The talking machine world (Jan-June 1928)

34 The Talking Machine World, New York, February, 1928 Order Assembled Cases The Atlas Plywood Corporation maintains six assembling plants for the convenience of their customers who prefer truck deliveries of nailed-up cases as they need them. You can be promptly serviced with assembled Atlas Plywood Cases from Camden, N. J.; Lawrence, Mass.; Lowell, Mass.; New Bedford, Mass.; Phillipsdale, R. I.; North Adams, Mass., or with cases in shook form direct from any of five large plywood case manufactories. It is this unexcelled delivery service and the genuine economy effected by the use of Atlas Cases which have made them the standard shipping containers of so many phonograph and radio manufacturers. CARRY THE WEIGHT ~ FREIGHT ATLAS PLYWOOD CORPORATION PARK SQUARE BUILDING, BOSTON, MASS. New York Office Chicago Office 90 West Broadway 649 McCormick Building 1480 Carrying Charge on Instalment Sales a Boon {Continued from page 32) Fred N. Goosman, president of the Goosman Piano Co., and a member of the committee which framed the carrying charge recommendations, outlined them as follows: a charge of approximately 1^4 per cent a month, which on a $300 sale would amount to $45. This sum is added to the cost of the instrument when the contract is made out and applies to contracts which have thirty months to run. Another method is to add $1 per month. The system suggested by the Ohio Association is in many respects similar to the plan used by automobile dealers. Auto dealers add all of the costs entering into the safeguarding of an auto during the lifetime of the contract, and the purchaser signs this agreement or note. People who have purchased an automobile are much easier to convert to the carrying charge than others who have not met this situation. 100 Per Cent for Carrying Charge Seattle music dealers are practically 100 per cent standardized on the carrying charge system in selling phonographs and radio receivers on instalments. They report that the carrying charge is working out well, and they believe that the term itself is an asset and preferable to the word interest which seems to invoke distrust and argument. The financing of automobiles has had a great deal to do with teaching the public and they accept the charge as a necessary part of a contract. The big feature which seems to hold the greatest appeal for the average customer is that the carrying charge is a fixed rate, one-half of 1 per cent per month, and they accept the fact that it is an accommodation charge and pay it willingly. Some dealers in Seattle write a flat 5 per cent carrying charge into the contract, doing away with the monthly charge as the charge is taken into consideration with the principal. The method used by the Kansas City Power & Light Co., Kansas City, Mo., which handles radios and phonographs, is to require a certain per cent as a cash payment and then charge 6 per cent on the balance to be paid in twelve months. This is figured out for the customer on the basis of so much as a cash payment and so much a month for twelve months, this monthly amount including the interest charge. Thus there is no possibility of the customer misunderstanding just what he is to pay for his machine. For example, the price is quoted thus: the cash price is $205; the time price is $214.18; the down payment is $52, and the monthly payment is $13.52. In case the customer pays up before the end of the twelve months the firm refunds the interest for the months during which the account does not run. According to H. A. Spokesfield, manager of the department, they have had great success with this method of handling time payments. It leaves no doubt in the mind of the customer as to just what the price of his machine is going to be, and the firm believes it is the only satisfactory way of handling the situation. They encounter no objections to this method. In the case of radios the Kansas City Power & Light Co. requires a 25 per cent cash payment. However, in selling Brunswicks, a line which it has added this Fall, it does not require as large a down payment and it lets the payments run for eighteen months in some cases. When the payments last a year and a half it charges on the basis of 6 per cent per year, which makes the charge 9 per cent for a year and a half. The customer is told that he is paying 9 per cent, and it is explained to him that it is 6 per cent for the first year and 3 per cent for the second six months. This system is one devised by the Kansas City Power & Light Co. to meet the time payment problem, and it has found it especially satisfactory because it is definite and easy to explain. Sound Business, Says Milwaukee Dealer A majority of the leading dealers in Milwaukee are using the carrying charge although in a few instances there are some objections to its operation. Hugh M. Holmes, vice-president and sales manager of the J. B. Bradford Piano Co., which uses the system with success, says: "It is a sound business proposition and we cannot trace a single sale which was lost because of the carrying charge. We are well satisfied with the success of its operation and we have been enforcing it regularly. "Our selling force is well instructed on the carrying charge, and we operate it according to the general plan, charging one-half of one per cent on the balance due. The great advantage of the carrying charge over the regular interest charge lies, to my mind, in the fact that paying only the regular interest charge, the customer is in no great hurry to get through with his payments before the appointed time, but with the carrying charge he sees that it is to his great advantage to clean up the account as soon as he can possibly do so and this brings in the money more quickly." The Luebtow Music Co., Milwaukee, has a carrying charge of one-half of one per cent on the balance between the down payment and the cost of the instrument. The great advantage of the carrying charge over the interest charge, it was stated, is that if a person realizes that he is paying 10 to 12 per cent interest he will come in and want to settle up. Henry M. Steussy, vice-president and general manager of the Kesselman-O'Driscoll Co., says: "There is no question of the success of the carrying charge, and if I had to be in business without it I'd quit business. The carrying charge can be sold to the public beyond any reasonable question of doubt, and in a successful and satisfactory manner if the customer is thoroughly posted and informed of its existence at the time of purchase. Crosley Radio Corp. Makes the "Icyball" Refrigerator Portable Hand-Operated Refrigerating Unit Placed on Market as Sideline of Crosley Organization — Lists for Very Low Price Cincinnati, O., February 6. — The Crosley Radio Corp., manufacturer of Crosley radio receivers and other radio products, recently placed on the market a new sideline, the "Icyball" refrigerator, which it is claimed, operates for two cents a day, keeps a refrigerator cold from 24 to 36 hours and provides ice cubes. "Icyball" is a portable, hand-operated refrigerating unit which was given a service test of nearly two years before being placed on the market. The unit consists of two spheres, approximately ten inches in diameter, connected by a U-shaped tube. Once a day one sphere is heated over the stove, then the unit is placed in the icebox with the heated end projecting and the refrigerator is kept cool all day. A volatile liquefied gas is compressed within the spheres, and when the outside sphere is heated the liquid is gasefied and forced into the refrigerator sphere which has been placed in cold water; here it condenses into liquid again. It is this ball which chills the icebox. The Icyball unit, including an ice tray and a galvanized cooling tub, lists for $40. A cabinet finished in white enamel and fully insulated with two wire shelves for food and with a capacity of more than four cubic feet of food space may be purchased for $35. Conditions in Sacramento Reported as Satisfactory Sacramento, Cal., February 3. — Music dealers of this section are looking forward to a year of prosperity, judging from the public's demand for musical instruments and radio receivers and from the statements of officials of financial institutions. Ellas Marx, of the music company bearing his name, gave some opinions on the outlook for the coming year from officials of the leading banks which bear out the opinions of the dealers. They read: Clarence E. Jarvis, of the Capital National Bank: "The West will show more activity than the East for 1928. Indications point toward a prosperous year for 1928. Sacramento and the Valley should prosper above normal for 1928." E. C. Peck, vicepresident and manager of the United Bank & Trust Co.: "There is no reason why Sacramento's business and Sacramento farmers should not prosper in 1928. Plenty of rain and snow in the mountains. Banks have plenty of money to bolster up the needy merchants. In fact, they prefer the average merchants' paper to realty." George W. Peltier, president of the Farmers and Mechanics Bank: "Conditions in California are very satisfactory."