Presto

November 1, 1924.
PRESTO
DESIRABILITY IN
STORE LOCATION
For the Man Starting a Music Store, There
Are Certain Requirements in Surroundings
and the Housing of the Business That Are
Absolutely Essential.
PREMIER DISPLAYS IN KANSAS
PREMIER
BABY GRAND
PIANOS
CHOICE
QUESTION OF COMPETITION
Where Competing Dealers Are Fewest or Absent
Entirely, May Be the Most Undesirable Place
for the Store Seeker.
JjiCED GRANDS
Solde'Xflustvely Jby
IVzzn d mrlicH *s 1015 GRAND AVE.
Desirability in location for a piano store is a com-
parative consideration. A location that may be highly
desirable for one class of business may be a poor
The Wunderlich Piano Company, Kansas City,
place for another. There are places in every city
and town in which the music store does not belong. Mo., the Clark & Jones Piano Company, Birming-
Everything is antagonistic to success for the music ham, Ala., and other representative piano merchants
dealer who may open a business there. To the in different sections of this country handling Premier
stranger who merely glances over the various stores Baby Grand pianos, made by the Premier Baby
available at the time, the objectionable features of the Grand Corporation, New York, are supplementing
"impossible" places are not apparent. The man the powerful advertising messages of the various
Premier outdoor display bulletins throughout the
from outside looking for a music store location
plays safe when he "goes slow" and does not "fall" country, with local outdoor displays of their own.
for the exhortations of the renting agent. Success
for the music store depends largely on the proper
ality but also on the line handled, the methods of
surroundings.
presenting it, the building, and its equipment.
Element of Dignity.
But apart from the selection of a location in a
The dealer who purposes handling pianos of a cer- town, the choice of the town itself is important.
tain fine class should select a store where the dignity Men about to embark in the piano business frequent-
associated with the instruments may be maintained. ly begin to search for a place where there is no "com-
Indeed the sale of any kind of piano is helped by the petition." It is a futile search for there are no such
character of taste and dignity in the store. In the places. Where there are possibilities of piano sales
minds of the prospective customers of the piano there you will find the footsteps or the tire tracks
store, the pianos are associated with art and any- of adventurous competitors. Wherever you encoun-
thing that lessens that thought in their minds, is in ter hunters you may assume there are game birds or
a way harmful to the trade. Imparting dignity to his animals. If, by any -possibility, the hopeful man in
business depends not alone on the dealers' person- search of a piano location finds a place "without
competition," he should be slow in setting up shop
there.
Competition Considered.
The place "without competition" inay be popu-
lous and seemingly busy, but it may be beguiling
to the unobservant or obstinate searcher for a good
place to woo fortune in piano sales. Every town
with the appearance of activity is not desirable for
onduring"
the piano business. The inhabitants may be hard-
working and comparatively prosperous but of a crude
kind that are not interested in pianos. A place, for
instance, with big and industrious foreign groups,
while an eager buyer of accordions and phono-
graphs, may be deaf to the pleas of the piano sales-
man and perversely indifferent to the charms of pi-
ano or playerpiano music.
The wisest choice of the man in search of a piano
store location may be a town where there is some
competition. That there are people in the field
striving for piano sales is proof that the prospective
piano buyers exist. That should be an inducement
to settle there for the man with the fighting spirit
that stimulates the piano trade.
Advantages of Competition.
There arc advantages in the place where competi-
tion has been the rule for some time. It follows that
the advertising of the competitors has increased the
interest in the pianos, players and reproducing pianos
is a complete line
to an enthusiastic degree. The ground has been
plowed, the seed of desire sown, and sales only await
It comprises a range of artisti-
the psychological moments to close them. In such
places everybody who has not bought a piano or
cally worthy instruments to
player is a prospect and he is the more desirable
please practically every purse:
prospect and the easier to land because he has been
The Hardman, official piano of
treated as a prospect by the competing piano dealers.
With him the educational processes have been at-
the Metropolitan Opera House;
tended to, and the newcomer in the piano trade may
the Harrington and the Hensel
be as successful as the older dealers.
