The talking machine world (Jan-Dec 1910)

THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD. of TRADE ON THE PACIFIC COAST. Usual Summer Quiet Follows Busy June — Little Advertising Being Done — Pacific Phonographic Co. Progress — Now in Full Swing — Sonoma Valley Co. Moves — Talking Machine Installed in the Schools of Oakland — Columbia Business Normal — Talk of Another Talking Machine Store on Kearny Street. (Special to the Talking Machine World.) San Francisco, Cal., July 7, 1910. Although business for June was on the whole rather better than the trade had anticipated, it is decidedly quiet just now. The vacation season is now at its height and a number of members of the trade, as well as a large proportion of the buyers, are out of town. Talking machine people notice a decided falling off in the sale of records to regular customers. Many buyers of high-priced records are out of town on vacations, and the new July records, which have just been put on sale, are not expected to have the usual active opening days, though it is still too early to say positively. Wholesale shipments to the summer resorts and other out-of-town points have also died down somewhat and are not expected to show up very largely until after July 4. The June wholesale business was, however, remarkably good for a naturally quiet month, and the big houses are well satisfied with the showing made. Reports from Los Angeles indicate that the general absorption of the music trade there in the big piano sales of the last few weeks has had a reactionary effect on the talking machine business. At other points on the Coast the sales for the month are well up to the average. Aside from the Columbia advertising of the Improved Champion through Kohler & Chase, the talking machine houses are keeping strictly out of the newspapers. Some little publicity work through mailed circulars is being done all the time, but, generally speaking, the trade will wait for the end of the vacation season before making any very large advertising expenditures. J. J. Black, manager of the talking machine department of the Wiley B. Allen Co., reports that the city stores of the company are doing their usual dull season business. Some changes are being made in the stores in the smaller cities in preparation for the increased business which will come with the close of the vacation season. Mr. Jesson, formerly with the San Francisco store, is now in charge of the talking machine business at the San Jose store. He is enthusiastic and is going energetically to work, with results that are already coming in. Manager Stedman, of the talking machine department of the Oakland store, has some alterations under way. More soundproof rooms are being fitted up to take care of the increased trade. After many weeks of steady and hard work, the big Edison distributing agency of the Pacific Phonographic Co. on Mission street, San Francisco, is now in complete and perfect order. This month additional shipments have arrived, and Manager A. R. Pommer now feels that he is in a position to supply the Pacific Coast trade with anything in the Edison line that may be called for. With everything in ship shape, he feels that he has earned a rest, and has accordingly betaken himself to the high timber. He is spending his vacation in the Bear River country. A. W. Parent, a stationer and music dealer of Petaluma, Cal., who a few weeks ago closed out to his partners his interest in the Sonoma Valley Music Co., with stores in Santa Rosa and Petaluma, has now repurchased from that company the entire Petaluma stock and business in Edison and Victor talking machines. He will have the exclusive agency of both lines in Petaluma, the Sonoma Valley Music Co. retaining the business at Santa Rosa, where the management will be in charge of Mr. Pommeroy as heretofore. The Board of Education of Oakland, Cal., has installed the talking machine as a part of the. regular high school curriculum. A talking machine and a number of records have been ordered for the Fremont High School on the recommendation of the teaching force. It is planned to order other machines for the other schools as they are needed and called for. Coast Manager W. S. Gray, of the Columbia Phonograph Co., has been absent from the city seme days on a vacation. Mr. Scott, head of the San Francisco business, is in charge here, but is himself absent this week on a short business trip. Business is reported about normal on most lines, with a little extra spurt just now on the Improved Champion. Peter Bacigalupi, of Peter Bacigalupi & Sons, lias returned from his eastern trip, and is now getting ready for the removal to new quarters. C. E. Stubbs, piano and music dealer of San Bernardino, Cal., who recently removed into new and improved quarters, is putting in a well stocked talking machine department. He plans to carry machines and records of all makes. The Hauschildt Music Co., of San Francisco and Oakland, who now have under way a special contest scheme in their piano department, have given their talking machine department a share in the benefits and are offering a talking machine as second prize in the contest Rumoi nas it that there is to be still another talking machine store on the west side of Kearny street between Post and Sutter. This is the block on which Sherman, Clay & Co., the Wiley B. Allen Co., and Benj. Curtaz are already located with flourishing talking machine departments. A new store there would make that block distinctly the "Talking Machine Row" of San Francisco. None of the local wholesale houses appear to know of a new talking machine store of importance to be started either on Kearny street or elsewhere. Now that Kohler & Chase actually have their big Spokane, Wash., piano store opened for business, the Coast trade is showing some little curiosity to know what the new store is going to do in the talking machine line. It is generally assumed that talking machines will be put in sooner or later, and it is wondered if the Columbia goods will be specialized on in Spokane as in San Francisco. A. G. McCarthy, of Sherman, Clay & Co., who, besides his official position with the company, acts as head of the talking machine department, has returned from his eastern trip, and will put in the next few weeks in getting things in shape for the fall and winter business. He comes back gieatly encouraged over the prospects of San Francisco's capturing the Congressional indorsement of the Panama-Pacific Exposition. He found people in the East quite generally favorable. He believes that the fall season, especially in the wholesale departments, will begin early, and has planned to have in a big stock of Victors and to be ready for the best. NOTHING TOO TRIFLING To be Overlooked by the Talking Machine Man Who Desires to Attain Success in This Work-a-Day World. Webster, in a great speech, once used an anecdote with telling effect. Someone asked him where he got It, and he replied that he had heard the anecdote fourteen years before, but had not thought of it in the meantime. The art of seizing every bit of knowledge, every scrap of information, no matter how insignificant it may seem at the time, the laying hold of every opportunity and every occasion, and grinding them all up into experience, cannot be overestimated in the talking machine or any other industry. ' A boy who was working for a cathedral window artist in Europe made a beautiful window out of the bits of glass which his master threw away. He who would get on in the world, who is anxious to make the most of himself, regards nothing as trifling. Even the chips of time and opportunity which others throw away he seizes and manufactures into cathedral windows. The dealer who makes the money is the man who has the trade of the come-again-and-again customer. He is of your own making and is the only kind you ought to have. You can easily have such customers if you look after their interests properly, and you can see at a glance that their interest is your interest. Customers come to your store because they want Victors, Victrolas, Victor Records, record cabinets, horns, needles and other accessories, and they expect to get just what they want. It's up to you to give it to them. If you satisfy them once they will come again and again. They put your store down as the place to do their buying, and they will steer clear of your competitors just so long as you can supply their talking machine needs. It pays to have what the people want, and you shouldn't be caught napping. If you're short of anything in the Victor line, we're ready to help you out. You can send us, your order with the full assurance that it will have prompt and careful attention. We have the .name of shipping all goods the same day the orders are received — and we live, right up to it. Write to-day for our latest catalog, and our booklet, "The Cabinet That Matches," which tells about our record cabinets that match each style of Victor. When you get them look through them and see if we can't do something for you. New York Talking Machine Co. Successors to Victor Distributing and Export Co. 83 Chambers Street New York