Music Trade Review
Issue: 1907 Vol. 44 N. 10 - Page 4
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
still sales go merrily on and the amounts go steadily piling up. In
no other line, however, are payments on a single sale carried over
such a term of years as in piano-selling. When we think that a
purchaser may extend the paying period from three and one-half
to four years, it would seem to the outsider as if the time-limit
had not only been reached, but had been passed.
EDWARD LYMAN BILL, - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPILLANE, Managing Editor
Executive and Reportorlal Staff:
Quo. B. KBT.I.BB.
W. N. TTLBK.
F . H. THOMPSON.
EMILIII FBANCBB BAUDB.
L. B. BOWERS. B. BBITTAIN WILSON, Wir. B. WBITB. L. J. CHAMBEBLIN. A. J. NICKLIN.
BOSTON OFFICE:
CHICAGO OFFICE:
E. P. YAN HARLINGBN, 195-197 Wabasb Are.
TBLKPHONES : Central 414 ; Automatic 8643
MINNEAPOLIS and ST. PAUL:
ST. LOUIS:
L. WAITT, 278A. Tremont St.
PHILADELPHIA :
R. W. KAUFFMAN.
A. W. SHAW.
CHAS. N. VAN BUBBN.
SAN FRANCISCO: S. H. GBAX, 2407 Sacramento St.
CINCINNATI, O.: NINA PUGH-SMITH.
BALTIMORE. MD.: PAUL T. LOCK WOOD.
LONDON, ENGLAND:
69 Basinghall St., E. C.
W. Lionel Sturdy, Manager.
Published Every Saturday at 1 Madison Avenue, New York.
Entered at the New York Post Office «s Second Class Matter.
SUBSCRIPTION, (including postage). United States, Mexico, and Canada, $2.00 per
year; all otber countries, |4.00.
ADVERTISEMENTS, $2.00 per Inch, single column, per insertion. On quarterly or
yearly contracts a special discount is allowed. Advertising Pages, $60.00; opposite
reading matter, 175.00.
REMITTANCES, In other than currency form, should be made payable to Bdward
Lyman Bill.
Directory ol Plaao The directory of piano manufacturing firms and corporation*
_T~ „ . _ „ „ ~
found on another page will be of great yalue, as a reference
Manulacturera
f o r d e a i e rs and otters.
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Wand Prim
Paris Exposition, 1900
Silver Medal.Charleston Exposition, 1902
diploma.Pan-American Exposition, 1901
Gold Medal..St. Louis Exposition, 1904
Gold Afcdol.Lewis-Clark Exposition, 1905
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONE—NUMBER 1745 GRAMERCY
___
Cable address: "Elblll New York."
NEW YORK,
MARCH 9, 1907
T
HEN again, there is another viewpoint. The pianos which
have been sold on the instalment plan out of their proper
class—that is, a piano that should have been sold for $175 instead of
$300, will cause trouble in days to come for the merchant who has
put forth such goods on such terms. There is no reason under
such conditions why a man will ever pay all the instalments on a
piano, because when he has paid for a couple of years, he can get a
new piano on the same terms—and why should be continue to use
and pay for the instrument which has deteriorated under usage
when he can get a new one on exactly the same terms and at a
much less price?
When a salesman informs him that he can sell him as good a
piano for $175 as his was when bought for $300, why should he
continue to pay all the long years to own this piano which at the
start was only worth a little more than half the money asked.
The present method of instalments needs some kind of reform;
there is no doubt about that. If we compare it with other lines of
trade, we will find that there is no single article which is purchased
on the deferred plan in which payments run such an extended time
as pianos. If a drop comes in the business of the country, at any
time, it will means that thousands of payments will cease and
that the shops will be full of used instruments taken back from
those who cannot meet their obligations or who do not care to.
The instalment business is a profitable one, and it enables the
dealer to sell more pianos than on any cash basis, but at the same
time like other good things it may be overdone, and it is possible for
a man to fool himself with the idea that because he has a vast
amount of paper representing a large amount of money in sales, it
is all worth its face-value. But is it? That depends.
EDITORIAL
S
OME time ago The Review started a trade discussion which
developed interestingly along the lines that "we were selling
pianos too cheap." We took the ground that if piano selling was a
profitable 'business, it should be more than ordinarily profitable in
such times as we are now going through, and still the records do
not show that the piano dealers have become multi-millionaires dur-
ing the past few years.
Have we not grown into the habit of extending the time of
deferred payments over too long a period? And are not the regu-
lar payments too small? It is true that it is easy to get anything
nowadays on credit. Without any money beyond his weekly wages,
a sober, well-appearing man can marry, furnish a flat, and start up
housekeeping.
From the engagement ring to the piano in his parlor, every-
thing can be bought on credit and paid for in long-time instalments.
It is really remarkable to what extent this system of long-extended
personal credit is carried. Manufacturers and wholesalers, before
they give credit, consult the mercantile report and require special
detailed statements regarding the persons who ask credit of them.
