Music Trade Review
Issue: 1932 Vol. 91 N. 8 - Page 6
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
EDITORIALLY SPEAKING
PIANO manufacturer in the East had a real
grievance recently when he displayed an order from
a successful dealer for the immediate shipment of
a particular style of grand. Within the month the
dealer had ordered seven grands of that style, each order being
by telegraph and demanding prompt delivery, because no
other instruments of the style were left on the wareroom
floor. The manufacturer had urged on several occasions that
the dealer order two or three of the model in order to have
one available after a sale had been made. "Can't afford to
stock up," was the dealer's answer, yet in a few days there
would come another rush order.
This case is not as uncommon as it would seem and the
situation works to the disadvantage of the dealer as well as
the manufacturer. In the first place the dealer is without
a sample of his best selling model between factory deliveries
and the manufacturer is forced to upset his schedule fre-
quently in order to render special service. In this case it
would be just as logical for the dealer to carry a spare piano
as it is for him to carry a spare tire on his car. It repre-
sents insurance against a lost sale and the dangers that arise
when a piano is rushed through the factory.
To talk of a shortage of pianos this Fall may sound funny
to some dealers yet a survey of the comparatively few fac-
tories now operating indicates that even a ten per cent increase
in current orders would result in delayed deliveries and con-
sequent losses. For every piano that is sold from catalog
there are fifty sold as the result of having the instrument on
hand for actual inspection. It does not mean that the retailer
need carry a burdensome stock but it is to his interest to
have on hand a representative line that can stand the strain
of one or two sales without requiring a call for help to the
factory.
Pianos are not built overnight. It takes time and plenty
of it to produce an instrument that will prove of credit to
the man who makes it and the man who sells it. The retailer
who is not willing to carry a representative stock and in
addition make known his requirements for the immediate
future is a mighty poor merchant.
and a proper one, that bargains have long since been cleaned
out of the stores and that low-priced merchandise today is
generally trashy and has been made especially for the low-
priced market.
This tendency towards establishing higher price levels is one
that should be encouraged by the music trade and particularly
by the piano man, for certain it is that prospects have, through
bargain advertising, developed an entirely false idea of piano
values. They must be educated to the fact that there is a
minimum price at which good grands can be bought at
retail, excepting the small quantity of real distressed mer-
chandise, and that this minimum figure is certainly not
under $300.
Manufacturers of quality pianos have, without exception,
made radical price adjustments warranted in a certain mea-
sure by lower prices of raw materials but, nevertheless, in a
large part as a concession to the trend of the times. It is
significant, however, that not only these sensible price adjust-
ments but likewise the general price slashing by certain types
of dealers have not served to increase unit sales to any
appreciable degree.
There are people in this country who still have enough
money to buy good pianos and who will buy them today.
Juggling prices will not serve to stimulate these sales to any
extent but will, on the contrary, simply reduce the potential
profit of both dealer and manufacturer. The piano is not
seasonal in the sense that instruments not sold this year can
be sold next, therefore there is no real excuse for wild un-
loading to make room for current styles. The trading-up
movement, in fact, is more evident in seasonal goods than in
stable commodities. Clothing prices, for instance, are ex-
periencing a distinct upward movement and to a certain
extent so are general furniture prices. Why not pianos?
The persistent advertiser of piano bargains will always be
with us but his tactics should not prevent the merchandisers
of quality instruments at fair prices from maintaining theii
stand and carrying on the fight to impress the public with
the fact that a good piano is worth a fair price, consistent
with the efforts put into its production as well as its perma-
nent character. If the volume of business is bound to be
limited for the present, why not, at least, handle it at a
profit rather than a loss?
THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF
SOUND PRICE LEVELS
WHAT IS THE DEALER GOING
TO DO ABOUT SHEET MUSIC?
G
H
OVER-CAREFUL ORDERING
THAT MEANS LOST BUSINESS
A
E T T I N G under the smoke" screens now being
thrown about with abandon by the major political
parties, one in an endeavor to prove that its policies
have already brought about improved conditions
and the other outlining situations that they promise to cure,
it is quite evident to the casual observer that there is a defi-
nite move toward price adjustments to a higher level. In
short, the bargain atmosphere is being dissipated to a large
extent, probably in realization of the fact that the public is
buying according to its needs and not simply because of price
appeal. Moreover, there seems to be a general impression,
O W is the bulk of standard and teaching music go-
ing to be distributed in your territory during the
season just opened, through your store or by the
publishers direct? This is the question that every
music dealer should be in a position to answer right now if
he is honest with himself and the answer lies not so much in
what the publishers might do as in what the dealer himself is
doing to take care of that local business.
