Music Trade Review
Issue: 1899 Vol. 28 N. 6 - Page 4
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
cheapness can reach. Try the quality
plan of merchandising if you have not
already done so. You will be stronger be-
fore another year has rolled by. It's a
twentieth century method. There is trade
HT HE passage of such a bill as this un- and profit in pushing reliable wares, and
der consideration will not mean the yet the cheap piano can be sold, as it should
annihilation of stencil pianos, for, like be, in its class and at its proper price.
the poor, they will always be with us, but
it will compel the class of dealers who are
THE DEPARTMENT STORE AGAIN.
apparently indifferent to the ethics of
trade to be honest—to sell the stencil piano T H E appearance in the music trade of
the department store as a competitor
for what it is, and not at an exorbitant
price, which is now unfortunately too gen- to the regular piano dealer, continues to be
the chief topic of discussion everywhere
erally the case.
The Review journeys.
Some are so
The increased manufacture, during the
worked up over the matter that they are
past few years, of pianos without any
of the opinion that The Review should
known parentage, has been due not alone
" take the matter up " for the good of the
to the unprecedented financial depression
trade in general.
which extended over this country, but prin-
The various phases of this depart-
cipally to the fact that dealers have given
more attention to the development of the ment store question we have treated of
"cheap" trade than the sale of pianos of pretty exhaustively in The Review during
undoubted worth and well-known reputa- the past twelve months, even before it be-
tion. They have been willing to sacrifice came as keenly interesting a question as it
their good name for increased profit, and now is. We thought then as we think now
this sort of competition has led, as might that " to fight the department store" is
be expected, to a price-cutting war where not the issue, as so many dealers believe.
We hold that the reason for its being a
profits are "few and far between."
factor in the trade to-day, is the fault of
Indiscriminate price-slashing is the enter-
the dealer himself, and the remedy, we
ing wedge of business disaster. It is
hold, is also in his hands.
usually started because the dealer is afraid
The department store as we know it has
his next-door neighbor will get ahead of
him, and vice versa. They are both scared imquestionably many advantages over the
of each other and when once fairly in for ordinary dealer inasmuch as it sells for cash
it they are afraid to stop. Purchasers are only, so suffers from no bad debts. It buys
so sick of this kind of thing nowadays that at close figures and sells at close margins,
they are discarding it equally and quite consequently has a larger market for its
properly. The American public is intelli- output. Honestly conducted, as Wana-
gent; it can be fooled for a time, but not maker's for example, the department store
is simply the outcome of modern progress
for all time.
in business methods and is based on the
And even at this late day when every
truism that a man who offers the public
intelligent man should understand that
the best conveniences, the best goods at the
progress cannot be made successfully
cheapest price for spot cash, will succeed
along these lines there are many who
as against those who cannot offer the same
still labor under the delusion that they
conveniences.
can continue in the same rut and win.
How fatuous such a belief.
O TRIPPING away all false issues and
looking at this matter from a matter
\\7 H Y not make a style leader or a quality
leader as well as a price leader? of fact standpoint we must at once admit
Dealers should try and realize something that it is useless to talk of fighting the de-
else besides a price idea. Purchasers are partment store as such. What can be done,
numerous and are of many minds, and a however, is to utilize every means of com-
little work in the matter of quality and style peting with it—in other words the depart-
will catch many of them, perhaps more of ment store must be met on its own ground.
them than the usual little price big figures.
How? you will ask.
Dealers to-day are making money by
By giving closer attention to the organ-
handling pianos of guaranteed excellence ization of business and conducting it on
and sticking to them. Trade can be won modern plans of merchandising.
in this way as well as in any other. It
Advertise.
can be made larger. The power and in-
That's a powerful lever.
fluence of pianos of real merit can be ex-
A judicious use of printers' ink has en-
tended away beyond the limit that mere abled the department store to acquaint
fied to correct them; if it merits support
it should become a law, and the national
and local piano manufacturers' associations
should be placed on record in its favor."
