The talking machine world (July-Dec 1924)

December 15, 1924 THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD 11 who, through training, have a thorough appreciation of record value. It not only saves him the trouble of making individual selections, but puts before him records that .ordinarily might remain hidden on the dealer's shelves indefinitely. The idea of group selling is not new nor is it confined to the talking machine trade. We find the haberdasher using the idea, in the boxing of three shirts and offering them for a lump sum to the man who ordinarily would be content with one at a time. We find the tobacco dealer offering a carton of cigarettes as a convenience to the customer and as a producer of greater turnover. We find dealers in other lines grouping kindred articles offering them at a fixed price and thereby increasing sales materially for the reason that in the group sold and bought so easily there are probably several articles that the purchaser would not buy on a one-at-a-time basis. The various album sets offer a concrete example of how the plan may be worked out. The idea is new, and although it is growing rapidly there are scores of other groupings in various catalogs of all sorts that the dealer himself can arrange for bulksales. There is no reason to stay in the one record dealer class, provided the dealer himself has a proper understanding of his stock as well as the customer's general taste. A Trade Deal of Far-Reaching Importance EARLY this month there was announced the taking over by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Co. of the Vocalion record, heretofore manufactured by the Aeolian Co., New York. The announcement represents something more than a mere open-andclosed sale. From the statement of the Brunswick vice-president, it develops that the Brunswick Co. will be in a position to offer to the trade two distinct record groups. The Brunswick line itself, which has become so well established, will still continue to be offered to the public through present channels, and the Vocalion record, which also has an excellent reputation, will be offered to the general trade through accepted jobber channels and featured as a distinct unit. The announced plan of the Brunswick Co. represents a new step in record distribution, the success of which as carried out with usual Brunswick energy will be watched with interest by the trade at large. The development of record distribution, the making of records as easily available to the prospective buyer as the newspaper when he wants it, is one of the chief factors in the trade, and tfo a/1 our Jriends in the industry best wishes for a tfllerry Ohristmas and a Jfew &ear of ^Prosperity and Happiness. SLll any plan that is calculated to bring about a more general distribution of records is making for the continued and, it is hoped, increasing popularity of the talking machine itself. Value and Need of Trade Associations DEVELOPMENTS during the past year have demonstrated more forcefully than ever the fact that the talking machine trade is unfortunate in having so few active trade associations for the promotion of co-operation among the members of the industry regardless of the lines they handle to the common end of keeping the trade, as a whole, on a sound, profitable basis. There are two or three associations in the trade that really function, the outstanding among them being the Talking Machine & Radio Men, Inc., New York, which has succeeded admirably in holding the interest of the dealers, regardless of how some of them may consider certain phases of its activities. It is, of course, true that the industry is so constituted that those who handle the different lines of instruments have distinctive problems of discount, exchange, record releases, etc., to be considered, but it is quite feasible, and has been proven so, to organize divisional groups to take up the special company-dealer questions as they may crop up. The main point is that fundamentally the problems of the trade as a whole are about the same in every locality. These general problems include those of terms, interest, trade-ins, the opposition of "gyp" dealers and a half dozen other matters of similar tenor. More than one dealer has lost considerable money in experimenting to find some successful plan of operation when, had he been brought into contact with his fellows through an association, he would have found the same, or even better, plan already mapped out for adaptation to his own use. Sherman, pay & Co. Victor Distributors * i 6 ff Ti •JL» g^S it fcs* I K5KSSS88885 cfktrolas Victor (Records Victor cAccessories Main Wholesale Depot:' 741 Mission Street, San Francisco, Cal. Branch Wholesale Depots: 10th and Santee Streets, Los Angeles, Cal. N.W. Corner 13th and Glison Streets, Portland, Oregon Oceanic Bldg., Cor. University and Post Streets, Seattle, Washington 330 West Spra'gue Ave., Spokane, Washington i| U^ff J=E:EEE5S5l 1 )ezezez~£ i N ml m =1 «v.W«S =t =1 si ^ 8»*< ! ^ , VV«S SSS S»"""™« >«~«v«S ! SKCNW*™™"*" •«« ,.™v«NSXV§ 5 DISTRIBUTING DEPOTS ffr YOUR CONVENIENCE