16
July 15, 1929
PRESTO-TIMES
PROFITABLE SALES
IN QUALITY PIANOS
Slash Prices Are Not Justified and Prospects
Should Not Be Approached as
Cheap Customers.
By R. A. BURKE,
Of Story & Clark Piano Co.
How many piano dealers are like the naturalist who
once divided an aquarium with a clear glass partition?
He put a lusty bass in one section and minnows in
the other.
The bass struck every time a minnow approached
the glass partition. After three days of fruitless
as often as they do their cars, so why not sell them
a good quality piano in the first place?
A piano either has quality or it has not. If the
tone, workmanship and durability predominate, the
price is secondary and pianos should be sold on that
basis. Do not destroy the public's confidence in the
fact that a good piano is worth a good price and it
proves the best investment in the long run.
Miss Minnie Lowenstein
The Piano Is Here to Stay.
The houses who have not succumbed to the price-
slashing methods of getting business are in a much
better position to reap their reward, and, in the mean-
time, they have not torn down .but have steadily built
their prestige upward.
I am sure we are all agreed that the piano is here
to stay, as it is the,.foundation of all musical instru-
ments and, since time immemorial, the world has
demanded music.
Quality Brings the Business.
There is piano business and will be more of it for
those of us who build and market our instruments to
the quality standard. It is a mistake to build pianos
to the price standard, as many factories have learned
to their sorrow, and a further mistake to advertise and
sell them at prices that are not justified.
Only a few piano manufacturing concerns that
started in the fifties are alive today. Through the
recent period of depression as well as all the many
other changes we have passed through during the
72 years that have elapsed since the house of Story &
Clark was founded, our policies regarding quality and
price standards have been steadfastly maintained and
we are convinced that the principal reason we are in
existence today is that we have always manufactured
quality instruments, and maintained price standards,
never deviating from that policy.
If you have found it hard to get profitable piano
sales try selling the many advantages and necessities
of having a quality instrument in the home. The
price question will soon become secondary and profit-
able sales more plentiful with the result that piano
business will be good.
and
Mr. Charles Jacob
were married
Monday, the eighth of July
One thousand, nine hundred and
twenty-nine
New York
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Jacob
OTTO LESTINA COMING NORTH
Otto Lestina, piano maker and expert; scale drafts-
man, who has been living a,t, his home, Highland City,
Fla., since he left the service of the H. C. Bay Com-
pany at Bluffton, Ind., intends to come north the
latter part of this month. He will probably visit Chi-
cago and other cities on his itinerary.
R. A. BURKE'S TRIP AND VACATION.
607 West End Avenue
The above notice and card were received at Presto-
Times office in the mail on Thursday morning, July
11. Presto-Times extends heartiest congratulations
and well wishes.
";
R. A. Burke of the Story & Clark Piano Co. left
•>'€hicago on • Sunday,. J.u.ly 7, for a business trip to
. Chattanooga, Knoxville, Tenn., and adjacent terri-
THOUGHT TRANSFERENCE BY RADIO.
tory. He returned on Saturday, July 13, and started
An
effort to determine whether there is such a thing
lunging, which netted him only bruises, he ceased his for a two-weeks' vocation at Nippersink Lodge and
as mental telepathy and thought transference through
efforts and subsisted on the food that was dropped in. Countrv Club near Lake Geneva, Wis.
radio broadcasting was an experiment tested out by
Then the naturalist removed the glass partition.
the
NBC for Thursday night, July 11. A national
The minnows swam all around the bass, but he did
A GREAT BAND FOR CHICAGO.
network of radio stations was used.
not strike at a single one. He had been thoroughly
The Chicago Daily News, with the co-operation of
sold on the idea that business was bad.
public-spirited citizens,' including musicians of high
Slash-Prices Not Justified.
A NEBRASKA HUSTLER
standing, is taking steps to bring into existence the
Ernest Voget now comes under the Presto-Times
This year, to a greater extent than ever before, greatest of bands—the Century of Progress World's
there has been in the piano business, a disposition to Fair band. Every Chicagoan individually can help specification of a hustler in the piano trade. He re-
advertise retail prices that are not justified. All types in this enterprise and his help will lie welcomed and ports that he is having an excellent trade with Had-
dorff pianos at Wayne, Neb., where his store is lo-
of pianos, grands, player.and straight, are advertised gratefully acknowledged.
cated. He says: "It pays to sell good pianos."
to be sold at retail, many times at less than cost of
W. F. Duggan Piano Company, Leesburg, Fla., is
production, to say nothing of-the cost of overhead in having
a. fine trade in electrical pianos.
selling.
He is not "Shirky," for he will not shirk; "shirley,"
Everybody knows, who gives the matter serious
Miss Edith F"oote, accomplished harpist, died last surely, he is Shirley Walker, a walker who treads
consideration, that labor is not any cheaper this year week in Leonia, N. J.
the path of rectitude and honor.
than last, or the year before; the same is largely true
of raw materials, selling cost is no less, if anything
higher, so therefore advertising and selling pianos at
retail at $100.00 to $500.00 less is not justified and it is
only a question of time before the price to the public
will have to be on a profitable basis, if the business is
to prosper.
Prospective piano buyers should not be approached
THE FAIRBANKS CO., Springfield, Ohio
with a view of selling them a cheap piano, for unlike
automobile buyers, they do not change their pianos
FAIRBANKS
14
U there't no Harmony in the
Factory there will be Non*
in the Piano."
The Harmony in the Pack-
ard u Reflected in the Har-
monj among the Dealers
who Sell them.
Profit-Producing Facts on Appli-
cation. Make it your Leader
Send for oar "BvUetin."
THE PACKARD PIANO COMPANY, Fort Wayne, IndL ' ***
an
an
Dealers and Their Salesrhen Find
PRESTO BUYERS' GUIDE
A Great Help in Closing Sales.
•D
PIAN0 PLATES
tack
Grand, Upright and Player-Pianos
Strictly High Grade. Many Exclusive Selling Points.
Attractive Proposition for Dealers. Send for Catalog.
R A . S t a r t k P i a i W fifo. r»i*nufacturers, CHICAGO, ILL.
New York Wareroom*: 112-114 Weit 42nd St.
Fifty Cents a Copy.
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