Music Trade Review

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The Music Trade Review
REVIEW
(Registered in the U. S. Patent Office)
Published Every Saturday by
Federated Business Publications, Inc.
at 420 Lexington Avenue, New York
President, Raymond Bill; Vice-Presidents, J. B. Spillane, Randolph Brown; Secre-
tary and Treasurer, Edward Lyman Bill; Assistant Secretary, L. B. McDonald;
Assistant Treasurer, Wm. A. Low.
B.
BRITTAIN WILSON, Editor
CARLETOII CHACE, Business Manager
W. H. MCCLEARY, Managing Editor
RAY Bin., Associate Editor
F. L. AVERY, Circulation Manager
E. B. MUNCH, Eastern Representative
WESTERN DIVISION:
BOSTON OFFICE:
FRANK W. KIRK, Manager
JOHN H. WILSON, 324 Washington St.
E. J. NEALY
333 No. Michigan Ave., Chicago
Telephone: State 1266
Telephone: Main 6950
Telephone: Lexin gton 1760-71
August 18, 1928
Vol. 87
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Cable: Elbill New York
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No. 7
Ambassadors of Good Will
HE annual convention of the National Association of
. Piano Tuners was held in Cleveland this week, at which
the men who keep the tone in the piano discussed the
many problems they have to meet in their daily work as well as
ways and means for impressing the public with the importance of
regular tuning and of the value of the efficient tuner.
That prominent representatives of the manufacturing and re-
tail branches of the piano trade saw fit to take part in the ses-
sions is a matter for congratulation because they displayed a
proper sense of the importance of the tuner not alone as a crafts-
man but as a sort of a link between the manufacturing and dis-
tributing branches of the trade and the final purchaser of the in-
strument.
The tuner by his skill and his tact can become a genuine am-
bassador of good will for the industry. In his contact with the
piano owner he can keep alive interest and satisfaction in the in-
strument and thus hold that friendship which makes for future
business. Where the tuner is inefficient and careless he can, on
the other hand, wear down the confidence of the owner of even
a good instrument and do incalculable damage to the piano in-
Annual Golf Tournament
of Ohio Music Merchants
Arrangements Completed for Tournament to
Be Held at Highland Meadows Country Club,
Near Toledo, on Monday, September 10
TOLEDO, O., August 13.—Plans have been com-
pleted for the ninth annual golf tournament of
the Ohio Music Merchants' Golf Association
to be held at the Highland Meadows Country
Club, Sylvania, O., near Toledo, on Monday,
September 10. Wm. R. Graul is president of
the association, and arrangements for the
tournament are in the hands of Henry C.
Wildermuth, 703 Adams street, this city, to
whom arrangements for playing should be
made.
Contestants are limited to members and as-
sociate members of the Ohio association, or
those affiliated with the music trade, and the
very modest fee of $6 will cover green fees,
luncheon, and the annual dinner in the evening.
Busses run direct from Toledo to the golf club,
and transportation will be furnished by the golf
committee if notified before 9 p. m. on Sunday,
September 9.
AUGUST 18, 1928
dustry as a whole. It is for making better tuners, of the type
who create good will, that the National Association of Piano
Tuners is working.
There are those who insist that the trouble with the piano
business is that there is inadequate contact between retail piano
houses and the public, this, of course, referring to direct sales con-
tact. The tuner, however, who sells himself and at the same time
sells that industry of which he is so important a part is aiding im-
measurably in developing and maintaining contact. He offsets the
effect of the disinterestedness of all too many dealers who, when
a piano is sold and paid for, forget all about the customer. The
efforts of the tuners to better their own condition and to win a
full measure of public confidence and respect are worthy of gen-
eral support, for they will tend to benefit the industry as a whole.
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The Radio and the Trade-in
H)E advent of the AC electric radio set has brought
in its train the problem of the radio trade-in with in-
creasing importance. What complicates this problem
for the music dealer who has a radio department, and wHat makes
it more important than the problem presented in the piano trade-
in, is the fact that a large percentage of the battery-operated sets
which are presented as trade-ins have been • purchased within a
comparatively recent time and represent an investment which, in
the eyes of their owners, has no relation at all to their resale value
to the merchant.
In meeting this problem and in successfully solving it with-
out loss the music merchant should remember one fundamental
fact, and that is, each transaction involving a trade-in is essen-
tially an individual deal and bears no relation to any other transac-
tion. In other words, the allowance made on the old set must
bear a proper relation to its resale value, whatever that may be,
and the transaction itself must not be considered complete until
the amount involved in the resale is in the dealer's till in cash.
To lose on a certain percentage of sales involving trade-ins in the
idea that this loss will be made up on sales which do not have
trade-ins means essentially a lower profit in the radio department,
and the margin of gross profit in the sale of that merchandise
is not sufficient to allow for such losses. Any effort to solve the
problem of the radio trade-in along this latter line is inevitably
doomed to failure, just as a similar method applied to the piano
trade-in problem resulted in a loss for the music dealer in the
long run.
The article in the last issue of The Review dealing with this
problem shows how many music merchants have already real-
ized this fact. All of them are considering each radio sale in-
volving a radio trade-in as a separate and distinct transaction, and
all of them are endeavoring to place their allowances for the old
receivers at such figures that they are able to escape losses.
There will be play both in the morning and
afternoon. Separate divisions for active and
associate members. A nine-hole medal play
in the morning will be followed by an 18-hole
match play in the afternoon, and a number of
handsome prizes have been provided to stimu-
late the contestants to put forth their best
efforts.
Another United Go. Store
Story & Clark Opening
New Philadelphia Store
PHILADELPHIA, PA., August 13.—The Story
& Clark Piano Co. has again entered the Phil-
adelphia trade with a newly leased store prop-
erty and basement located at 220 South
Eleventh street. The firm recently has been
conducting only offices in this city with a view
to winding up its retail accounts acquired when
it was engaged in the retail trade at Eleventh
and Chestnut streets. The new store property
will be given over to the sales and display of
the Story & Clark piano.
SOUTHBRIDGE, MASS., August 13.—The four-
teenth store of the United Music Co. chain
will be opened at 43 Hamilton street, this city,
about September 1. The arrangements for the
opening are being made by S. J. Smith, man-
ager of the Webster branch, who is a native
of Southbridge. The local manager will be
WATERLOO, IA., August 11.—C. R. Whaylen and
Richard Tych, who is well acquainted with this
Henry W. Dallman have formed a new partner-
territory. A complete line of pianos, phono-
ship to conduct a music store called the Whay-
graphs and radio will be handled.
len-Dallman Music Co., at 102^ Fourth street,
this city. Mr. Whaylen was formerly asso-
ciated with the Hartmann-Whaylen Music Co.,
which was dissolved recently with the purchase
Richard Ahlf, head of all the piano interests of Mr. Hartmann's interest by the former.
of Sherman, Clay & Co., on the Pacific Coast They plan to handle a general stock of music
is paying a brief business visit to New York.
goods.
Whaylen-Dallman Formed
Richard Ahlf in East