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1. Fine Furniture; 1936-08

Notes:: Issue of a furniture trade magazine published in Grand Rapids, Mich. It began publication in 1936. and AUGUST • 1936 ,&.* MRS. SAMUEL B. MILLER . , . Once a school marm. now a mistress oi merchandising. (See page 23) Two dollars a year 20 cents a copy Grand Rapids, M i c h i g a n -*• rlr PRESENTING CA.VEL HEATHCOTE T)ICTURED all too inadequately here is 1 Heathcote — newest of the new Heather-tone upholstery fabrics. Its soft fur-feel, and its lustrous, two-toned, rippled effect — achieved by a combination of Mohair and Heathertone yarns — make Heath-cote adaptable for use either with other mohairs or all by itself; either on modern or on conservative pieces. Heathcote is available in a wide range of unusual as well as stock colors, offering new possibilities for smart decorative effects — at moderate cost. And, like all Ca-Vel Mohair fabrics, Heathcote is guaranteed against moth damage for five years. Heathcote, one of the outstanding numbers in the new Ca-Vel line, was likewise one of the oinst.nijiiii; fc.Hurts of the furniture markets. l'./,//u < w>/ ni*:irwl>.i.. 1). .V i l . f t A I. I > . I I I I r . u u i s K i . ( , i h f . • I <>\ A n j ; i l i s . < . i l i l . • I ' o r i l . i m l , O n - . • S I U ( <>. ilc. \N .ish. • Spcik.inc, W.isli. C O L L I N S k A I K M A N C O R P O R A T I O N SCO Atadison Avenue, New York City • Weavers ol Ca=VcI Fabrics THE LCCCAINE PCCVINCIAL properly interpreted t p ROM the province of Lorraine comes the inspira-tion for this truly French Provincial dining room. Far above and beyond the coarse and crude designs with which volume production of so-called French provincial desecrated the term, this quaint and beauti-ful style here lives again to assume a dignified permanence in American homes and to offer discern-ing merchants a profitable opportunity for selective promotions. PROVINCIAL furniture derives its name from the urban districts of France and Italy. With betterment of living conditions in Europe follow-ing the Renaissance, people wanted better furniture. But the provincials did not like the furniture of royalty and nobility, so their cabinet-makers, while following the structural outlines of the furniture they saw in the capitals, applied their own ideas of decorative motifs and enrichment. This suite, The Lorraine, combines a number of the most distinctive in-spirations of French and Italian Provincial furniture. It is properly named for it was in this province of France that the custom of re-designing the furniture of the Bourbon kings (Louis XIV, XV and XVI) began. The GRAND RAPIDS CHAIR COMPANY Showrooms at Factory Only IVe appreciate mentioning you saw tins in FINE FURNITURE FINE FURNITURE >eknvan OFEER NEW HIGHS OF VALUE AND SALEABILITY Reaching out to new highs of excellence is more than a fixed policy with HEKMAN . . . it is a confirmed habit. Response to HEKMAN values at the July Market proved anew that past achievements are used only as stepping stones to ever higher standards of sales ability. Cur-rent HEKMAN creations offer wonderful possibilities for stepping up Fall business . . a fact you can easily check by writing for particulars. HEKMAN FURNITURE CO. EXHIBIT WATERS. _ _ . K, _ „ . „ . _ » . _ KLINGMAN BLDG. G R A N D R A P I D S FlN€ FURNITUR€ the Homefurniihing Magazine from the Furniture Style Center of America VOLUME 1 1936 NUMBER 4 GEORGE F. MACKENZIE. President PHIL S. JOHNSON, General Manager ROD G. MACKENZIE. E d i t o r K. C. CLAPP. Merchandising Editor •AUGUST-The Boiling Wake 4 Page Nine 9 Greatest Market In 7 Years, by Rod Mackenzie 11 Furniture Frolics, by Ray Barnes 15 When We Buy Upholstered Furniture, by Ruth Mclnerney 16 Direct Mail Is Back On The Job, by K. C. Clapp 18 Irwin Gets Set For Huge National Campaign 19 Retailing Tips 20 Women In Furniture 22 The Sketch Book, Salvatore Bevelacqua 24 Million Movie Patrons Learn About Mothproofing 26 Chet Shafer Sees a Sea