Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
MUSICAL MERCHANDISE
Conducted By Thomas W. Bresnahan
The Jobber's Function in the
Musical Merchandise Trade
Samuel Buegeleisen, of Buegeleisen & Jacobson, New
York, Analyzes the Functions of This Important Factor
in the Distribution of Musical Merchandise to Consumer
Samuel Buegeleisen
C A M U E L BUEGELEISEN, of the firm of
Buegeleisen & Jacobson, was interviewed
by the reporter of The Music Trade Review
on board the S. S. "Leviathan" just before
sailing and gave his views of the future in
the musical merchandise industry.
"The musical merchandise business is fast
getting back to pre-war conditions, and staple,
lines, such as violins and other string and
artistic instruments, are more in demand. But
the proper handling of same requires knowl-
edge and experience," he said.
"The time is past when any Tom, Dick or
Harry, who after the war secured a few goods
and because the supply was less than the de-
mand could find a market, or when the demand
for ukuleles was greater than the supply, re-
gardless of quality, they could be sold. Now
that conditions are more normal, both with
the foreign and domestic manufacturers, this
is all over, and the dealer must again look to
the experienced jobber and importer for his
supplies.
"There is another very important factor that
the dealer must give serious thought to—is his
jobber his competitor? If the dealer would
investigate this (and it would be to his interest
to do so), he would be surprised to learn
how few real jobbers there are in our industry,
who do not cater to the retail trade in any,
form. The majority of the so-called jobbers,
sell the consumer, not alone in their own town,
but cater to the retail trade in some form or
other, everywhere. They either have branches
in their own or under assumed names in dif-
ferent cities, and from there branch out to
the smaller towns by mail or direct contact.
They also solicit the business of the dealer
throughout the country and they are his direct
. competitor.
"If the dealer is to survive he must not be
hampered by the competition of those he buys
from. The dealer, for his own protection, must
buy from the legitimate jobber, the one who
sells wholesale only, the jobber who follows
this policy from the very beginning, the jobber
who knows what the trade wants and gets it
no matter what part of the world he has to
go to supply it."
In conclusion, Mr. Buegeleisen said the in-
tention of this trip is to look for new mer-
chandise to further improve his lines wherever
possible and to secure a fine line of real old
violins, 'cellos and bows.
Samuel Buegeleisen is a musical merchan-
dise expert. No less an authority than the
United States Government backs us up when
we make this statement, for in 1917, when
Uncle Sam was looking for Dollar-a-Year men
to win the war and needed a real expert on
musical instruments to equip the bands of the
Army and Navy, he reached out and grabbed
Samuel Buegeleisen.
And for the greater part of those two years,
when many business men were doing their
utmost to pile up profits to a degree unknown
in history, the head of Buegeleisen & Jacobson
was doing his bit for the Government, as any
visitor to his office to-day may observe from
the neatly framed "card-of-thanks" from the
War Department which hangs there.
All this is introduced, not so much for its
sidelights on history, but to illustrate our point
that Samuel Buegeleisen is recognized in high
quarters as an expert on musical instruments.
GRETBCH
Trade
Mark
MUSICAL MERCHANDISE
MUSICAL INSTRUMENT MAKERS
SINCE 1883
The Fred Gretsdi
6O Broadway
Brool
22
He knows instruments thoroughly, the entire
line from the kazoo to the helicon, and even
pianos and talking machines, which he does
not handle. Furthermore, he can anticipate
what will sell and what will not.
Although he made a splendid reputation as
a salesman during the early part of his career,
which was spent among the knights of the road,
he is known chiefly to-day as a buyer. He
has an uncanny knowledge of values and he
merely states in explanation that his ability is
founded simply upon years of training.
Not many music dealers know that Samue\
Buegeleisen got his start as an interior deco-
rator. He served his apprenticeship in that
art, which he had mastered at the age of nine-
teen, »and to this he attributes his keenly
developed sense of values. Always a prodigious
worker with boundless energy, the slow-moving
nature of the work did not appeal to him, but
his instinct for thoroughness made him stick
to it until he had completed his apprenticeship.
So it is that at an early age we see him
jumping from town to town throughout the
United States with the sample cases of a big
musical instrument jobbing house, laying the
foundation for his later success as the head of
a similar business of his own. He had de-
termined to become a wholesaler some day and
music presented a strong appeal because of his
love for music in any form. For these reasons
he decided to travel for a few years in order
to learn the groundwork of the business.
In the fifteen years that Mr. Buegeleisen
traveled for this company he made the ac-
quaintance of hundreds of music dealers. His
capacity for work knew no bounds and many
the day he would stay over twenty-four hours
with some small dealer, working behind the
man's counter, helping him when he was stuck
for help. In this way he gained an invaluable
practical knowledge of retailing. He picked up
ideas here and there and passed them on lib-
erally, so that his coming got to be eagerly,
awaited by dealers both big and small.
It was inevitable that he would soon have
his own business and eventually he embarked
into the partnership of Buegeleisen & Jacofo-
son. Although Mr. Jacobson died soon after
the partnership was established, he was of
great assistance in the trying early days and
Mr. Buegeleisen still cherishes the memory of
his friendship and has always retained his name
in the partnership.
Certain fundamental business principles are
necessary in the music business, according to
Mr. Buegeleisen:
1. No order is too small to receive the same
consideration as the biggest order.
2. All houses are alike and the small house
receives the same courteous treatment that the
million-dollar house gets.
3. Don't promise too much, and make good
on what you do promise.