Radio today (Sept 1935-Dec 1936)

CAN THE "GAS-MAN" SELL HOME SETS? Shall radio trade use filling stations to open new contacts for demonstrations? NO! 1. Gas man's regular work involves so much grease and dirt that his radio sales presentations may be second-rate. 2. His lack of radio background will eventually get him in trouble with the listening public. 3. His stations are not adapted to the effective display of radio lines. 4. He has no special training as to how to "sell up" or to go after the replacement market. 5. He and thousands of his colleagues will be able to buy radios at a discount, rather than from radio dealers. 6. His appearance in the radio biz will encourage other non-radio outlets. • ELECTRICAL Appliance Dealer's Association of Brooklyn, N. Y., recently raised 15 different kinds of hell because local jobbers sold home receivers to a chain of gas stations. Dealers muttered that it was an unfair, unprincipled, lousy trick — to bring a whole new group of nonradio outlets into the radio retail picture. They said flatly that radio selling and servicing should be done by those who were qualified by training and experience. They declared loudly that the public should be supplied by professional suppliers who had spent years learning the tricks. They stoutly believed that they should not be cheated and thrown by a batch of rank newcomers who could swipe their volume without adding overhead. Nationally speaking, it was the old question of what are legitimate radio outlets. Dealers elsewhere in the country have been disturbed by the fact that jewelry stores, tire and ac cessory shops, drug stores, garages, etc., have stocked home receivers. What happened in Brooklyn may happen elsewhere : the Association appointed a committee to meet with the distributors who were responsible for dragging the filling stations into the business. These jobbers faced a dilemma; they couldn't ditch the volume represented by the organization's membership for the sake of a single chain of gas stations. Yet it seems likely that other brands will be offered the gas-station crowd. Cooperative moves Thus the question asks for a national solution, and it appears that the trade has several items to huddle over if the business expects to emerge from the uproar a brighter, healthier thing. From what radio selling the gas station man had a chance to do, it YES! 1 . Gas attendant has repeated face' to-face contacts with a great group of radio prospects. 2. His company has already checked the credit of thousands who need a new receiver. 3. He can at least make the public conscious of advantages of new receivers. 4. He can get special radio training from instructors furnished by radio trade or his owners. 5. He has already had considerable experience with selling and servicing auto radios. 6. His appeal will not be made on a price basis; many of his sales may be made on time. appeared that his brand of contact with the public could be a great asset to the radio business, merely in terms of sales totals and regardless of the outlet. He is in position to approach and contact the public, if nothing else. It may be the cue for the radio dealer to use the filling stations to hike his own business. He could arrange with the stations on some cooperative basis to have the attendants mention or show his merchandise to the motoring public. It already has been done successfully in the case of barber shops, grocery stores, and other non-electrical outlets. It is probably true that radio dealers do not personally introduce their merchandise to the public as much and as consistently as they should. There are great groups of such dealers who sit in their stores and almost rot, waiting for customers. When prospects do arrive, they are given a lot of hi-powered blah about price. 16 Radio Today