Serpent and Sagie 28 Studio Ensemble for an Author 29 Radio Selling 30 Specializes on 100 Models 31 Appliance Section 32 Do Model Homes Pay? 38 Spotting Grand Rapids 41 Homefurnishing News 42 Your Association 43 New Stores 45 Published monthly by the Furniture Capital Publishing Co., Asso-ciation of Commerce Bldg., Grand Rapids, Mich. Acceptance under the Act of June 5, 1934, authorized April 30, 1936. FINE FURNI-TURE copyright, 1936. Eastern office: 545 Fifth Ave., New York City, phone Murray Hill 23909, S. M. Goldberg, representative. Southern office: 1WA West Washington St., High Point, N. C, phone 2152, C. C. Prince, representative. Subscription rates: $2 per year in the United States and American Colonies; $3 in Canada and foreign countries; single copies, 20 cents. f o r AUGUST, 1936 The BEST MARKET Since 1929 In Spite of Terrific Heat. . . The weather was hot in Grand Rapids during the I 18th Semi- Annual Furniture Market . . . record-breaking, in fact. Despite the blistering heat no less than Forty-Four States, the District of Columbia, Canada, South America and Austria sent one thou-sand, five hundred and sixty-eight buyers to select the season's furniture requirements at this great Market. Attendance Records Broken . . . The Market shattered all previous records since 1929. Attend-ance registered a gain of approximately 20 per cent over the preceding corresponding exposition. Business boomed. As a result of orders placed, many exhibitors found it necessary to / increase production, some adding facilities virtually doubling their output. It was the biggest, best and busiest Market since 1929 . . . a record-breaking Market in all respects. Reaffirming Grand Rapids'Leadership . . It supplied inspiring evidence that Grand Rapids furniture leadership is enthusiastically recognized and acclaimed by lead-ing stores from coast-to-coast . . . that Grand Rapids is still FIRST in every essential of furniture value and salability. Furniture Capital of America for nearly 60 years, Grand Rapids y enters upon better times and improved opportunities with its leadership more firmly entrenched than ever before. In the future, as in the past, buyers and merchandisers who are alert to today's furniture opportunities will find at the Grand Rapids Furniture Exposition the character of furniture that leads in style, quality and price appeal . . . the type of furniture that makes possible a steady increase in sales and profits. Our Appreciation! To the many hundreds of prominent furniture and department stores throughout the nation who helped make the 118th Semi- Annual Grand Rapids Furniture Market an outstanding success, y the officers, directors and members of the Grand Rapids Furniture Exposition Association express sincere appreciation. GRAND RAPIDS FURNITURE EXPOSITION ASSOCIATION We appreciate mentioning you saw this in FINE FURNITURE FINE FURNITURE THE BOILING WAKE " . . . Except for Shafer" Thanks a lot for the copy of your inter-esting magazine in which that sly rascal Shafer carries on his interminable gossip. Except for the Shafer feature, 1 like your magazine. The editorial portion is well broken up with interesting photographs, sketches and tabulations. My opinion, how-ever, is not of much value as I am of the old school of mail order men who deal only in reverse plate headlines, large headlines and comments to "Send the coupon today, Sure, SURE." P. G., Chicago. Brushing Up On Arithmetic In your July issue of FINE FURNITURE you carry an article, "The Arithmetic of Instalment Selling," by Murray C. French. We would appreciate it if you would send 25 copies of this article. R. M. B., Atlanta, Ga. We Curtsy Modestly You are entitled to a great deal of praise for the splendid issue of FINE FURNITURE. I only hope this edition is an indication of what you will be able to produce regularly. . . . I cannot help but feel that you are on the way to getting out a most successful magazine representative of the furniture leadership in Grand