Radio broadcast .. (1922-30)

Making the Radio Department Pay By ARTHUR H. LYNCH WE CAN sometimes understand how a certain thing may be done properly, by first learning how it should not be done. "We all make mistakes, but only the wise profit thereby"; and it would seem that the lesson might just as well be taken from the errors of the other fellow. Since by learning the pitfalls it is easier to hold to the correct road, let us study some of the pitfalls in retail radio merchandising. No matter how long a radio department or a radio retailing company has been in business, if it is to continue, it must keep alive to the newest developments. The departments of this character which are making record sales are run by men who live and breathe the atmosphere of amateur radio; they know the amateurs' pet expressions, their whims, and their enthusiasm; they can talk intelligently with the amateurs, because they are generally amateurs themselves when their daily work is over. Having their own outfits at home, they can think as the other amateurs think because they frequently encounter the very same difficulties their customers come in and tell them about. DEALERS AND THE RADIO CLUBS THERE are not enough dealers who belong to radio clubs. Those who do are generally observed to be successful. Naturally, some dealers have little time for the radio club, which they sometimes consider nothing more than a gathering of youngsters, anxious to exploit their knowledge. This knowledge is oftentimes profoundly greater than the dealer's own, and he could learn a thing or two if he would spare the time. Other dealers do not like to attend, because they know that their own knowledge is not so great along radio lines as that of some of the younger members of the club, and they feel that their prestige can best be upheld by aloofness. That is a sad condition, but it may be remedied. There is a man in one of our Southern cities who has been retailing electrical apparatus and sundries for many years. His business has been very successful. When radio came along — that is when it began to gather a little strength — he realized that it would be a good line to handle and he stocked up. He could afford to spend as much as he desired to furnish such a department, and he ordered just about everything there was listed in radio catalogues and began to get all the radio business for miles around. He not only got the radio business, but managed to pry loose some of his competitors' best customers. (The value of a radio department does not terminate with the department itself, but let us consider that more specifically anon.) A second dealer soon realized that he was going to suffer more than a small loss, if he did not do something to stop the other's inroads upon his trade. Instead of taking up some radio magazine, making a list of the advertisers, and ordering apparatus from them, he joined a local radio club. For some reason or another he was not held in very high esteem by the young folks of the town but he was permitted to join the club. Then he attended a radio school during the evening and picked up information on both amateur and commercial radio. He read and he listened and he learned —then ordered, not a lot of miscellaneous parts, which were advertised as being for use in connection with radio, but units and sundries for which he knew there would be a demand. His stock, upon the receipt of his initial order, was just about as great as you would find it if you went into his store to-day, and its value was just about one half that of his competitor's. There was little deadwood and it has only been necessary for him to make a few additions to his line occasionally and reorder what he has sold. He did a little advertising and the amateurs began coming into his store; some of them out of mere curiosity. He made every effort to satisfy them, and he is now selling most of the apparatus in that particular city. His competitor still has a large stock and probably will have until he wakes up. Now, the successful dealer did not sell his apparatus simply because he happened to study the "game" and gradually pick up a knowledge of the equipment which would be