The average retailer over the country sells the ordinary citizen any-
thing he may desire on the instalment plan before making any in-
vestigation as to his character beyond being sure of his identity and
occupation.
I
T is easy to swindle an instalment man, much easier than pass-
ing a forged check or picking a pocket, yet it may be truly
stated that very few people attempt to swindle merchants from
whom they have purchased on the instalment basis. Most of
the times when the instalment dealer does lose money are when
his customers have over-bought and to keep up the payments is be-
yond their means, or when sickness or loss of work has suspended
the paying power.
It further appears that in the descending scale of wages, the
proportion of loss decreases. Those who buy expensive things,
even in proportion to their means, are less likely to pay for them.
The more modest the furniture and the fewer carats in the engage-
ment-ring, the more likely it is that the payments will be continued
promptly until the end.
This reasoning applies particularly to all kinds of merchandise
which is sold at proper prices within reasonable time limits. The
man with small wages does not usually buy more than he thinks
he sees an assurance of paying for.
The man on a larger salary, or with some easily gotten money
in his possession, is mudh more likely to figure out how he can
make a splurge for a few months without paying for it. Most
likely the reason for this is that men with small wages have their
wives manage their financial affairs.
T
HE man whose salary comes in in a monthly check rarely en-
dorses that over to his wife, while the man whose wages
NE man while discussing this instalment matter recently with
come in in a weekly pay envelope is sure to have his wife waiting
The Review said that he was positive that the percentage of
for him. Most women have a greater horror of debt than men.
losses through bad debts on goods sold to the people of moderate
Women who go into debt wholesale, either do so blindly or through
means was less than the Fifth avenue jewelers. Surely this speaks
ignorance, usually because they have never been trained in the
well for the average honesty of the American citizen. Evidently,
value of money through handling it. This is one of the things
the great middle class may be trusted or else the instalment dealers
that the poor man's wife has had to learn. Her horror of debt has
would be going out of business instead of multiplying. And it been inherited from her mother, and the careful calculations which
seems that there are at the present time quite a large number of
she has to make with her husband's wages are simply a continuance
dealers who will sell pianos on the nothing-down-and-dollar-a-week
of her girlhood's scrimping.
plan.
For these and many other reasons, the business of the instal-
ment dealer—whether in pianos, books or furniture, is worthy of
It is said that a large department store in this city has a million
and a quarter of instalment paper on the dollar-a-w*eek-plan, and the sociologist's study.
O
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
still sales go merrily on and the amounts go steadily piling up. In
no other line, however, are payments on a single sale carried over
such a term of years as in piano-selling. When we think that a
purchaser may extend the paying period from three and one-half
to four years, it would seem to the outsider as if the time-limit
had not only been reached, but had been passed.
EDWARD LYMAN BILL, - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPILLANE, Managing Editor
Executive and Reportorlal Staff:
Quo. B. KBT.I.BB.
W. N. TTLBK.
F . H. THOMPSON.
EMILIII FBANCBB BAUDB.
L. B. BOWERS. B. BBITTAIN WILSON, Wir. B. WBITB. L. J. CHAMBEBLIN. A. J. NICKLIN.
BOSTON OFFICE:
CHICAGO OFFICE:
E. P. YAN HARLINGBN, 195-197 Wabasb Are.
TBLKPHONES : Central 414 ; Automatic 8643
MINNEAPOLIS and ST. PAUL:
ST. LOUIS:
L. WAITT, 278A. Tremont St.
PHILADELPHIA :
R. W. KAUFFMAN.
A. W. SHAW.
CHAS. N. VAN BUBBN.
SAN FRANCISCO: S. H. GBAX, 2407 Sacramento St.
CINCINNATI, O.: NINA PUGH-SMITH.
BALTIMORE. MD.: PAUL T. LOCK WOOD.
LONDON, ENGLAND:
69 Basinghall St., E. C.
W. Lionel Sturdy, Manager.
Published Every Saturday at 1 Madison Avenue, New York.
Entered at the New York Post Office «s Second Class Matter.
SUBSCRIPTION, (including postage). United States, Mexico, and Canada, $2.00 per
year; all otber countries, |4.00.
ADVERTISEMENTS, $2.00 per Inch, single column, per insertion. On quarterly or
yearly contracts a special discount is allowed. Advertising Pages, $60.00; opposite
reading matter, 175.00.
REMITTANCES, In other than currency form, should be made payable to Bdward
Lyman Bill.
Directory ol Plaao The directory of piano manufacturing firms and corporation*
_T~ „ . _ „ „ ~
found on another page will be of great yalue, as a reference
Manulacturera
f o r d e a i e rs and otters.
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Wand Prim
Paris Exposition, 1900
Silver Medal.Charleston Exposition, 1902
diploma.Pan-American Exposition, 1901
Gold Medal..St. Louis Exposition, 1904
Gold Afcdol.Lewis-Clark Exposition, 1905
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONE—NUMBER 1745 GRAMERCY
___
Cable address: "Elblll New York."
