Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
THE PARCELS POST AND THE MUSIC TRADE INDUSTRY.
Evident That a Large Proportion of Men in the Music Trade Have Not Yet Awakened
to a Realization of How the Parcels Post Will Further Their Interests—Will Be of
Special Utility in Supplying Stock to Dealers Who Handle Small Musical Instru-
ments as Well as Player-Piano Rolls, Talking Machine Records, Sheet Music, Etc.—
Interesting Analysis of the Situation Written for The Review by Waldon Fawcett.
The new United States Parcels Post is to begin
operations on January 1 next and the interim be-
fore that date is none too long for the prepara-
tions of manufacturers and merchants who desire
to take advantage in the fullest measure of this
important new method of distribution. The very
system on which the parcels post is to operate—
Transferring
Parcel Mail from
Trolley Car.
Wagon to
rates varying as to distances—will necessitate a
close study of local and national geography by
firms and individuals that desire to make the most
advantageous use of the new institution, whereas
a close comparison of parcels post rates with ex-
isting express rates will be essential if a shipper is
to put himself in a position to pick the most econ-
omical service at all times.
Music Trade Not Yet Awakened.
There is reason to suspect that a large propor-
tion of the men in the music trade have not as yet
awakened to a realization of how much the parcels
post can do to further their interests. Irdeed,
some piano merchants have bee;i heard to say that
stricts himself absolutely to the piano line. Ad-
mittedly the parcels post as it is inaugurated can
do nothing to further the delivery of instruments
but who knows what may happen some day, if the
plan is the success that is anticipated. In some
foreign countries parcels post packages are al-
lowed in all weights up to 110 pounds and should
the limit be thus extended here and manufacturers
meanwhile pursue their present policy to produce
smaller and smaller organs and baDy grand pianos
and boudoir players for use in flats and apart-
ments who can predict what may come to pass
some day. But seriously, in the meantime, the
exclusive piano dealer can receive much aid from
the parcels post. It will afford quicker and more
economical carriage for all manner of small parts
and for player piano rolls and it will facilitate in-
terchange on these items not only between dealer
and customer but also between dealer and factory.
Great Help in Emergency Wants.
This last is one of the significant possibilities of
the parcels post and one that seems to have been
strangely overlooked by the business community in
general. You will find plenty of people in vari-
ous lines of trade who are enthusiastic over the
9
possible and the parcels post is going to serve as
the next best thing.
It is a foregone conclusion that for such emer-
gency wants the new postal carrier system is going
to prove speedier than the express route. Espe-
cially is this likely to be the case during "rush
seasons'' such as the Christmas holiday when,
with all due respect, the postal service of the
Tri-Car for Postal Delivery.
country does not get quite as hopelessly congested
as the express service. Furthermore the fact that
city post offices are open at almost all hours of
the day and night will facilitate the dispatch of
such emergency orders as compared with the rou-
tine that would be followed were it necessary to
await the collection of the parcels by an express-
man on his regular round of the business district
where the shipment originates. And while on the
jobber-wholesale end of the proposition it may be
added that the parcels post is liable in many in-
stances to have an advantage over express service
as a means of placing in the hands of the dealers
Farcel Postal Delivery in Winter.
prospects of the parcels post as a marketer of
manufactured goods, either direct from producer
to consumer or via the usual manufacturer-jobber-
retailer channel, but comparatively few have awak-
ened to the aid that the parcels post can give as a
connecting link between" manufacturer or jobber
on the one hand and retailer or sales agent on the
other. And it is just here that the music trade
stands to be especially benefited. The very char-
Modern Mailing Room for Packing and Mailing
acter of many musical commodities is such as
Parcels.
cause the customer to be impatient for prompt de-
livery. A new string for a violin; the latest popu- bundles of circulars or catalogs designed for
local distribution. Especially will this be the case
lar "hit" in sheet music, talking machine record
with reference to special circulars, new lists of
or player-roll form; an operatic libretto; an instru-
music, etc., which it is desired to get into the
hands of the buying public just as promptly as
Postman with Parcel Mail.
possible after they come from the hands of the
printer.
since the parcels post with its eleven-pound limit
As has been said the obvious mission of the par-
cannot handle pianos or player-pianos, nor yet any
cels post is as a distributor of merchandise to the
of the principal individual parts that enter into
"ultimate consumers." And many music men will
the manufacture of these instruments, they can-
he surprised when they discover what a variety
not see how the new postal utility can be of much
use to them. Now this is an erroneous and short-
sighted view of the situation, even in the case of a
dealer handling only pianos and players. And
how many dealers thus restrict themselves in this
progressive age? Nine chances out of ten your
representative dealer handles in addition to pianos
and players, one or more of the important sup-
plementary lines, such as small instruments, talk-
ing machines, disc and cylinder-records, player-
piano rolls, sheet and folio music, etc., etc. And if The Postoffice Department at Washington, D. C.
any or all of these are carried, either as side lines
—Headquarters of New Parcels Post.
or as the main stock, it ought not to take half an
eye to foresee how the parcels post is going to ment to complete a hand outfit—all these and a
Delivery of Parcels by Post.
benefit the purveyor in the music trade.
dozen other classes of articles of everyday de-
Shipments of Piano Parts and Player Rolls.
mand are in the category that most emphatically of their standard items of trade may be trans-
But let us look at the situation first, supposedly, are wanted when they are wanted. Theoretically, mitted in this fashion. Violins, mandolins, gui-
from the most unfavorable angle and take as a of course, the dealer ought to have all these in tars, horns, drums, flutes, all the smaller models of
case in point the situation of a retailer who re- •stock all the time but practically it is all but im-
(Continued on page 10.}