The Edison phonograph monthly (Jan-Dec 1914)

124 EDISON PHONOGRAPH MONTHLY, AUGUST, 1914 up business. He owned an Edison Phonograph, with quite a number of "rattling good records." One day after disposing of a good-sized order for stationery, Mr. Reynolds had his inspiration. Half a dozen prospective buyers were waiting to be served. Before attending to them, however, he slipped on a lively maYch and released the lever. Then, as the music started, he hurried to wait on the customers. The rest of the story can best be told in Mr. Reynold's own words. "These next few sales were the easiest I had made in weeks. People laughed and joked about the music, but it livened up their spirits and loosened their pursestrings all the same. Several bought stationery. All stayed an extra fifteen minutes to hear more music. That, too, meant more sales. "That was the beginning of my experience with the Edison Phonograph as a stationery salesman. The next day I featured stationery, both in my advertising and the show window. I didn't advertise the phonograph specially; it was advertising itself. "Off and on, we have played it steadily every day since. It was a great study in psychology for a time to fit the proper tune to the proper buyer. The ordinary grouch, of course, had to be loosened up, so we played for him the sort of lively march or comic song to make the man forget his troubles. Now and then someone would come in suffering from a slight over-pressure of enthusiasm — "the altitude," Coloradans charitably call it. He was simply too bursting full of his own affairs to give the proper attention to buying. So we calmed him into the purchasing mood with Grand Opera or "Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep. "Allowing for people who didn't care at all for music — (and we soon learned to distinguish them in time) — the plan worked very well. Even though busi ness in all lines grew better, we still employed it. "The Edison Phonograph is To-day the Best Salesman in My Store, for it not only sells itself and its records, but it helps sell everything else in sight." Mr. Reynolds' discovery of a new field for the Blue Amberols is paralleled by A. J. Severson, in the drug business at Story City, Iowa. He says: "The Edison phonograph has more than paid for itself as a drawing card. I am confident that it has been directly responsible for the sudden increase in my general drug line, and I would not think of being without it." In the jewelry business Mr. Le Favor, of Santa Catalina, California, finds his Edison a trade-getter among a high-class clientele. He plans "store concerts," and then makes an unusally attractive showing in his jewelry department which is liberally patronized at such times. "Soda water and music" go finely. Eugene Pfefferle, of New Ulm, Minn., finds his Edison a strong attraction, and his facilities for dispensing soda and music at the same time has brought his drug store into great prominence during the summer months. Here is certainly a new field for the Edison dealer to canvass. Selling an Edison to a retail merchant who will operate it, is a profitable business, for besides the sale itself, it gives the best kind of advertising to the Edison instrument, and eventually brings the Edison dealer more patronage. For the benefit of the dealer who is looking for new fields in which to canvass for the Edison, we suggest the following: General retail stores Drug stores, Dentists' waiting rooms, Physicians' waiting rooms, Music stores, Steamship lines, Barber shops.