Music Trade Review
Issue: 1912 Vol. 55 N. 1 - Page 5
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
PROBLEMS OF MERCHANDISING DISTRIBUTION—(Continued from page 3).
lack the ability to size up the business situation correctly—to size up competition right, if you will, and to
govern their acts accordingly.
Too many merchants in every line, of course there are—too much expense, as well. How can we
help it?
Can we form a great co-operative business society or company?
Not yet, for the world is not ready for that move at the present time and until we reach a time when
ideals become realities we must struggle along as best we can, attempting to successfully solve the business
problems which come to us one and all, for there will always be problems to solve between the creative, that
is, the manufacturing and the distributing forces, and .the man who works out the best solution to the
problem shows himself a bigger brain and a bigger force in the world than the man who sits supinely by,
criticises and does nothing.
of his complaint, however, the car remained without heat for several
hours.
Fifty thousand dollars is a good round sum. The damage to
the tenor's larynx and to the proceeds of his American tour would
have to be considerable to justify such a demand. Concertgoers,
moreover, had a chance to observe that Mr. Bonci was in excellent
voice before the season closed. However, the roundness of the
sum has this advantage to the public at large—it is round enough
to make some dent on even such good round corporations as the
defendants. The public may not yet expect specially cooled cars
in the heat of summer, but it has every right to expect sufficiently
heated cars on even the coldest night of winter; it pays enough
to get them. But travelers on even such a boastfully • gilt-edged
service as that between New York and Boston know how out-
rageously cold a sleeping car can become on a cold night in winter,
simply because no matter how low the temperature may be out of
doors the heat is turned off for some hours. For that reason Mr.
Bonci is sure of popular sympathy in his suit for good round
damages.
If Mr. Bonci can compel, through legal penalty imposed, the
sleeping car company to use common sense in the adjustment of
the heat during the winter months', he will have conferred a lasting
benefit upon humanity, because most of us who travel have been
frozen and thawed in accordance with the varying whims of the
porters. Success to Bonci.
I
T is frequently noticed that a certain piano man will enter the
retail field as a dealer and make a big splurge. He will lease
warerooms in a prominent location and fill them with a dazzling
array of stock. In all too many cases such a dealer, even where
he has a fair following, must put forth strenuous efforts to keep
Legal Questions Answered for the
Benefit of Review Readers
C[JWe have opened a Department wherein legal
questions, which have direct bearing on music
trade affairs, will be answered free of charge.
€jJThis Department is under the supervision of
Messrs. Wentworth, Lowenstein & Stern, attor-
neys at law, of 60 Wall Street, New York.
{[[Matter intended for this Department should be
addressed plainly, Legal Department, The Music
Trade Review.
Wiegand, Biggsville.=—Your contract seems to be in general
good form, but whether valid under the particular laws of the State
you inquire depends upon the statute law of the State. Consult
Jpcal attorney.
his head above water. When his bills and notes become due he
is fortunate if he weathers the storm without getting out of busi-
ness altogether, or at least being compelled to sell his lease and move
to smaller and less expensive quarters, where he should have started
in the first place. The careful man with a little capital occupies
the space and carries the stock that his business really warrants
and spreads as his business grows. Such a man makes his money
in turning over his stock, taking advantage of the maximum earn-
ing capacity of his money and making it work every minute, and
does not have'dead stock and an elaborate "front" to support.
The dealer who confines himself to a well diversified stock that he
can readily handle and who sells the instruments while they are
new and fresh in appearance is deserving of membership in the
No Worry Club. By being conservative in carrying stock does not
mean trimming the stock to a dangerous point where the dealer
stands a chance of running out of pianos through delay in ship-
ments, but in regulating the business to a point where the limit of
safety is always in sight.
«
I") ECENTLY some eminent writer in discussing the varied
I V forms of advertising, and the value to be derived therefrom,
stated that window display as a seUing power has been largely
overlooked, and that this branch of advertising was still in its
infancy as far as the National advertiser is f concerned.
There is a lot of truth in this. It is only within the past few
years that the piano trade has really become alive to the value of
show windows, and there are a large army of people who are still
indifferent to this manner of conveying information to the public
regarding their products.
Those who have taken advantage of the possibilities 1 that lie
in the show window have gone into the matter in a most careful
way, and with a thoroughness that characterizes the successful ad-
vertiser of to-day. Others have gone into this form of advertising
in a haphazard, desultory way, but by far the greater number have
utterly ignored this fruitful field.
This will not always be so.
Thomas A. Bird, in discussing this subject recently, made some
very pertinent remarks which fit in here. He said: "In a few
years every manufacturer whose goods are handled by the depart-
ment store will have learned the tremendous selling power of the
combined show windows of the stores that sell his goods. He
will make it easy and profitable for the merchant to put his goods
in the windows.
"The show window is a force that must be reckoned with by
the national advertiser of the future. It has 1 a 'circulation' com-
paring favorably with that of any publication, and, in addition, it
has a directness of appeal to each individual that no printed matter
can ever have.
