Music Trade Review
Issue: 1916 Vol. 63 N. 10 - Page 13
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
13
SCARCITY OF SALESMEN IN DETROIT PIANO TRADE
Several Houses Are in Need of Good Men—Kimball Co. Holding Removal Sale—Good Demand
for Behr Bros. Players—Hudson Co. Demonstrates Apollo Player at Market Opening
DETROIT, MICH., August 28.—Everybody in De-
troit and Wayne county is deeply interested in
the corning of Billy Sunday on September 9.
Already a tabernacle seating 16,000 people has
been erected at Grindley Field and indications
are that there will be capacity crowds at all of
Sunday's meetings. One thing Sunday must be
given credit for—his systematic way of doing
things. For weeks district prayer meetings have
been carried on and the preliminary prepara-
tion has been along business lines. It only goes
to prove that "system" should apply to every-
thing and that "system" is necessary for the
successful campaign of any kind. This should
be an impetus to piano firms who are planning
fall campaigns—plan them systematically and
inject ginger into them. Getting back to Billy
Sunday, some one has said that in every town
where he has conducted his campaign, people
have become better citizens, more honest and
have paid up their old bills. If such is the case,
and Detroit is no exception to the rule, Sunday
will make many friends among the piano dealers
because there isn't a single one who has not a
bunch of "profit and loss" accounts on the
books. And if Sunday can get the debtors to
"pay up" he will be "going some."
At the coming November election, the people
of Michigan will vote on State-wide prohibition.
Already more than half of the State is dry, and
many of the wets are expressing great fear that
there is a big chance that the drys will win when
the last vote is counted in November. Such a
result would certainly be a hard blow to those
concerns dealing in electric pianos.
The W. W. Kimball Co., now at Farmer and
Bates streets, James W. Belcher, manager, is
conducting a big removal sale and is keeping
open evenings during the sale. The new quar-
ters at 78-80 Broadway will be modern and a
great deal of money is being spent for decora-
tions, fixtures, etc., to make the new store a
very handsome one. As previously noted, the
Broadway store will soon be ready.
H. S. Weil, manager of the piano department
of Weil & Co., furniture dealers, reports that
business for some reason or other has held up
exceedingly well during the month of August,
despite no advertising or special selling cam-
paign. The bulk of the new business has been
Smith,
Barnes
and
Strohber
Company
CHICAGO
Over 145,000 Pianos
in American Homes and
All Giving Satisfaction
MONEY MAKERS FOR THE DEALER
Write for Catalogues and Prices
Smith, Barnes & Strohber Go.
1872 Clyboura Avenue
CHICAGO
on the Behr Bros, player-piano. Mr. Weil i^
just back from a motor trip through the East.
"We have very few T. B.'s or take backs,"
he says. "The reason is that we get a line on
our customers before we conclude the sale. Just
because some person is willing to pay $25 or
$50 on a piano is no reason why we should take
a chance on a piano or player. We look the
person up, and if the report we get is not satis-
factory we let. the deal drop. It is certainly
more satisfactory to lose the customer at the
start, than to have her make one or two pay-
ments and then chase them all over the world
to get the instrument back. Piano dealers, as a
rule, are too anxious to make sales. The piano
business would have more dignity and more
respect if dealers were, more inclined to stiffen
up on credits and let the public understand it."
James C. McLogan, fifty-seven years old, of
Calumet, Mich., head of the music house of
McLogan & Pearce, probably the largest piano
house in the northern peninsula, died suddenly
on August 25 from heart disease. He was.one
of the leading business men of Calumet, where
he has been a music dealer for many years.
There is a scarcity in Detroit right now of
good piano and talking machine salesmen, ac-
cording to statements made to The Review cor-
respondent during the past ten days. At Hud-
son's, E. P. Andrews says he can use good men
in both departments. Other piano houses are
also in need of real salesmen, but there seems
to be a dearth of men. What's the matter?
Can't piano and talking machine dealers offer
as lucrative positions as other lines of trade
where salesmen are required? The writer knows
of three cases recently where piano salesmen—
and they were good salesmen—resigned to take
positions as salesmen in other lines of trade.
If a salesmen who knows the piano business is
worth, for example, $2,500 per year or more, to
some outside trade, why is he not worth that
much to the piano business? In other words,
are not the profits in the piano business suf-
ficiently large to hold men who have grown up
with that business instead of letting them go to
other
trades?
One dealer said the other day:
"
business are good salesmen as
hard to
secure as in the piano business. And
the
dealers themselves are somewhat to blame.