You have heard much discussion between publishers and
dealers during the past iew years on the subject of competi-
tion, the result being the drawing up and adoption by both the
THE MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW, October, 1932
EDITORIALLY SPEAKING
PIANO manufacturer in the East had a real
grievance recently when he displayed an order from
a successful dealer for the immediate shipment of
a particular style of grand. Within the month the
dealer had ordered seven grands of that style, each order being
by telegraph and demanding prompt delivery, because no
other instruments of the style were left on the wareroom
floor. The manufacturer had urged on several occasions that
the dealer order two or three of the model in order to have
one available after a sale had been made. "Can't afford to
stock up," was the dealer's answer, yet in a few days there
would come another rush order.
This case is not as uncommon as it would seem and the
situation works to the disadvantage of the dealer as well as
the manufacturer. In the first place the dealer is without
a sample of his best selling model between factory deliveries
and the manufacturer is forced to upset his schedule fre-
quently in order to render special service. In this case it
would be just as logical for the dealer to carry a spare piano
as it is for him to carry a spare tire on his car. It repre-
sents insurance against a lost sale and the dangers that arise
when a piano is rushed through the factory.
To talk of a shortage of pianos this Fall may sound funny
to some dealers yet a survey of the comparatively few fac-
tories now operating indicates that even a ten per cent increase
in current orders would result in delayed deliveries and con-
sequent losses. For every piano that is sold from catalog
there are fifty sold as the result of having the instrument on
hand for actual inspection. It does not mean that the retailer
need carry a burdensome stock but it is to his interest to
have on hand a representative line that can stand the strain
of one or two sales without requiring a call for help to the
factory.
Pianos are not built overnight. It takes time and plenty
of it to produce an instrument that will prove of credit to
the man who makes it and the man who sells it. The retailer
who is not willing to carry a representative stock and in
addition make known his requirements for the immediate
future is a mighty poor merchant.
and a proper one, that bargains have long since been cleaned
out of the stores and that low-priced merchandise today is
generally trashy and has been made especially for the low-
priced market.
This tendency towards establishing higher price levels is one
that should be encouraged by the music trade and particularly
by the piano man, for certain it is that prospects have, through
bargain advertising, developed an entirely false idea of piano
values. They must be educated to the fact that there is a
minimum price at which good grands can be bought at
retail, excepting the small quantity of real distressed mer-
chandise, and that this minimum figure is certainly not
under $300.
Manufacturers of quality pianos have, without exception,
made radical price adjustments warranted in a certain mea-
sure by lower prices of raw materials but, nevertheless, in a
large part as a concession to the trend of the times. It is
significant, however, that not only these sensible price adjust-
ments but likewise the general price slashing by certain types
of dealers have not served to increase unit sales to any
appreciable degree.
There are people in this country who still have enough
money to buy good pianos and who will buy them today.
Juggling prices will not serve to stimulate these sales to any
extent but will, on the contrary, simply reduce the potential
profit of both dealer and manufacturer. The piano is not
seasonal in the sense that instruments not sold this year can
be sold next, therefore there is no real excuse for wild un-
loading to make room for current styles. The trading-up
movement, in fact, is more evident in seasonal goods than in
stable commodities. Clothing prices, for instance, are ex-
periencing a distinct upward movement and to a certain
extent so are general furniture prices. Why not pianos?
The persistent advertiser of piano bargains will always be
with us but his tactics should not prevent the merchandisers
of quality instruments at fair prices from maintaining theii
stand and carrying on the fight to impress the public with
the fact that a good piano is worth a fair price, consistent
with the efforts put into its production as well as its perma-
nent character. If the volume of business is bound to be
limited for the present, why not, at least, handle it at a
profit rather than a loss?
THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF
SOUND PRICE LEVELS
WHAT IS THE DEALER GOING
TO DO ABOUT SHEET MUSIC?
G
H
OVER-CAREFUL ORDERING
THAT MEANS LOST BUSINESS
A
E T T I N G under the smoke" screens now being
thrown about with abandon by the major political
parties, one in an endeavor to prove that its policies
have already brought about improved conditions
and the other outlining situations that they promise to cure,
it is quite evident to the casual observer that there is a defi-
nite move toward price adjustments to a higher level. In
short, the bargain atmosphere is being dissipated to a large
extent, probably in realization of the fact that the public is
buying according to its needs and not simply because of price
appeal. Moreover, there seems to be a general impression,
O W is the bulk of standard and teaching music go-
ing to be distributed in your territory during the
season just opened, through your store or by the
publishers direct? This is the question that every
music dealer should be in a position to answer right now if
he is honest with himself and the answer lies not so much in
what the publishers might do as in what the dealer himself is
doing to take care of that local business.
You have heard much discussion between publishers and
dealers during the past iew years on the subject of competi-
tion, the result being the drawing up and adoption by both the
THE MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW, October, 1932
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