Rapids. L. V. M., Grand Rapids. Pleases Association Men I noticed the department, '"Your Asso-ciation and Its Activities," in the July issue and it struck me as being particularly good from an association man's point of view. Your magazine looks mighty good to us and we wish you success. G. W. R., Chicago. A About Listing Prices In regard to the slip .on the inside front cover of FINE FURNITURE, we believe the idea of quoting list prices is good with one exception. There are not enough pieces illustrated with which prices appeared. We also think it would be much better to show them with a mark-up of number-and-a-quarter instead of number. On any mer-chandise that could be sold from the maga-zine, we believe it would be much simpler and easier to make the sale if we were able to say to the customer, "In view of your patience in waiting until we ordered this merchandise, we will allow you a discount of approximately 20%." We have found from past experience that customers feel they should receive a dis-count from list price. Anyhow, we want to compliment you on the magazine as a whole, as it contains much valuable information. W. A. B., Clinton, Mass. From Mr. Seidmcm I want you to know that I am very much pleased with the manner in which you pub-lished mv annual review. F. E. S., Grand Rapids. Lauds "Customer's Viewpoint" I was quite interested to see the article on Page 21, ''The Customer's Viewpoint." I think whoever had anything to do with this paper has done a swell job and believe Miss Mclnerney has written very interest-ingly of this new phase of merchandising to the home owner. I am sure the furniture store will follow the electric kitchen pro-gram very closely, as it is allied to their own interest. R. 0. R.. Mansfield, Ohio. A Knew Jack Weaver When — The picture of Jack Weaver on the cover of July FINE FURNITURE awakened mem-ories of my boyhood. 1 was 14 years old when I met and became acquainted with Mrs. Jack Weaver. I told her of my ad-miration for her husband's work which I observed from the first-floor window of the Phoenix Furniture Company's factory. Jack had a fondness for boys, and he made me a sample turning. It was a handle with a double shoulder and a movable ring that could be shifted from shoulder to shoulder without leaving the stock from which it was turned. Shortly after this, I learned the hand-carving craft and have been in close touch with the development of furniture ever since. I have never forgotten my early ad-miration for this excellent craftsman. A. K., Grand Rapids. A Well, Roscoe, You're a Good Swimmer The first I knew you were razzing guys like myself was when I saw Dick Tandler of Collins & Aikman the other day. . . So if you slander or libel me, you also slander or libel Dick and I'm agreeable to sinking or swimming with him. R. R., Chicago. A About 19-cent Brooms Is it consistent with the name of your magazine to be publishing an article such as that written by Joseph P. Lynch in July? You advocate the merchandising of fine furniture, yet you let him poke fun at the merchant who "carries the type of merchan-dise his customers cannot afford to buy," and who "attempts to compete with stores selling higher priced merchandise" and chide him for forgetting ''that there are ten thou-sand buyers of cheap and medium-priced merchandise to one of high-priced mer-chandise." The real trouble with us is that we've been peddling too much junk at low prices. We have lacked foresight and intelligence which should convince us that a higher unit sale means more net profit. We are very poor judges as to how many of our cus-tomers can afford high-priced merchandise. We are guilty of poor salesmanship, and, while I do not advocate a high-hat, stuffed-shirt smugness, I firmly believe that we should aim much higher than making a leader out of 19-cent brooms in order to trade up to a $1.95 table. M. L. T., St. Louis, Mo. "The Livest" The last issue . . . is certainly the livest furniture magazine I have ever read. Let me wish