Pianos in which is found that in-
Pioneer Work Expensive.
builtdurabilitythatcharacterizes
The pioneer work necessary in the town without
all Hardman-made instruments;
competition may prove too big a task for the man
with little money and limited energy. Creating de-
the wonderful Hardman Repro-
mand for anything is a big task. But creating a de-
ducing Piano; the Hardman
sire to purchase pianos in a population of cultured
Autotone (the perfect player-
limitations is a job calling for great strength of mind
piano); and the popular Playo-
and body and infinite patience. A young man from
a Chicago retail piano house got sick of the futile
tone.
job of trying to interest fairly well-to-do dwellers in
a certain suburb where English is a "foreign" lan-
guage, in a line of pianos and players offered on
alluring terms. But he got an inspiration. In every
corner of the suburb he heard the reedy pipe and
drone of the accordions. It was plain what was the
"native" music there. His mission was clear and he
got busy. If he hasn't placed an accordion in every
The 3f-/a
The forceful and attractive Wunderlich outdoor dis-
play bulletin being featured on one of the leading
highways of Kansas City, is shown in an accompany-
ing cut. This beautiful display is 12 feet by 48 feet
in dimension, and painted in ten colors. It effectively
ties up with the Premier Outdoor Bulletin National
Displaj's, as its leading eye-catching motif is the
famous Premier Baby Grand Flashlight.
SATISFACTORY REPORTS
FROM M. SCHULZ DEALERS
Travelers' Orders, Dealers' Letters'and First-
Hand Talks with Visiting Trade at Fac-
tories of Same Cheerful Character.
The M. Schulz Co., Chicago, report a very gratify-
ing interest of the trade in increasing stocks in all
styies of instruments and the eagerness of the dealers
generally in requiring prompt shipments is an assur-
ance of the belief that the holiday business will
prove big and of the lively kind that heartens dealers.
Every report, whether from travelers, from dealers'
letters or direct from dealers visiting the factories,
expresses a satisfaction with the saleable qualities of
the M. Schulz instruments.
The tone quality of the M. Schulz continues to be a
strong talking point with the salesmen presenting the
instruments. It is of a roundness, purity and mellow
singing character that makes the demonstration a final
argument in the efforts of the dealers and salesmen
in making sales. The reputation of the company for
case work of true artistic excellence is well main-
tained in the instruments now completed in the fac-
tories.
Visitors to the M. Schulz Co. who report a great
activity in the trade in their respective localities this
week were Frank Benjamin, progressive Danville,
111., dealer, and Frank A. Botefuhr, live representative
of the M. Schulz line at Pittsburg, Kans.
Mr. Benjamin who is proprietor of the Benjamin
Temple of Music, in the Illinois city, is motoring to
his estate in South Dakota, which comprises 1,600
acres of fertile land. While in Chicago Mr. Ben-
jamin informed the M. Schulz Co. that conditions
were improving very rapidly in Danville, and the
convincing order placed with the Chicago firm vindi-
cated his statement.
Mr. Botefuhr expressed his enthusiasm in the way
the trade is shaping up in the great agricultural
state of Kansas, and no less enthusiasm was accorded
the fine M. Schulz line which is popular with all
classes of trade of the Kansas firm. Mr. Botefuhr
was accompanied by his son Carl, an energetic young
man with his father's business in the Kansas town.
Mr. Botefuhr, who anticipates steady activity in
the trade throughout the year and into next year,
placed a heavy order with the M. Schulz Co.
HALLET & DAVIS FOR HIGH SCHOOL.
The Reed, French Piano Company, of Portland,
Ore., installed a Hallet & Davis piano in the audi-
torium of the new U. S. Grant High School of that
city, which opened September 1 in a new exclusive
residential district of the city.
home, he has at least placed half a dozen for cash
or safe terms in every block.
In a way the incident may illuminate the gropings
of the man in search of a location for a music store.
If the inhabitants are not prospects for the most de-
sirable kind of instrument in his estimation, they
may be a source of profit buying something else.
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