If they get hold of a crackerjack man, we'll
say, who is working on a salary and commis-
sion, they cut his commission as soon as they
find out he is making too much money, instead
of encouraging the salesman and letting him
go the limit because the more salesman sells the
more the dealer profits. But some dealers think
their salesmen are making too much easy money
if the salesmen happen to have an unusually
good year, and they immediately try to get
cheap'er salesmen or cut down the commission
of the good salesmen. There are few stores
where the name of the concern sells the pianos
or players—in most cases it is the selling force
that works up the clientele and makes the sales—
not the store. Well, then, who should get the
credit and who should get .a good share of the
profit, the dealer or the sales force?"
An eighty-three-year-old Chickering piano has
been on exhibition at the J. L. Hudson store
during the past week. It was an instrument
taken in trade on a new one. Also in the same
window was exhibited a 1916 Chickering.
Jacob Hackenheimer, of the C. Kurtzmann
Co., of Buffalo, was a Detroit visitor last week.
The Apollo player-piano, sold exclusively in
Detroit by the J. L. Hudson Co., was given a
free demonstration to the thousands of people
who attended the opening of the Gratiot Cen-
tral Market, Gratiot avenue, near Russell street,
on Saturday, August 26.
Most of the Detroit dealers have their stocks
of State Fair pianos and players on hand and
will take them out to the fair grounds this week
to be in readiness for the opening day, Sep-
tember 4.
I n n o line
of
Victrola XVI, $200
Victrola XVI, electric, $250
Mahogany or oak
Other styles $15 to $400
Victrola
supremacy
The universal recognition
of Victrola supremacy is
one of the greatest assets
of every Victor dealer.
With genuine Victrolas
from $15 to $400 Victor
dealers can satisfy every
demand and the volume of
business is limited only by
the individual efforts of
each dealer.
Victor Talking Machine Co.,
Camden, N. J., U. S. A.
Berliner Gramophone Co.. Montreal,
Canadian Distributors
Important w a r n i n g . Victor records can be safely and
satisfactorily played only with Victor Needles or Tungs-tone
Stylus on Victors or Victrolas. Victor records cannot be
safely played on machines with jeweled or other reproducing
points.
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
13
SCARCITY OF SALESMEN IN DETROIT PIANO TRADE
Several Houses Are in Need of Good Men—Kimball Co. Holding Removal Sale—Good Demand
for Behr Bros. Players—Hudson Co. Demonstrates Apollo Player at Market Opening
DETROIT, MICH., August 28.—Everybody in De-
troit and Wayne county is deeply interested in
the corning of Billy Sunday on September 9.
Already a tabernacle seating 16,000 people has
been erected at Grindley Field and indications
are that there will be capacity crowds at all of
Sunday's meetings. One thing Sunday must be
given credit for—his systematic way of doing
things. For weeks district prayer meetings have
been carried on and the preliminary prepara-
tion has been along business lines. It only goes
to prove that "system" should apply to every-
thing and that "system" is necessary for the
successful campaign of any kind. This should
be an impetus to piano firms who are planning
fall campaigns—plan them systematically and
inject ginger into them. Getting back to Billy
Sunday, some one has said that in every town
where he has conducted his campaign, people
have become better citizens, more honest and
have paid up their old bills. If such is the case,
and Detroit is no exception to the rule, Sunday
will make many friends among the piano dealers
because there isn't a single one who has not a
bunch of "profit and loss" accounts on the
books. And if Sunday can get the debtors to
"pay up" he will be "going some."
At the coming November election, the people
of Michigan will vote on State-wide prohibition.
Already more than half of the State is dry, and
many of the wets are expressing great fear that
there is a big chance that the drys will win when
the last vote is counted in November. Such a
result would certainly be a hard blow to those
concerns dealing in electric pianos.
The W. W. Kimball Co., now at Farmer and
Bates streets, James W. Belcher, manager, is
conducting a big removal sale and is keeping
open evenings during the sale. The new quar-
ters at 78-80 Broadway will be modern and a
great deal of money is being spent for decora-
tions, fixtures, etc., to make the new store a
very handsome one. As previously noted, the
Broadway store will soon be ready.
H. S. Weil, manager of the piano department
of Weil & Co., furniture dealers, reports that
business for some reason or other has held up
exceedingly well during the month of August,
despite no advertising or special selling cam-
paign. The bulk of the new business has been
Smith,
Barnes
and
Strohber
Company
CHICAGO
Over 145,000 Pianos
in American Homes and
All Giving Satisfaction
MONEY MAKERS FOR THE DEALER
Write for Catalogues and Prices
Smith, Barnes & Strohber Go.