NEW YORK,
MARCH 9, 1907
T
HEN again, there is another viewpoint. The pianos which
have been sold on the instalment plan out of their proper
class—that is, a piano that should have been sold for $175 instead of
$300, will cause trouble in days to come for the merchant who has
put forth such goods on such terms. There is no reason under
such conditions why a man will ever pay all the instalments on a
piano, because when he has paid for a couple of years, he can get a
new piano on the same terms—and why should be continue to use
and pay for the instrument which has deteriorated under usage
when he can get a new one on exactly the same terms and at a
much less price?
When a salesman informs him that he can sell him as good a
piano for $175 as his was when bought for $300, why should he
continue to pay all the long years to own this piano which at the
start was only worth a little more than half the money asked.
The present method of instalments needs some kind of reform;
there is no doubt about that. If we compare it with other lines of
trade, we will find that there is no single article which is purchased
on the deferred plan in which payments run such an extended time
as pianos. If a drop comes in the business of the country, at any
time, it will means that thousands of payments will cease and
that the shops will be full of used instruments taken back from
those who cannot meet their obligations or who do not care to.
The instalment business is a profitable one, and it enables the
dealer to sell more pianos than on any cash basis, but at the same
time like other good things it may be overdone, and it is possible for
a man to fool himself with the idea that because he has a vast
amount of paper representing a large amount of money in sales, it
is all worth its face-value. But is it? That depends.
EDITORIAL
S
OME time ago The Review started a trade discussion which
developed interestingly along the lines that "we were selling
pianos too cheap." We took the ground that if piano selling was a
profitable 'business, it should be more than ordinarily profitable in
such times as we are now going through, and still the records do
not show that the piano dealers have become multi-millionaires dur-
ing the past few years.
Have we not grown into the habit of extending the time of
deferred payments over too long a period? And are not the regu-
lar payments too small? It is true that it is easy to get anything
nowadays on credit. Without any money beyond his weekly wages,
a sober, well-appearing man can marry, furnish a flat, and start up
housekeeping.
From the engagement ring to the piano in his parlor, every-
thing can be bought on credit and paid for in long-time instalments.
It is really remarkable to what extent this system of long-extended
personal credit is carried. Manufacturers and wholesalers, before
they give credit, consult the mercantile report and require special
detailed statements regarding the persons who ask credit of them.
The average retailer over the country sells the ordinary citizen any-
thing he may desire on the instalment plan before making any in-
vestigation as to his character beyond being sure of his identity and
occupation.
I
T is easy to swindle an instalment man, much easier than pass-
ing a forged check or picking a pocket, yet it may be truly
stated that very few people attempt to swindle merchants from
whom they have purchased on the instalment basis. Most of
the times when the instalment dealer does lose money are when
his customers have over-bought and to keep up the payments is be-
yond their means, or when sickness or loss of work has suspended
the paying power.
It further appears that in the descending scale of wages, the
proportion of loss decreases. Those who buy expensive things,
even in proportion to their means, are less likely to pay for them.
The more modest the furniture and the fewer carats in the engage-
ment-ring, the more likely it is that the payments will be continued
promptly until the end.
This reasoning applies particularly to all kinds of merchandise
which is sold at proper prices within reasonable time limits. The
man with small wages does not usually buy more than he thinks
he sees an assurance of paying for.
The man on a larger salary, or with some easily gotten money
in his possession, is mudh more likely to figure out how he can
make a splurge for a few months without paying for it. Most
likely the reason for this is that men with small wages have their
wives manage their financial affairs.
T
HE man whose salary comes in in a monthly check rarely en-
dorses that over to his wife, while the man whose wages
NE man while discussing this instalment matter recently with
come in in a weekly pay envelope is sure to have his wife waiting
The Review said that he was positive that the percentage of
for him. Most women have a greater horror of debt than men.
losses through bad debts on goods sold to the people of moderate
Women who go into debt wholesale, either do so blindly or through
means was less than the Fifth avenue jewelers. Surely this speaks
ignorance, usually because they have never been trained in the
well for the average honesty of the American citizen. Evidently,
value of money through handling it. This is one of the things
the great middle class may be trusted or else the instalment dealers
that the poor man's wife has had to learn. Her horror of debt has
would be going out of business instead of multiplying. And it been inherited from her mother, and the careful calculations which
seems that there are at the present time quite a large number of
she has to make with her husband's wages are simply a continuance
dealers who will sell pianos on the nothing-down-and-dollar-a-week
of her girlhood's scrimping.
plan.
For these and many other reasons, the business of the instal-
ment dealer—whether in pianos, books or furniture, is worthy of
It is said that a large department store in this city has a million
and a quarter of instalment paper on the dollar-a-w*eek-plan, and the sociologist's study.
O
Future scanning projects are planned by the International Arcade Museum Library (IAML).