—vEDWARD LYM \N
Editor and Proprietor
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY
3 East 14th St., New York
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage), United States,
Mexico and Canada, $2.00 per year ; all other countries,
$300.
ADVERTISEnFNTS, $2.00 per inch, single column, per
insertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts a special dis-
count is allowed. Advertising Pages $50.00, opposite read-
ing matter $75.00.
REMITTANCES, in other than currency form, should
be made payable to Edward Lyman Bill.
Entered at the Aeio York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
N E W YORK, FEBRUARY 11, 1899.
TELEPHONE NUMBER, 1745--EI0HTEENTH STREET.
THE KEYNOTE.
The first week of each month, The Review will
contain a supplement embodying the literary
and musical features which have heretofore
appeared in The Keynote. This amalgamation
will be effected without in any way trespassing
on our regular news service. The Review will
continue to remain, as before, essentially a
trade paper.
WHY NOT A STYLE LEADER?
T H E bill regulating-the stencil trade intro-
duced by Assemblyman Redington at
Albany last week, and the text of which
appeared in full in the last issue of The
Review, has excited considerable interest
in trade circles. In conversation during
the week with the leading manufacturers,
the necessity for some such law has been
unanimously conceded as the growth of
the stencil business in recent years has
become alarming.
As announced in another part of this
paper a number of manufacturers came
together at the Hotel Bartholdi last Mon-
day for the purpose of taking some action
on the bill. After an extended discussion
of its merits and the evils which it seeks to
remedy, it was thought best that the New
York Piano Manufacturers' Association
should issue invitations to manufacturers,
members and non-members, to meet at the
Union Square Hotel next Tuesday and
thereby get a fuller expression of opinion
on the measure: also to appoint a committee
who would go to Albany and impress on
the committee on the judiciary to whom the
bill has been referred that its passage would
be a wise and beneficent move toward
regulating an evil which has become a
serious menace to trade advancement and
prosperity.
This action is in keeping with the sug-
gestion made editorially in The Review
to the effect that this bill ''is certainly
worthy the investigation of the National
Piano Manufacturers' Association and the
local organization as well. If there are
any faults in it, there are none better quali-
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
cheapness can reach. Try the quality
plan of merchandising if you have not
already done so. You will be stronger be-
fore another year has rolled by. It's a
twentieth century method. There is trade
HT HE passage of such a bill as this un- and profit in pushing reliable wares, and
der consideration will not mean the yet the cheap piano can be sold, as it should
annihilation of stencil pianos, for, like be, in its class and at its proper price.
the poor, they will always be with us, but
it will compel the class of dealers who are
THE DEPARTMENT STORE AGAIN.
apparently indifferent to the ethics of
trade to be honest—to sell the stencil piano T H E appearance in the music trade of
the department store as a competitor
for what it is, and not at an exorbitant
price, which is now unfortunately too gen- to the regular piano dealer, continues to be
the chief topic of discussion everywhere
erally the case.
The Review journeys.
Some are so
The increased manufacture, during the
worked up over the matter that they are
past few years, of pianos without any
of the opinion that The Review should
known parentage, has been due not alone
" take the matter up " for the good of the
to the unprecedented financial depression
trade in general.
which extended over this country, but prin-
The various phases of this depart-
cipally to the fact that dealers have given
more attention to the development of the ment store question we have treated of
"cheap" trade than the sale of pianos of pretty exhaustively in The Review during
undoubted worth and well-known reputa- the past twelve months, even before it be-
tion. They have been willing to sacrifice came as keenly interesting a question as it
their good name for increased profit, and now is. We thought then as we think now
this sort of competition has led, as might that " to fight the department store" is
be expected, to a price-cutting war where not the issue, as so many dealers believe.