"It will pay the young man who is entering the general adver-
tising field to study the show window and its possibilities as a
factor in the big general scheme of distribution. He will be re-
quired to understand at least the fundamental principles of display,
and the more he knows about it ? the more useful he is likely to
prove tp bis firm,"
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
PROBLEMS OF MERCHANDISING DISTRIBUTION—(Continued from page 3).
lack the ability to size up the business situation correctly—to size up competition right, if you will, and to
govern their acts accordingly.
Too many merchants in every line, of course there are—too much expense, as well. How can we
help it?
Can we form a great co-operative business society or company?
Not yet, for the world is not ready for that move at the present time and until we reach a time when
ideals become realities we must struggle along as best we can, attempting to successfully solve the business
problems which come to us one and all, for there will always be problems to solve between the creative, that
is, the manufacturing and the distributing forces, and .the man who works out the best solution to the
problem shows himself a bigger brain and a bigger force in the world than the man who sits supinely by,
criticises and does nothing.
of his complaint, however, the car remained without heat for several
hours.
Fifty thousand dollars is a good round sum. The damage to
the tenor's larynx and to the proceeds of his American tour would
have to be considerable to justify such a demand. Concertgoers,
moreover, had a chance to observe that Mr. Bonci was in excellent
voice before the season closed. However, the roundness of the
sum has this advantage to the public at large—it is round enough
to make some dent on even such good round corporations as the
defendants. The public may not yet expect specially cooled cars
in the heat of summer, but it has every right to expect sufficiently
heated cars on even the coldest night of winter; it pays enough
to get them. But travelers on even such a boastfully • gilt-edged
service as that between New York and Boston know how out-
rageously cold a sleeping car can become on a cold night in winter,
simply because no matter how low the temperature may be out of
doors the heat is turned off for some hours. For that reason Mr.
Bonci is sure of popular sympathy in his suit for good round
damages.
If Mr. Bonci can compel, through legal penalty imposed, the
sleeping car company to use common sense in the adjustment of
the heat during the winter months', he will have conferred a lasting
benefit upon humanity, because most of us who travel have been
frozen and thawed in accordance with the varying whims of the
porters. Success to Bonci.
I
T is frequently noticed that a certain piano man will enter the
retail field as a dealer and make a big splurge. He will lease
warerooms in a prominent location and fill them with a dazzling
array of stock. In all too many cases such a dealer, even where
he has a fair following, must put forth strenuous efforts to keep
Legal Questions Answered for the
Benefit of Review Readers
C[JWe have opened a Department wherein legal
questions, which have direct bearing on music
trade affairs, will be answered free of charge.
€jJThis Department is under the supervision of
Messrs. Wentworth, Lowenstein & Stern, attor-
neys at law, of 60 Wall Street, New York.
{[[Matter intended for this Department should be
addressed plainly, Legal Department, The Music
Trade Review.
Wiegand, Biggsville.=—Your contract seems to be in general
good form, but whether valid under the particular laws of the State
you inquire depends upon the statute law of the State. Consult
Jpcal attorney.
his head above water. When his bills and notes become due he
is fortunate if he weathers the storm without getting out of busi-
ness altogether, or at least being compelled to sell his lease and move
to smaller and less expensive quarters, where he should have started
in the first place. The careful man with a little capital occupies
the space and carries the stock that his business really warrants
and spreads as his business grows. Such a man makes his money
in turning over his stock, taking advantage of the maximum earn-
ing capacity of his money and making it work every minute, and
does not have'dead stock and an elaborate "front" to support.
The dealer who confines himself to a well diversified stock that he
can readily handle and who sells the instruments while they are
new and fresh in appearance is deserving of membership in the
No Worry Club. By being conservative in carrying stock does not
mean trimming the stock to a dangerous point where the dealer
stands a chance of running out of pianos through delay in ship-
ments, but in regulating the business to a point where the limit of
safety is always in sight.
«
I") ECENTLY some eminent writer in discussing the varied
I V forms of advertising, and the value to be derived therefrom,
stated that window display as a seUing power has been largely
overlooked, and that this branch of advertising was still in its
infancy as far as the National advertiser is f concerned.
There is a lot of truth in this. It is only within the past few
years that the piano trade has really become alive to the value of
show windows, and there are a large army of people who are still
indifferent to this manner of conveying information to the public
regarding their products.
Those who have taken advantage of the possibilities 1 that lie
in the show window have gone into the matter in a most careful
way, and with a thoroughness that characterizes the successful ad-
vertiser of to-day. Others have gone into this form of advertising
in a haphazard, desultory way, but by far the greater number have
utterly ignored this fruitful field.
This will not always be so.
Thomas A. Bird, in discussing this subject recently, made some
very pertinent remarks which fit in here. He said: "In a few
years every manufacturer whose goods are handled by the depart-
ment store will have learned the tremendous selling power of the
combined show windows of the stores that sell his goods. He
will make it easy and profitable for the merchant to put his goods
in the windows.
"The show window is a force that must be reckoned with by
the national advertiser of the future. It has 1 a 'circulation' com-
paring favorably with that of any publication, and, in addition, it
has a directness of appeal to each individual that no printed matter
can ever have.
"It will pay the young man who is entering the general adver-
tising field to study the show window and its possibilities as a
factor in the big general scheme of distribution. He will be re-
quired to understand at least the fundamental principles of display,
and the more he knows about it ? the more useful he is likely to
prove tp bis firm,"
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