Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
The manufacturer sells to the department
store because it is business. He feels that
he is benefiting his own trade by selling
to these colossal aggregations of manufac-
tured wares. He figures that a contract
for a hundred and fifty or two hundred
pianos a year from some of these stores is
like finding so much business. It is bus-
iness which would not reach him in the
ordinary course of trade, and it insures
him a certain output, and, naturally, he
grasps it, saying, "No matter about the
future of the retail business, I am inter-
ested in the present; future problems can
take care of themselves, but my business
is making and selling pianos to whomso-
ever will pay me the money." Then, often-
times, a large-sized check arrives at a con-
venient time to help out some manufac-
turer, and the department store dollars go
just as far as dealers' dollars in liquidating
indebtedness. So, really, if the dealers ex-
pect manufacturers to stop selling depart-
ment stores they will be sure of meeting
disappointment. They will continue to sell
to them, for it is business to do so. As we
have said, this department store matter
is a serious one, and when trade history
is written, a decade from now, our words
will have become prophetic.
T H E dominant, vitalizing, energizing
forces to-day in business are bulk,
quantity, massiveness. Old timers may
sigh for the days when they made large, fat,
juicy profits, but those days are gone. The
aim of the successful man to-day is to do a
large amount of business; his profits on in-
dividual sales have become largely de-
creased. Small profits and big values is
the cry of the hour. The printing presses
have been the most potent agents in bring-
ing this change about, and the man who
does not take advantage of the products of
the printing press cannot meet the com-
petition of the man who does. It is the
eternal hustle for the almighty though oft-
times elusive dollar, but we should all be
thankful that we are living in the progres-
sive age of monopolies, patent suits,
musical wars, Maurice Graus, Teddy
Roosevelts and trade papers.
T H E piano merchant should make his
place of business as attractive as pos-
sible. Customers naturally gravitate to a
bright and attractive establishment, and
the secret of business success lies in pleas-
ing the public. Selling pianos is a trade—
successful business is an art, a science.
Almost any man can rent a store, put in a
stock of instruments and take chances on
people coming in to buy, but that's not
business.
The wide-awake piano merchant under-
stands the fitness of things. He acquires
much by observation. He studies among
other things his competitor's advertisements
and perhaps evolves from them an idea
which results in clever work by himself in
the newspapers. He retains impressions,
finds out what there is about his competi-
tor's business that attracts people. He is
strictly in earnest in the business sense
and he runs his store on methods that are
strictly in keeping with the times in which
he lives. He recognizes that the merchant
who is most proficient in the art of busi-
ness is the most successful trader. He
studies the conduct of his business scien-
tifically and artistically. He considers de-
tails carefully in order to produce satis-
factory results. He figures on refreshing
innovations. He transforms some dreary
old place in his store into a veritable fairy-
land. He, like Mann & Eccles, fixes up a
Turkish salon—a little cosy waiting-room
—something to attract.
Some men are born with a natural in-
stinct for business, still it is possible for all
to acquire a degree of proficiency that can-
not fail to win moderate success.
T H E Thanksgiving turkey was all right
this year. In fact the 1898 bird was
larger, of finer quality and more succulent
than have been the birds of previous years
since the World's Fair was held on the
shores of Lake Michigan. Uncle Sam has
a few things to be thankful for, likewise
the average music dealer of America. The
Thanksgiving dinner of 1898 has been rel-
ished with keener zest than for a number
of years previous.
ii
NEW YORK" is the title
M LLE.
of a recent publication copy-
righted by the Blumenberg Press. The
cover page is illuminated by a young lady
whose costume consists of a bandbox and a
pair of gloves and nothing else. A glance
at the contents of this paper would cause
one to believe that Marc Blumenberg has at
last found a proper medium for the dissem-
ination of that style of poetry for which he
is acquiring such a national reputation.
T H E style of piano case architecture has
changed within the past few years.
To-day, the plain cases, that is the cases
after the Colonial, are the best sellers
among the higher grades of pianos. Visit
any store in the land and you will find that
the salesmen invariably say so.
TT would not be very surprising if we
should hear of great industrial con-
quests made in Canada by some of our en-
terprising piano manufacturers in the near
future. Possibly moves will occur which
will astonish some, to say the least,
Baldwin Advance.
With the passing of each year we record
the advance made by that great concern
of the West, known as D. H. Baldwin &
Co.—a concern owning and controlling the
output of four factories imder the corpor-
ate names of Baldwin, Ellington, Hamil-
ton and Valley Gem. Keenly sensitive to
the importance of Chicago as a retailing
and wholesaling point, the Baldwin con-
cern will open a branch in that city on the
corner of Wabash avenue and Adams
street. H. C. Dixon, who is secretary of
the Hamilton Organ Co., will have imme-
diate control of the new branch.
It is hardly necessary to emphasize that
this new move means greater prestige for
the Baldwin goods, or that it will operate
advantageously to their interests. The
Baldwin concern is composed of men of
keen business acumen, and when they
plant the Baldwin banner in Chicago it
means that it will be carried on to greater
conquests.
Conover and the Cables Part.
J. Frank Conover is no longer the vice-
president of the Conover Piano Co. and
the superintendent of the Conover factory.
His associates in the company have
purchased all his holdings, paying spot
cash for the same, and in consequence Mr.
Conover's connection with the company
was brought to a close last Saturday.
About six years ago the Conover Co. was
organized. The scales and patterns of the
Conover piano, made by Mr. Conover in
New York City, were purchased and he
was elected vice-president of the company
and paid a good salary as the superintend-
ent of the factory. The purchase of his
stock gives him him a fat bank account and
ought to make him one of Chicago's
contented citizens.
There will be no change in the personnel
of the company now, although what the
future may have in store no one can tell.
However, it may be added that no change
is now contemplated. H. D. Cable is the
president of the Conover Piano Co., and
F. S. Cable the secretary. It is likely that
someone will soon be chosen to fill the
place made vacant by Mr. Conover's re-
tirement.
The Chicago Cottage Organ Co. are the
factors of the Conover piano, and they an-
nounce that no alteration will be made in
the instrument or in the methods of mar-
keting the product. The piano will be
kept up to its usual standard of excellence,
which, as the trade well know, is a high
one.
What Mr. Conover will do we cannot
state. He has been giving, for some time
past, the greater part of his attention to
his new Pompadour or inverted grand, and
it may be possible that he will use some of
his capital in bringing his new instrument
to the attention of the trade.—The Indi-
cator.
Geo. I). Steiger, music dealer Mount
Clemens, Mich., has removed from Walnut
street to South Gratiot avenue.