We hold that the reason for its being a
profits are "few and far between."
factor in the trade to-day, is the fault of
Indiscriminate price-slashing is the enter-
the dealer himself, and the remedy, we
ing wedge of business disaster. It is
hold, is also in his hands.
usually started because the dealer is afraid
The department store as we know it has
his next-door neighbor will get ahead of
him, and vice versa. They are both scared imquestionably many advantages over the
of each other and when once fairly in for ordinary dealer inasmuch as it sells for cash
it they are afraid to stop. Purchasers are only, so suffers from no bad debts. It buys
so sick of this kind of thing nowadays that at close figures and sells at close margins,
they are discarding it equally and quite consequently has a larger market for its
properly. The American public is intelli- output. Honestly conducted, as Wana-
gent; it can be fooled for a time, but not maker's for example, the department store
is simply the outcome of modern progress
for all time.
in business methods and is based on the
And even at this late day when every
truism that a man who offers the public
intelligent man should understand that
the best conveniences, the best goods at the
progress cannot be made successfully
cheapest price for spot cash, will succeed
along these lines there are many who
as against those who cannot offer the same
still labor under the delusion that they
conveniences.
can continue in the same rut and win.
How fatuous such a belief.
O TRIPPING away all false issues and
looking at this matter from a matter
\\7 H Y not make a style leader or a quality
leader as well as a price leader? of fact standpoint we must at once admit
Dealers should try and realize something that it is useless to talk of fighting the de-
else besides a price idea. Purchasers are partment store as such. What can be done,
numerous and are of many minds, and a however, is to utilize every means of com-
little work in the matter of quality and style peting with it—in other words the depart-
will catch many of them, perhaps more of ment store must be met on its own ground.
them than the usual little price big figures.
How? you will ask.
Dealers to-day are making money by
By giving closer attention to the organ-
handling pianos of guaranteed excellence ization of business and conducting it on
and sticking to them. Trade can be won modern plans of merchandising.
in this way as well as in any other. It
Advertise.
can be made larger. The power and in-
That's a powerful lever.
fluence of pianos of real merit can be ex-
A judicious use of printers' ink has en-
tended away beyond the limit that mere abled the department store to acquaint
fied to correct them; if it merits support
it should become a law, and the national
and local piano manufacturers' associations
should be placed on record in its favor."
—vEDWARD LYM \N
Editor and Proprietor
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY
3 East 14th St., New York
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage), United States,
Mexico and Canada, $2.00 per year ; all other countries,
$300.
ADVERTISEnFNTS, $2.00 per inch, single column, per
insertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts a special dis-
count is allowed. Advertising Pages $50.00, opposite read-
ing matter $75.00.
REMITTANCES, in other than currency form, should
be made payable to Edward Lyman Bill.
Entered at the Aeio York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
N E W YORK, FEBRUARY 11, 1899.
TELEPHONE NUMBER, 1745--EI0HTEENTH STREET.
THE KEYNOTE.
The first week of each month, The Review will
contain a supplement embodying the literary
and musical features which have heretofore
appeared in The Keynote. This amalgamation
will be effected without in any way trespassing
on our regular news service. The Review will
continue to remain, as before, essentially a
trade paper.
WHY NOT A STYLE LEADER?
T H E bill regulating-the stencil trade intro-
duced by Assemblyman Redington at
Albany last week, and the text of which
appeared in full in the last issue of The
Review, has excited considerable interest
in trade circles. In conversation during
the week with the leading manufacturers,
the necessity for some such law has been
unanimously conceded as the growth of
the stencil business in recent years has
become alarming.
As announced in another part of this
paper a number of manufacturers came
together at the Hotel Bartholdi last Mon-
day for the purpose of taking some action
on the bill. After an extended discussion
of its merits and the evils which it seeks to
remedy, it was thought best that the New
York Piano Manufacturers' Association
should issue invitations to manufacturers,
members and non-members, to meet at the
Union Square Hotel next Tuesday and
thereby get a fuller expression of opinion
on the measure: also to appoint a committee
who would go to Albany and impress on
the committee on the judiciary to whom the
bill has been referred that its passage would
be a wise and beneficent move toward
regulating an evil which has become a
serious menace to trade advancement and
prosperity.
This action is in keeping with the sug-
gestion made editorially in The Review
to the effect that this bill ''is certainly
worthy the investigation of the National
Piano Manufacturers' Association and the
local organization as well. If there are
any faults in it, there are none better quali-
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