you success in your new under-taking. H. V. C, River Rouge, Mich. Okay South Africa One of our clients in Johannesburg, South Africa, has asked us to subscribe to the American publication '"FINE FURXITURE." R. T. B.. New York. Add Listing of Prices I certainly want to congratulate you on your publication, FINE FURNITURE. The first thing which struck my eye as I opened the magazine was your little blue slip, "All prices quoted on all illustrations of furni-ture and home furnishings in FINE FURNI-TURE are number and double wholesale." For five years I have been trying to sell my manufacturers on this very thing, but each one seems to be afraid that the other fellow will steal a number from him, also the price. I tell them, "What's the differ-ence? You steal your patterns in the first place from the Grand Rapids market. And anyway, if an article goes over big, every-one is making it inside of thirty days." I hope you will be able to get the retail price marked on every cut in your publi-cation. If the manufacturers only realized that the better grade of furniture is going to. be merchandised through the smaller re-tail furniture store, there would be still more cuts and prices in trade publications. Our experience here is that the smaller dealer's overhead is much less than the larger store's, and on commendable furni-ture he is glad to take a smaller markup. Also, the quicker turnover is encouraging him to buy more and more of the better merchandise. I don't know why it is that the large stores persist in taking such a terrific mark-up on real merchandise and continue to sale and sale on crap which wrecks the rep-utation it has taken years for their store to build up. A. C, Seattle, Wash. Says an Advertiser We had a good many comments on the write-up of the Ford group as appearing in the June issue, and it not only did us some good but we feel sure it has placed your magazine in the foreground because you were the first trade publication to comment upon it. C. P., Zeeland, Mich. From a Sears Executive The July 1936 issue of FINE FURNITURE contained several articles of interest to me and I am desirous of obtaining another copy. C. J. J. Chicago, 111. So Do We Certainly think your method of pricing merchandise in both your ads and reading page illustrations is a most helpful innova-tion. It makes your magazine a real asset in the store as we can show a customer merchandise that perhaps we don't hap-pen to have in stock, and can quote a price immediately. Only wish more of the manufacturers whose products are illustrated would realize the value of this service. Keep up the good work. A. J. H., Omaha, Neb. The editors of FINE FURNITURE are pleased no end over the response to the little pricing-slip idea. It is just one of those things that we're attempting to do in the hopes of making FINE FURNITURE in-dispensible to those interested in the sell-ing of more furniture, blow it's up to you manufacturers to cooperate to the extent of furnishing all the necessary information relative to whatever merchandise you illus-trate in our pages. — The Editors. 1 1 • FINE ARTS BUILDING Netvest and Most Modern Exhibition Building in Grand Rapids Y E A R ' R O U N D E X P O S I T I O N S DAY o r N I G H T Your product shown in the F I N E A R T S B U I L D I N G , Grand Rapids, is on display in a "hotel" for merchandise. Coustructed for furniture display, it is the only building in Grand Rapids devoted exclusively to furniture exhibits. Floor arrangement, lighting, ventilation and the highest type of general service is conducted in the interest of the furniture and house-furnishing exhibitors. The FINE ARTS BUILDING is in step xvith Three-quarters of a Century of Progress of the Grand Rapids Exposition. FINE ARTS CORPORATION operating FINE ARTS and PANTLIND EXHIBITION BUILDINGS FINE FURNITURE LUXURY offers CHAIR of the MONTH ,-v A New Promotion Plan that Multiplies Profits For September, LUXURY features the BEAVER-BROOKE Lounging Chair, perhaps the greatest