The Edison phonograph monthly (Jan-Dec 1908)

Edison Phonograph Monthly, Oct. , 1908 1 7 N. H., Dover — Dover Furniture Co. N. J., Bayonne — Goldweber's Dep't. Store, M. Goldweber & W. Goldweber. Plainfield— L. Seisel. N. Y., Albany— Albany Phono. & Sewing Mach. Co., Aaron Kent & W. H. Bernstein, Props. Brooklyn — A. Becker. Henry F. Staude. * Collins Center — A. P. Bolander, Jr. Lockport — Floyd B. Series, Prop. Lockport Phono. Co. New York City — Harry Cohen. M. Greenberg-, alias J. Greenburg. Watertown — L. A. Maxson. Byer & Susskind. OHIO, Fremont — Lorenz Henderson Piano Co. Lima — Henry Van Gunten, Van Gunten Music Store. PENM., Philadelphia — Eastern Phono. Co., M. Futernik, Prop. Connellsville — Wright-Metzler Co. TEX., New Braunfels — Ed. Gruene. VA., Fries — J. J. Crump. WASH., Krupp — Ed. Long. •Added since August 20, 1908. REINSTATED. COL,., Boulder — Bentley & Craig. Ouray — C. C. Stratton. IOWA, Danbury — J. W. O'Day. N. Y., Rochester — A. J. Deninger (Dealer's basis). Copies of the complete Suspended List will be mailed on request. Jobbers and Dealers are asked not to supply any of the above named firms with our apparatus, either at addresses given or any other address. Give Free Concerts The manager of one of the largest and most up-to-date retail Phonograph departments in the country says free concerts have been the main factor in the success of his business. He is right about it, too. If a Dealer has a separate room in which to give free concerts he can rest assured it will pay him handsomely to do so regularly in the afternoons and occasionally at night. If no separate room is available it can be done in the regular ever most convenient. Never run a newspaper advertisement without making prominent mention of the free concerts. This need not mean that there is something big and something special going on all the time, but should convey the impression that anybody can drop in any time and hear anything they like played upon an Edison. Make it plain in your announcements that visitors are not asked to buy. The better impression you can give that it is an entirely informal affair without the least obligation on your customers to buy the more freely handed them in the way of the new supplements, they will come. Let them feel that the pleasure is yours, and that your recitals are strictly educational. Put signs in your v/ndows telling about the free concerts and have a number of advertising cards on your walls where your visitors can't help seeing them, telling how easy it is to own an Edison by the time-payment plan. Every caller should have some advertising matter etc., that will give particulars about the Edison Phonograph and Records. They are your prospects for machine sales later on* and should be treated as such. Take their names and addresses down when possible and mail them the monthly Supplements and other advertising matter that will keep their interest up until they buy. The special night concerts will draw crowds every time if neat invitations are sent out. This is a mighty good way to round your prospects up every now and then. So many people will come at night who find it inconvenient to call in the day. Often a man, or more likely, his wife, will come in the daytime, but a woman will want her husband to hear the machine before she decides to purchase. Both can arrange to attend at night. The Phonograph is a sort of luxury, and many people do a lot of thinking and considering before they get to the buying point. Often there is something else they want at the same time, and it's an open question whether the Phonograph wins or the something else. There is no way of selling an Edison so good as getting people to listen to it. You simply can not sell them any other way. So do the best you can in the free concert line. The people who come in to hear the Records will get the habit of buying other goods of you even if they hold back a while on buying a Phonograph. You may not have a whole lot of vacant space, but make the most of what you do have. "The strenuous tones of a vaudeville tenor's song cut across the rattle of wheels in the street, and people turned to look. They came from the funnel of a talking machine, set near the open door of a new hardware store. When the tenor had finished his effort to carry his voice to the end of the hall, a musical chime of bells followed. The next morning there was an orchestral march, to put spirit into the downtown procession ; and in the evening the returning procession smiled in successive waves of understanding as the people came within earshot of 'Home, Sweet Home.' It wasn't very long before the crowds that tramped up and down that street knew very well where to find a hardware shop when they needed something in that line. And the talking machine had neither said nor sung a word about business, either." — Fame.