Radio Broadcast (May 1929-Apr 1930)

ARE USED SETS To Persist in Trying Out All Possible Methods, Without Even Asking What Ones Have Previously Been Condemned in Other Industries, Is More Than Shortsighted; It Is Unintelligent 1 M SUCCESSFUL AND UNSUCCESSFUL he automobile industry is thirty years old. The radio industry, in the proportions and perplexities of an industry, has a history less than a third as long. And because even the brightest youngster needs wise counsel to balance and direct his energetic smartness, more and more radio executives are saying, "Look at what the automobile industry has done in different cases." There is no reason why the radio trade should surrender any of its initiative, no reason why its executives ==^^===== should humble themselves and sit at the feet of the more venerable automotive chiefs, accepting all their words as binding gospel for radio enterprises. That would be more harmful than would an isolation policy of indifference to all that the older industry has experienced. There is very good reason, however, why the radio industry should make keen appraisal of all the steps in the development of the automotive industry ; should study all its past problems, determining what similarities they bear to problems now appearing or likely to appear in the radio business, and surveying the older industry's solutions of its problems with an eye to finding the merits and weaknesses in each. Such a study is particularly effective in the merchandising end of an industry. Merchandising is an econouuc science, and as such has basic laws and tenets that are as applicable to radio sets as to sewing machines, to pipe organs as to chummy roadsters. To overlook that fact, and to persist in trying out all possible methods without even asking what ones have previously been condemned after bitter experience in other industries, is more than shortsighted; it is unintelligent. "The worst mistake the automobile industry made was in thinking that its problems were unique and unprecedented in the history of merchandising," said H. R. Cobleigh, staff secretary of the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce, Name of Plan Saginaw Windsor National Used-Car Market Report Oklahoma Boston Cincinnati Principle Maximum Allowance Market Price Information Maximum Allowance Market Price Information Maximum Allowance Maximum Allowance Operating Method Dealers fix resale values on all models for past 5 years, and exchange these figures among themselves. Current sales figures on used cars published in newspapers by cooperating dealers. Published periodically, sets allowance prices, all models and all makes, for 12 zones in United States. Used car transactions reported weekly at meeting of cooperating dealers. All used car sales reported to Central Bureau, which in turn reports to all members. Similar to Boston Plan. Central Inspection Bureau, cooperatively maintained, certifies reconditioned cars and approves selling price. "Motomart," financed by dealer association, appraises, buys, and sells all used cars in district. Junk-yard, financed by dealers, scraps all cars unfit for use, salvages and sells secondhand parts. *"Motomart" buys used car, gives customer a receipt instead of cash, and dealer honors cashes receipt. Cleveland Appleby Omaha Cooperative selling of used cars Monopoly of used car business Co'o'perative junk-yard 3 2 0 • • OCTOBER 1929 •