Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
REVIEW
THE
J1UJIC TIRADE
VOL. LXX. No. 19
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman BUI, Inc., at 373 4th Ave., New York.
May 8, 1920
Single Copies 10 Cents
92.00 Per Year
Lowering Costs Through Production
T
HE question of stock shortage, which until recently was the all-important topic of discussion in the
trade, has gradually given way to the problem oa steadily advancing wholesale costs. When wholesale
prices are increased there must naturally be a corresponding increase in retail prices, and there are many
dealers who attribute the slackening of retail demand which has been felt hi certain sections to the fact
that piano prices have reached a point where they are considered rather high, when judged by the standards of
four or five years ago. This situation is peculiar, in that it is contrary to general conditions in other retail lines,
where the demand is greatest for those articles which are most highly priced.
Just what influence increased prices have had in lessening the public demand for pianos and players is
problematical. A distinct tendency toward retrenchment is evident everywhere—a tendency illustrated by the
overalls, old clothes and lunch box campaigns—and there is no question but that a large part of the purchasing
public has determined to purchase only such things as are absolutely and immediately necessary. It is this
attitude on the part of the public, rather than the comparatively high retail cost, which is undoubtedly responsible
in large measure for whatever lessening of demand may have been felt in retail piano circles during the past
few weeks.
If piano merchants conduct their selling campaigns along right lines there is no reason why any reaction
in retail demand generally should curtail their business to a dangerous degree, for there are many things which
can be eliminated before the purchaser is forced to forego his desire to own a piano. The "present attitude of
the public is against extravagance—against buying high-priced articles merely for show, instead of against things
that are high-priced—and this attitude does not militate against a steady demand for those articles, including
musical instruments, which are permanent in character and represent sound investments.
Among the great hindrances to anything like permanently lower prices for manufactured products are the
excess profits tax and other Federal taxation. Combined with these is the great problem of labor. This latter
problem is not concerning increased wages, which to-day are at their height, but is rather concerning the apparent
determination of a large part of labor not to give the amount and quality of work formerly obtainable from those
to whom was accorded the title of competent workmen. There seems to prevail some mysterious intent—a
concerted effort, as it were—to decrease production, which automatically means increased wholesale costs and
also increased retail prices, as the wholesale increase is necessarily passed along to the general public.
Various prominent men have all offered their opinions as to the cause of present inflation and the steps that
will have to be taken to bring conditions and prices back to normal, or approximately normal, but the result is
not to be achieved by theory alone. The soundest opinions are those that have to do with ways and means for
increasing production. For several years a sellers' market has prevailed. The man who had the goods and was
able to deliver them has been in a position to stand pat on the price question and get whatever he cared to demand
or thought he was entitled to. Relief will come when there is a swing in the circle and we again face a buyers'
market. Such a market will not be pronounced until demand drops and production increases to a point where
the latter equals, or perhaps overtops, the former. When there are plenty of pianos for all, when dealers and
manufacturers alike "are called upon to seek their market, then there is going to be a readjustment of prices,
though not to a pre-war level, of course, for wages in the piano trade will recede slowly if at all.
The buyers' market will not affect the retailer alone, but through him it will reach the manufacturer, supply
man and eventually the producer of the raw materials that go into the making of pianos and other manufactured
products. It will not in any sense mean bad business unless piano merchants and manufacturers seek to make it
so by falling back on pre-war selling methods. It will mean a sound, healthy business condition with some of the
present-day worries eliminated to an appreciable extent at least, which is a consummation greatly to be desired.