Music Trade Review
Issue: 1940 Vol. 99 N. 2 - Page 5
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, FEBRUARY, 19W
ing should be included in our business
formula for 1940. With constant en-
deavor to secure better wholesale
prices, also should go intensive work
to pare costs, as while perhaps it was
indavisable to do this two or three
years ago, it is now believed that there
will be a constantly growing piano
business which should be handled on
the one aim of getting proper factory
profits—a minimum of 10% net.
T
HIRTY piano factories doing a
business of roughly $17,000,-
000.00 for 100,000 pianos
should net $17 a piano—and
by net we mean proper depreciation
and all the other accurate charges
based upon rational cost accounting.
We hear too much about $5 per piano
factory profits. Unless it is a case
where the boss draws out $50,000 for
himself, and then leaving $5 per piano,
there seems no sense for mfrs. to be
working for a pittance. Continuance of
the past 5 years of growth of piano
acceptance, on a profit hand-to-mouth
basis, will find our plants inadequate
to handle the business. Without some
extra dough in the kitty to care for
expansion and the improvement of pro-
duction facilities the industry will find
the dealers on the spot to get pianos
to sell.
M
ANY good things have been
done by mfrs. in the past
five years circumstances,
but we'll bet if more atten-
tion had been paid to getting adequate
returns on manufacturing, we would
all start 1940 in a much more staple
condition. And such a foundation not
alone being valuable to dealers who
depend upon the factories, but the latter
would have a larger chunk of fat to do
certain things in the plants which
practically everyone knows should be
done.
T
HE dealers' position is much
softer than the mfrs. They
know their piano costs (no
mfr. does until the end of the
month, and it is a wizard who can esti-
mate costs correctly) spread between
wholesale and retail permits most any
type of sales ingenuity, and it would
be a pretty dumb dealer who can't
make profits on number-merchandise.
3,000 dealers do a new piano business
of about $33,000,000 plus 50,000
second-hands at roughly $60 or $3,-
000,000 more, and they are having a
nice time doing this. They object like
hell to giving mfrs. a nickel more and
instead of viewing the situation on a
long wheel base attitude, probably
spend 25% of their time dickering for
special prices.
K
NOWLEDGE of "who sells
pianos?" and where, is still
far from accurate. Questions
we can ask on piano market-
ing are more than a kid's "why?" and
the' latter is much. How many exclu-
sive piano deals are there, and where?
How many department stores sell
pianos; what is their percentage of
sales to the industry, and in what
localities are they? Here is a wow of
a question, and then slip in for a
puzzle, what ratio of increase have they
enjoyed compared to "piano dealers"?
How many furniture stores sell pianos;
is the number increasing or diminish-
ing, and what is the percentage of their
volume? Is the bulk of piano sales still
being done by the Droops, Kitts,
Grinnels, Heatons, Steinerts, Griffiths,
Sherman-Clays, etc.? If so, what per-
centage of the business done is by 300
dealers of this type? Is their increase
greater than that of department stores?
What is the value of new dealers of the
past 2 years? What is the cost of get-
ting new dealers?
COULD continue asking ques-
tions that apparently are not
answerable from an industry
viewpoint (an occasional mfr.
may have more or less of it) for the
next hour, and it is amazing that we all
have done so well with so little uni-
versal information. We have not yet
emerged from the "secret" condition
of piano work, and just the fragmen-
tary data that we publish herein month
to month is so unusual to most readers
that we can always rely upon a bunch
of comments both for and against. Aim
in 1940 for both dealer and mfr. asso-
ciations should put "facts of piano life"
before its members, for we all are
"growed up" now and can hear the
good and the bad without embarrass-
ment.
I
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, FEBRUARY, 19W
ing should be included in our business
formula for 1940. With constant en-
deavor to secure better wholesale
prices, also should go intensive work
to pare costs, as while perhaps it was
indavisable to do this two or three
years ago, it is now believed that there
will be a constantly growing piano
business which should be handled on
the one aim of getting proper factory
profits—a minimum of 10% net.
T
HIRTY piano factories doing a
business of roughly $17,000,-
000.00 for 100,000 pianos
should net $17 a piano—and
by net we mean proper depreciation
and all the other accurate charges
based upon rational cost accounting.
We hear too much about $5 per piano
factory profits. Unless it is a case
where the boss draws out $50,000 for
himself, and then leaving $5 per piano,
there seems no sense for mfrs. to be
working for a pittance. Continuance of
the past 5 years of growth of piano
acceptance, on a profit hand-to-mouth
basis, will find our plants inadequate
to handle the business. Without some
extra dough in the kitty to care for
expansion and the improvement of pro-
duction facilities the industry will find
the dealers on the spot to get pianos
to sell.
M
ANY good things have been
done by mfrs. in the past
five years circumstances,
but we'll bet if more atten-
tion had been paid to getting adequate
returns on manufacturing, we would
all start 1940 in a much more staple
condition. And such a foundation not
alone being valuable to dealers who
depend upon the factories, but the latter
would have a larger chunk of fat to do
certain things in the plants which
practically everyone knows should be
done.
T
HE dealers' position is much
softer than the mfrs. They
know their piano costs (no
mfr. does until the end of the
month, and it is a wizard who can esti-
mate costs correctly) spread between
wholesale and retail permits most any
type of sales ingenuity, and it would
be a pretty dumb dealer who can't
make profits on number-merchandise.
3,000 dealers do a new piano business
of about $33,000,000 plus 50,000
second-hands at roughly $60 or $3,-
000,000 more, and they are having a
nice time doing this. They object like
hell to giving mfrs. a nickel more and
instead of viewing the situation on a
long wheel base attitude, probably
spend 25% of their time dickering for
special prices.
K
NOWLEDGE of "who sells
pianos?" and where, is still
far from accurate. Questions
we can ask on piano market-
ing are more than a kid's "why?" and
the' latter is much. How many exclu-
sive piano deals are there, and where?
How many department stores sell
pianos; what is their percentage of
sales to the industry, and in what
localities are they? Here is a wow of
a question, and then slip in for a
puzzle, what ratio of increase have they
enjoyed compared to "piano dealers"?
How many furniture stores sell pianos;
is the number increasing or diminish-
ing, and what is the percentage of their
volume? Is the bulk of piano sales still
being done by the Droops, Kitts,
Grinnels, Heatons, Steinerts, Griffiths,
Sherman-Clays, etc.? If so, what per-
centage of the business done is by 300
dealers of this type? Is their increase
greater than that of department stores?
What is the value of new dealers of the
past 2 years? What is the cost of get-
ting new dealers?
COULD continue asking ques-
tions that apparently are not
answerable from an industry
viewpoint (an occasional mfr.
may have more or less of it) for the
next hour, and it is amazing that we all
have done so well with so little uni-
versal information. We have not yet
emerged from the "secret" condition
of piano work, and just the fragmen-
tary data that we publish herein month
to month is so unusual to most readers
that we can always rely upon a bunch
of comments both for and against. Aim
in 1940 for both dealer and mfr. asso-
ciations should put "facts of piano life"
before its members, for we all are
"growed up" now and can hear the
good and the bad without embarrass-
ment.
I
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