The talking machine world (Apr-June 1921)

^'iiiiiiiNiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiHiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiN I THE VALUE OF WAREROOM EQUIPMENT I I By ARTHUR L. VAN VEEN, ^rniiiiiiiiiiiiiinniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiilniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiim In many foreign countries the movement of merchandise is represented by "store keeping" — which is literally all that it amounts to. The dealer decides to keep a shop, buys his merchandise, sets up a store, sticks up a sign of the variety of goods "on sale" and then waits for customers. It is well known that foreigners pay little or no attention to shop equipment. What is a necessity to any up-to-date American store appears to them a foolish extravagance. Literally, they are the flagrant examples of the old adage, "Penny wise and pound foolish." Thus the foreigners' sales per capita are only a fraction of the average American's. American Retailer Sells The distinctive feature of American merchandising is that the retailer "sells" and does not "ofifer for sale." Witness the present type of high-grade specialty shops or modern department stores located in the most expensive districts in town, with equipment and service of a most elaborate nature, yet enormously profitable, simply because it pays to remove every obstacle from the path of the customer and to add every attribute to the merchandise itself. , President, Van Veen Co., Inc. | :iriiniiiiiiiiiiiiNiiiiiiiiiiiniinMiiiuiiniiriiMiiiiinriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiininiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiini^ There is probably a direct comparison in your locality. Take, for instance, the old-fashioned, downstairs barber shop situated on a side street, unventilated and unsanitary, unclean wooden floors and poor appurtenances — uninviting to say the least. On the main street, by contrast, you find the barber shop m the new hotel, white tiled and glistening under many lights, white-coated barbers using sterilized instruments. And there are all sorts of special services, the bootblack, the manicure and the wash-room, and one may even buy a collar if needed. Why do you go to the hotel when you want a barber's services? Simply because you respond to the attraction of the surroundings. They make the business of getting shaved more desirable. Therefore, because American fashion, the hotel is far-sighted enough to surround its patrons with every up-to-date sanitation and comfort and show this service at its very best it does a rushing business and makes a larger profit, in spite of the extra cost of operation. Proper Backgroiind Influences Sales We have digressed far from the music business. Our object has been to illustrate how No. 1265 Cup Needle Gups Lid Supports Tone Rods Lid Hinges Automatic Stops Door Catches Door Knobs Crank Extensions Needle Rests Sliding Casters — etc. — WEBER-KNAPP CO. JAMESTOWN, N. Y. successfully a background to merchandise can be developed to actually influence the sale itself. As an illustration, we selected one of the most remote and limited of possibilities — one of the most difficult fields in which to build an "attraction" or "atmosphere" — to more forcibly bring home to you the simply wonderful possibilities for your business. Your business is directly associated with music — the major of the two greatest arts, and, like its companion art, painting, it requires a suitable frame to set off its full beauty. You are offering for sale merchandise which is primarily intended to carry pleasure and entertainment into the people's homes. Therefore, the business of buying instruments or records should be made a happy one. Surround Merchandise With Beauty And b}' making it a happy business we mean surrounding the merchandise itself with quiet beauty and attractive dignity, befitting its association with the art of music. It's just another way of prompting the customer's imagination to add to the instrument or record. Every one knows that even grand opera given without scenery suitable to stage it or costumes for the singers would lose its "atmosphere" and in consequence its attraction to the public. Every human being likes some kind of music. Likewise each person appreciates beauty of surroundings. Combine these two in your shop and you will link the two greatest human appeals. Aims of High-class Equipment These, then, are the aims that should dominate in musical merchandising equipment, which embraces hearing rooms, record racks, counters and the general scheme of interior decoration. To surround your business with unobtrusive atmosphere of music stimulates your customer's imagination and receptiveness. It acts as a background accentuating the beauties of the instruments on display and concentrates the customer's listening faculties on the music of the record. You are thus able to encompass your patrons with such pleasant surroundings, with such convenience and speed, that they will leave your store having found a new experience in the buying of their music. In working for these ends select equipment that has been designed and constructed to furnish your store scientifically, so that your capacity for making sales vnll be enlarged to the utmost. There is to be had equipment for these purposes that will afford maximum economy of floor area and maximum of convenience to your sales people, thus lowering your cost of operation and enabling you to render better service. The writer of this article who has devoted years of labor and . study to the designing and production of proper display and selling equipment for the musical merchandise trade regards it as a duty of the dealer to himself to place the demands of his store in the hands of those whose qualification for executing the work successfully will eliminate the element of chance.