1872 Clyboura Avenue
CHICAGO
on the Behr Bros, player-piano. Mr. Weil i^
just back from a motor trip through the East.
"We have very few T. B.'s or take backs,"
he says. "The reason is that we get a line on
our customers before we conclude the sale. Just
because some person is willing to pay $25 or
$50 on a piano is no reason why we should take
a chance on a piano or player. We look the
person up, and if the report we get is not satis-
factory we let. the deal drop. It is certainly
more satisfactory to lose the customer at the
start, than to have her make one or two pay-
ments and then chase them all over the world
to get the instrument back. Piano dealers, as a
rule, are too anxious to make sales. The piano
business would have more dignity and more
respect if dealers were, more inclined to stiffen
up on credits and let the public understand it."
James C. McLogan, fifty-seven years old, of
Calumet, Mich., head of the music house of
McLogan & Pearce, probably the largest piano
house in the northern peninsula, died suddenly
on August 25 from heart disease. He was.one
of the leading business men of Calumet, where
he has been a music dealer for many years.
There is a scarcity in Detroit right now of
good piano and talking machine salesmen, ac-
cording to statements made to The Review cor-
respondent during the past ten days. At Hud-
son's, E. P. Andrews says he can use good men
in both departments. Other piano houses are
also in need of real salesmen, but there seems
to be a dearth of men. What's the matter?
Can't piano and talking machine dealers offer
as lucrative positions as other lines of trade
where salesmen are required? The writer knows
of three cases recently where piano salesmen—
and they were good salesmen—resigned to take
positions as salesmen in other lines of trade.
If a salesmen who knows the piano business is
worth, for example, $2,500 per year or more, to
some outside trade, why is he not worth that
much to the piano business? In other words,
are not the profits in the piano business suf-
ficiently large to hold men who have grown up
with that business instead of letting them go to
other
trades?
One dealer said the other day:
"
business are good salesmen as
hard to
secure as in the piano business. And
the
dealers themselves are somewhat to blame.
If they get hold of a crackerjack man, we'll
say, who is working on a salary and commis-
sion, they cut his commission as soon as they
find out he is making too much money, instead
of encouraging the salesman and letting him
go the limit because the more salesman sells the
more the dealer profits. But some dealers think
their salesmen are making too much easy money
if the salesmen happen to have an unusually
good year, and they immediately try to get
cheap'er salesmen or cut down the commission
of the good salesmen. There are few stores
where the name of the concern sells the pianos
or players—in most cases it is the selling force
that works up the clientele and makes the sales—
not the store. Well, then, who should get the
credit and who should get .a good share of the
profit, the dealer or the sales force?"
An eighty-three-year-old Chickering piano has
been on exhibition at the J. L. Hudson store
during the past week. It was an instrument
taken in trade on a new one. Also in the same
window was exhibited a 1916 Chickering.
Jacob Hackenheimer, of the C. Kurtzmann
Co., of Buffalo, was a Detroit visitor last week.
The Apollo player-piano, sold exclusively in
Detroit by the J. L. Hudson Co., was given a
free demonstration to the thousands of people
who attended the opening of the Gratiot Cen-
tral Market, Gratiot avenue, near Russell street,
on Saturday, August 26.
Most of the Detroit dealers have their stocks
of State Fair pianos and players on hand and
will take them out to the fair grounds this week
to be in readiness for the opening day, Sep-
tember 4.
I n n o line
of
Victrola XVI, $200
Victrola XVI, electric, $250
Mahogany or oak
Other styles $15 to $400
Victrola
supremacy
The universal recognition
of Victrola supremacy is
one of the greatest assets
of every Victor dealer.
With genuine Victrolas
from $15 to $400 Victor
dealers can satisfy every
demand and the volume of
business is limited only by
the individual efforts of
each dealer.
Victor Talking Machine Co.,
Camden, N. J., U. S. A.
Berliner Gramophone Co.. Montreal,
Canadian Distributors
Important w a r n i n g . Victor records can be safely and
satisfactorily played only with Victor Needles or Tungs-tone
Stylus on Victors or Victrolas. Victor records cannot be
safely played on machines with jeweled or other reproducing
points.
Future scanning projects are planned by the International Arcade Museum Library (IAML).