The Edison phonograph monthly (Jan-Dec 1916)

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

EDISON PHONOGRAPH MONTHLY, JUNE, 1916 The Dealer Who Couldn't Understand By K. R. Moses, Sales Mana AS I got off the train, the well-kept appearance of the town impressed me. It seemed modern, up-to-date, active and alive. There was no competitor in town to amount to anything and as a consequence the Amberola Dealer had a clear field. Finally I found his store. It was excellently located, but you should have seen the appearance of it. It was forty per cent, below the general appearance of the town. After we had passed the necessary introductory remarks, we sat down to talk Amberola and talk hard. How are general conditions in this town? Fine; business is great. Plenty of money? Yes, lots of it. People were buying phonographs? Yes, he thought possibly they were. Was he sure? No, he wasn't positive. Had he made any attempt to find out? No, he hadn't. Were people coming into his store unsolicited and unadvertised? No, they weren't. They used to, didn't they, when the phonograph was only a novelty? Yes, lots come in then. Since the Edison phonograph has become a standardized musical instrument instead of a novelty, they didn't come in as easily as they did then, did they? No, he didn't believe they did. Did he know the reason for that? No, he hadn't thought much about it. Did he know of any successful store in his town? Yes, there was Smith's piano store. Why were they a success? Well, he thought maybe advertising and a lot of canvassers helped. Wasn't the real reason because they ger of Amberola Department were alive and let people know what they had to sell and where and how? Well, he hadn't looked at it in just that light, but he guessed I was right. Was there any reason why he couldn't do the same? Why, none whatever. Why hadn't he? Why, he had never thought about it. And there you are! Here was a man sitting over a veritable gold mine with a pick and shovel handy and yet he hadn't started digging. Remember, the phonograph has ceased to be a novelty and has become a standardized article of merchandise and has to be marketed as such. When the automobile came out, people would flock to see one go by. How many do you think would do that to-day? They still are curious about aeroplanes, but do you think they will be ten years from now? To get the maximum results from your store today you have got to plug and plug hard. There are so many numerous ways of doing so, that in the small space we have, we cannot cover them all. But if you cannot understand why the public doesn't come to your store unsolicited like they used to, remember the reason is that the novelty of the phonograph is gone and in place of this mushroom curiosity has come a steady demand for a real musical instrument. But you have got to go out and get your business or else your competitor will steal it away by more active methods. When do you start? DOES BUSINESS IN NORWAY While many dealers have adopted the profitable policy of sending shipments of records on approval to customers who cannot easily be reached in any other way, we do not believe that a great number of those who handle the Amberola line are sending records on approval to f. reign countries. Laurence H. Lucker, of the Minnesota Phonograph Company, Minneapolis, recently made an approval shipment of two dozen records to Norway, and, of this lot, only four records were returned. This assortment went to a man who formerly lived in Minnesota but who returned to Norway to live, taking his phonograph with him. When he was located in this country he lived some distance from Minneapolis and had been obliged to purchase records from approval assortments that were sent to him at frequent intervals. So, when he was about to leave for Norway he requested Mr. Lucker to ship him an occasional assortment on approval. The greater part of each assortment sent is retained. Dealer Lucker also ships records on approval to California and Cuba. NEW DEALERS' ASSOCIATION At a dinner which the Girard Phonograph Company, Edison jobbers at Philadelphia, gave to their dealers, the matter of an organization of Edison dealers came up and a committee to draft a constitution, by-laws, etc., was appointed. This committee consisted of Messrs. von Bernuth, of Stetson & Co.; Blake, of Blake & Burkart; Murdock, of the Ludwig Piano Co.; Carter Ramsdell, of Ramsdell & Son, and Homer Davis, of George B. Davis & Co. GLOWING REPORTS FROM MIDDLE WEST Mark Silverstone, of the Silverstone Music Co., Edison jobbers at St. Louis, who recently paid a visit to the Edison factories at Orange, brought with him glowing reports of the business now being done in the St. Louis territory and made most gratifying predictions regarding future prospects in his section of the country.