with the cost of uprights in those days,
the prophet would have been laughed at. But the impossible has a
habit of materializing in this wonderful period in the world's progress.
And the work of the retail piano dealer is not only to sell the little
Grands as the demand grows, but also to see to it that the results
of their sale are not spoiled by the kind of competition that, in some
places, has made the selling of the average uprights less profitable.
This is to be very largely a little Grand year. Let us make it also
a big Grand year in the results of the little (.-rand sales.
TOO CHEAP
The demands upon this paper for addresses of makers of "cheap"
pianos are nearly as regular as the succeeding days. Almost every
week specimens of such requests are published. But not one-half of
them are presented, because the writers send stamps for answers by
mail, or else ask that no publicity be made in the "Where Doubts Are
Dispelled" columns.
Why there should be any secrecy in the matter is not so difficult
to understand as why the dealers want 1he cheapest they can get,
when pianos with names established can be had at moderate prices,
and without the stigma of the "cheaps." Why any piano dealer should
stutter at so trifling an advance as $10, $20, or even $50, in the cost of
reliable, well-advertised instruments, as compared with the non-
descript instruments designed to be sold as cheaply as possible, is one
of the mysteries.
A consideration of the fact that the only pianos that possess a
real demand, a competition-defying preference, are the more high-
priced and distinguished, should force a realization that it is not
cheapness that does the selling. That inducement usually is em-
phasized by the salesman. The customer comes to the store in doubt
as to what the investment may be. And it is salesmanship to sell an
instrument in which there is a profit that does not do any injustice to
the buyer. This is a pretty old story, but it is one that too many
piano salesmen do not seem to get the moral of.
It is a fact that the cheaper the piano the smaller the profit.
This applies, not as a rule, but almost that, where the selling is done
honestly. When pianos were bought at wholesale for "even money,"
• the retail prices were about as low as they could be made without
loss to the dealers. When the cost of production forced the whole-
sale prices upward, the profits to the retailers became better. It is
often the case that the retailing of any thing that represents a con-
siderable sum of money, becomes, in its results to the seller, a mat-
ter of cost price. If the dealer pays little he figures upon a propor-
tionately small profit. If he pays a good price for a good instrument
he predicates his profit accordingly. And in the piano business the
frequency of sale, or volume of demand, is not sufficient, usually, to
justify any transaction in which the profit is inconsiderable.
Commercial pianos are not to be discouraged. That is not the
idea. But to so far "commercialize" the piano industry as to stimu-
late a market for "cheap" instruments, is to destroy the fruits of the
dealers' efforts, whether they realize it or not. In no community is
the possibility of the business of sufficient dimensions to justify the
sale of pianos at piggly wiggly profits.
There are some very productive piano factories in this country.
Perhaps the combined output of only two of them about equals,
numerically, the total productiveness of England, or France, at this
time. Nevertheless, the notion which some dealers entertain, that
pianos are again "cheap," is not justifiable—that is so "cheap" that
the prices quoted by the great producers may still be cut in other
sources of supplies. That seems to be the idea expressed by many
who have written to this paper for advice.
It isn't worth while. Prices are too low for the good of the busi-
ness. Too many pianos are produced to insure the kind of sales that
is profitable. And our advice is the same today that it has ever been.
Sell good pianos and be willing to pay a fair price for them. The
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