Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
From the Editor's Note Book.
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METHODS ADOPTED BY SOME THAT SHOULD MEET WITH TRADE CONDEMNATION THE
SHOWING OF INVOICES TO KILL PIANO SALES—A PECULIAR SITUATION WHICH IS
THE REAL NAME OF THE PIANO—IS DECEIT PRACTICED — THE INCREAS-
ING POPULARITY OF THE AUTOHARP WHAT A DEALER SAID
ABOUT THE CHEAP PIANO ? ITS DECADENCE THE EVIL
- LIES NOT IN HANDLING THE CHEAP PIANO, BUT
THENEWYORKI
IN NOT SELLING IT IN ITS CLASS
THE SALESMAN'S VIEW OF THE
BUSINESS OUTLOOK.
PUBLIC LIBRARY
HERE is another matter which
will stand ventilation, as I
think it merits the condemna-
tion of the trade in the most
emphatic manner.
I refer to the matter of show-
ing invoices adopted by some dealers.
Does it not strike you as a contemptible
action for a firm who has secured the agen-
cy for a certain line of instruments, after
they have relinquished the agency for these
wares, to exhibit the invoices which were
sent them during their period of control?
If such methods prevail even in high
quarters is it any wonder that the methods
of selling pianos have fallen somewhat in-
to disrepute during the past few years?
It may be business, such a way of kill-
ing a competitive sale, but it is neither
honorable nor decent, and as I wrote last
week there are methods adopted by some
which should meet with the combined con-
demnation of all decent members of the
trade.
Here is a man who has held the agency
of a certain make of piano for a brief time.
As soon as he has relinquished the agency
and a neighboring dealer has secured it he
immediately shows, when brought into
competition with this particular instru-
ment, the invoices at which prices the pi-
anos were sold to him during his term of
control.
Reformation should extend to other
branches of the trade, aside from the trade
press.
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Is it right fora manufacturer to purchase
pianos—I will say at a receiver's sale—re-
move the name of maker and place his own
name thereon?
Is the purchaser of such a piano, buying
a Jones piano, supposing that was the
name of the maker, or is he buying a Brown
piano, the name of the manufacturer who
purchases the job lot?
Is there not deceit used in the sale?
Of course there is no direct injury to the
purchaser as long as fair value is secured,
but at the same time is not the Brown con-
cern strutting under—borrowed plumes,
shall I say?
No, purchased plumes would be better.
ASTOR, LENOX AND
/OLDEN FQ\
Still one cannot fail, if
an 04
turn of mind, to note that the portion of the
plate bearing the original name is removed
from view by the placing thereon of a second
plate with the inscription [of the name of
the would-be maker number two.
Will some one kindly state whether the
piano is in truth of the original maker's
brand or whether the name plate and the
apparent parentage of the latter should
entitle it to bear the second makers name.
I'll admit that I am somewhat mixed re-
garding the real status of such an instru-
ment.
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What a tremendous popularity the auto-
harp has among the dealers! Chatting with
one of the best known dealers in New Eng-
land the other day he said: " I think that
there never was a truer catch line used in
any advertisement than the following which
is employed by the manufacturersof the au-
toharp—'America's Favorite Instrument.'
I have found it to be the favorite instru-
ment, and oftentimes I am surprised at the
way the sales of the autoharp go on stead-
ily. The magazine advertising which its
manufacturers carried on so extensively has
helped us materially. The constant im-
provement which is steadily going on in the
autoharp too brings it to the notice of people
who would not have been attracted to it
years ago. The autoharp has come to stay
and it is not merely a fad that will have ex-
hausted itself by the close of the century.
There are a number of autoharp clubs in
our town all of which are doing educational
work for the 'Nation's Favorite Instru-
ment.' "
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During the last few weeks I have seen
certain indications which point indisputa-
bly to the fact that the cheap—I mean by
that, the very cheap piano—is in its decad-
ence. Dealers to day are not looking for the
hundred dollar piano.
In fact there are a very few who even
care to carry pianos of that price in stock.
There is an increasing demand for the in-
strument to which applies the generic
term—medium price. This is evidenced
by the steadily increasing demand for
pianos of this grade at the various fac-
tories. It was only a short time ago when I
was in a town of considerable importance in
the middle West. One of the largest deal-
ers in town came round to see me during
the evening at my hotel. We exchanged
piano talk and discussed topics of the day,
etc. As naturally as a duck gravitates to
liquid, so this man gravitated toward the
subject of cheap pianos. He said:
"I'll tell you my experience with them:
Every dealer in town with the exception of
myself carried cheap pianos—pianos that I
suppose were purchased at wholesale from
$100 to $110. I held off as long as possible
—in fact I felt really ashamed to go into
business of such a nature."
"But," I interposed, "you are a mer-
chant."
"Yes," he said, "but you know the
piano business is run on entirely dif-
ferent lines, and while I think it is well to
carry in my warerooms that which the
people desire" to purchase, yet I had not
been able to bring myself down to the
point of offering to my trade, pianos of
such a grade."
I said : " I do not think the trouble lies in
offering to the public pianos of such a
grade, but that the evil lies chiefly in the
fact that the majority of dealers do not of-
fer them to 'purchasers as instruments
of the grade which the price asked for them
should rightfully entitle the purchaser. It
is not so much that the cheap piano has
been a curse to the trade as it is the fact
that the cheap piano has not been sold in
its class. It is a truth that in innumerable
instances the very cheap piano has been sold
at an abnormal profit and at a price which
should entitle the purchaser to become the
owner of a good, reliable medium grade in-
strument."
"I think," he said, "that in the main you
are correct, but in any event, the sub-
ject of cheap pianos was distasteful to me,
but at last I felt that I should at least place
a few of them in stock."
"Let me ask you," I said at this point,
"was the'desire to placejthese instruments in
stock prompted primarily by a competition
that you could not meet in prices, or was it
from the fact that you believed your cus-
tomer was making more money than you in
the piano sale? "
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He ahemmed a trifle before replying and
finally said, "Well, they were selling cheap
pianos."
"Yes, but could you not have purchased
fair instruments—reputable instruments—
and have met your competitor in a fair
way by making a moderate profit, if the