The talking machine world (Jan-June 1928)

46 The Talking Machine World, New York, January, 1928 Music Shoppe in Town of 1025 Population Wins Success Through Store-door Playing Brunswick Panatrope Dealer of Goose Creek, Tex., Tells How Constant Demonstration Has Proved to Be Big Factor in Its Success — $14,263.53 Business in Five and a Half Months T T is generally recognized that one of the best ■■■ methods of increasing record sales is by continuous demonstration at the store door, so that passers-by will be attracted, provided, of course, that the location of the store lends itself to this type of exploitation. Too many dealers believe that it is necessary for an establishment to be located in a big city on a thoroughfare with many thousands of transients. This is not so, as is proved by a recent communication received from the Brunswick Co., announcing its outdoor record demonstration equipment. This equipment consists of two types, one a Panatrope cone mounted on a transom baffle board with all necessary accessories for connecting the cone to any P-3 type ||0 VOLT A-C t H-5 DYNAMIC outlet T™rHl% VcZLeK UNIT JlfAGNAVOX Dynamic Speaker UNIT (Type R-4, 6 volts, D. C.) Hook it up like this sketch because the 6 volt rectified output of any standard trickle charger or "A" rectifier will energize the field of the MAGNAVOX 6 volt Dynamic power speaker unit. unit only $50 Easily fitted into any cabinet Aristocrat Model Dynamic Speaker COMPLETE 6 volt $85 110 volt $90 Only the Dynamic type speaker can bring out the full qualities of reproduction demanded today. Write for speaker bulletins The Magnavox Co. Oakland, California instrument in the store, the other is a complete unit for transom use over the doorway. Accompanying the announcement was a reproduction of a letter from the Music Shoppe, Brunswick dealer of Goose Creek, Tex., a town of 1,025 population. The Music Shoppe has in five months built up a business of $14,263.53, and attributes a great deal of its success to the use of the P-13 Panatrope demonstrator. J. Fondren, one of the proprietors of the establishment, tells of its growth as follows: "From the middle of February to the first of March we did business to the amount of $1,153.19 in machines and records. During the month of March our volume was $2,340.78. For this period we averaged about six records a day and sold about sixteen machines. The remaining business was a small amount of sheet music and phonograph needles. Our total record sales were around three hundred, but not until we installed the remarkable P-13 Panatrope demonstrator did our record and machine volume show much improvement. The first month (April) we had the P-13 going we sold several hundred records, and we recall very vividly the activity on one day when we sold 150 records. For April, May, June and July we have averaged around twenty-five records per day. "Since the first of April, the time the P-13 has been going, we have sold twenty-nine portables, fifty-six exponential Panatropes ranging from the $125 to the $325 models, and five P-13 Panatropes at $575 each. "It might be interesting to some of our brother dealers to look over some figures that we have gotten together from the ledger. Total for February (13 days) $1,153.19 " " March : 2,340.78 " *' April 2,645.92 " " May 3,345.86 " " June 1,696.53 " " July 3,081.25 Total for five and one-half months $14,263.53 "You will notice how the sales began to improve and 'stay there' after the P-13 was installed. It might be advisable to make an explanation here in regard to the decrease in business volume in June. A number of men were discharged from a local industrial plant about that time. We did not feel their loss so much, but others were afraid they would be discharged and naturally held on to their pay checks. We were also about this time reorganizing our business, planning for a big Fall business and improving our methods, in any manner that we could. It was about this time that J. L. Echols joined the firm, succeeding Mr. Robinson. "You will notice by the figures that as soon as the discharging of men stopped the sales figures went right back to normal. From February 15 to the end of March we averaged $89.59 per day. We did not have the P-13 during this time. From the first of April to the end of July, a period of four months, we did a total of $10,769.56. Taking out the Sundays and holidays we were closed we averaged over $106 per day, an improvement of around $16 per day. We are located thirty miles from Houston, Tex., a city of over 200,000 population. MICA DIAPHRAGMS Immediate delivery — all sizes Send for free samples and prices All Mica Products INTERNATIONAL MICA CO. Barlnf SU PHILADELPHIA, PA. rilMM. Phlli. Three Houston daily papers are distributed in this section every day. "We spend about $50 per month for advertising in the leading local paper. There are two newspapers here, a semi-weekly and a weekly. We patronize the semi-weekly, carrying an ad, at least once a week, one-quarter page size. We never run an ad without a Panatrope cut in it. We publish the names of the new records and their numbers. "The amount of capital when we started out in February was $1,000. The weather was cold and the outlook none too bright, but we went to work. Our success has been nothing phenomenal, but it has been better than we anticipated. Perhaps we were fortunate in seeing our way clear to put in that P-13. It might be interesting to state before we close that we have been able to arrange with local private capital to carry our paper. This has really put us on a cash basis. We pay 10 per cent, but this is added to the contract price of the machines. We do not sell records, needles or supplies on the credit plan. "Our store, as we stated before, is located in the rear of the Goose Creek Pharmacy. It is 15x23 feet, and thoroughly crowded with new machines and record shelves, but we have made it a point to have two comfortable lounges for customers, with a cool fan overhead. They can come in and listen to twentyfive records if they care to, and the more who loaf with us the better. We make it a policy to keep well posted on the number of machines, style, age and make in every home. We get this very desirable information by conducting our canvass under the guise of a 'Musical Survey,' which it really is after all. If people think you want the information for your store alone they do not care to give it out, but when they are told that it is a 'musical survey' they readily co-operate with us. Of course, everything is listed from harmonicas to jew's harps, but the phonograph is cataloged just the same." Furniture for Radio Sets Is an Expensive Item R. M. Klein, General Manager of F. A. D. Andrea, Inc., Declares 35 Per Cent of Cost of Radio Goes for Furniture in Set The Demand for Quality Never Ceases To learn the difference between ordinary Cotton Flocks and "QUALITY" Cotton Flocks, order a sample bale of our Standard No. 920 for Phonograph Record Manufacturing. In purchasing a good radio receiver to-day, 35 per cent of the expenditure goes for the furniture in the set, according to R. M. Klein, general manager of Fada Radio, who recently made careful calculations designed to arrive at the exact costs of various materials that go into the making of latest radio models. In Mr. Klein's opinion the proportionate cost of furniture to the rest of the set will be still higher in the future.