chair value ever offered. Check the features below, and then consider the price . . . ONLY $42.50 EACH RETAIL (Sold only in pairs — 2 in a crate) For September ONLY. NO REPEAT ORDERS AFTER SEPTEMBER 30. Terms 2% 10 days, net 30 days. V CHECK THESE FEATURES: • Hardwood Frames ® 100% Curled Hair Filling • Mahogany Legs ® Full Web Base • 50/50 Down and Goose • 8-Way Tie Feather Cushion © Quilted Brocade • Choice of 6 colors, Gold, Wine, Green, Rust, Blue, Brown How the Plan Works Each month, beginning with September, LUXURY will concentrate volume production on one chair incorpor-ating style and construction superiorities that make it an outstanding value. Designs will not be duplicated for successive months. By concentrating on one design, prices can be set at almost unbelievably low figures, assuring rapid sell-outs in your store. Take advantage of this plan to boost your sales and profits to record-breaking highs. Free Newspaper Mat Service Write ior cover samples and details LUXURY FURNITURE CO. GRAND RAPIDS. MICH. s No. 530 OCCASIONAL TABLE Original Ideas . . . New Designs . . . Novel Use of Woods . . . Carefully Graded in the Right Price Range. Inspect our novelties — compare them with others — and you will find they possess qualities that are necessary to make satis-factory sales. CHICAGO SPACE 741-742 A M E R I C A N F U R N I T U R E M A R T NEW YORK SPACE 804 N E W YORK F U R N I T U R E E X C H A N G E MARTINSVILLE NOVELTY CORPORATION MARTINSVILLE, VIRGINIA We appreciate mentioning you saw this in FINE FURNITURE f o r A U G U S T . 1 9 3 6 NOTICE To Owners of Retail Stores, Manufacturing Plants and Jobbing Houses If you want to retire from business — liquidate your mer-chandise stocks, fixtures and equipment, FOR SPOT CASH — collect accounts — and where desired, lease your building — Write, wire, phone or mail coupon below for full details of our NEW PLAN of liquidation, now being used by some of America's largest retail, manufacturing and wholesale houses. The plan will be sent free of obligation on request — all correspondence and results of our plan will be held in strictest confidence. GRAND RAPIDS LIQUIDATING CO. Liquidators of Retail Stores, Manufacturing Plants and Jobbing Houses FIRST FLOOR PENINSULAR BUILDING GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. GRANE RAPIDS LIQUIDATING COMPANY, First k'loor Peninsular Building, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Gentlemen — Please furnish us, free of obligation, details of your new Liquidation Plan. Please check below. • HAVE REPRESENTATIVE CALL • MAIL DETAILS OF PLAN Firm .,_ Street \ City State ,.]. Address reply to ^., PLEASE CHECK We want to liquidate • Merchandise • Fixtrres • Collect Accounts • Lease our building We appreciate mentioning you saw this in FINE FURNITURE FINE FURNITURE • Displays in the Waters-Klingman building are spacious, well lighted and ar-ranged for maximum convenience to buyers. i n 100% Buyer Attendance Yes, every buyer who comes to Grand Rapids makes at least one visit to the Waters-Klingman Building. The reason is quite obvious. It is because 50% + of Grand Rapids Exhibits are housed in WATERS-KLINGMAN BUILDING Exhibitors . . . ALLEN CHAIR CO. ARCADIA FURNITURE CO. B. & J. FURN. MFG. CO.] BARTON FURN. CO. J. BART UPHOLSTERY CO. BECHTOLD BROS. UPH. CO. BOBB FURNITURE CO. BROWER FURNITURE CO. BROWN BROTHERS CO. COCHRAN CHAIR CO. CONANT-BALL COMPANY DOEZEMA FURNITURE CO. DONNELLY-KELLY GLASS CO. DUTCH WOODCRAFT SHOPS EAGLE-OTTAWA LEATHER CO.! ESTEY MFG. CO. FALCON MFG. CO. FICKS REED CO. FINE ARTS FURNITURE CO. FRIEDMAN BROS. GRAND LEDGE CHAIR CO. G. R. FANCY FURN. CO. G. R. BEDDING CO. GRAND RAPIDS LOUNGE CO GUNN FURN. CO. HART MIRROR PLATE CO. HERMAN FURNITURE CO.? HERRMANN LAMPS, INC. HOLLAND FURNITURE CO. JAMESTOWN LOUNGE CO. KOZAK STUDIOS KRUISSINK BROS. KUCHINS FURN. MFG. CO. LENTZ TABLE COMPANY LOEBLEIN, INC. H. Z. MALLEN & CO. MANISTEE MFG. CO. MENTZER REED COMPANY MURRAY FURNITURE CO. F. A. NICHOLS CO. PENN-EASTERN FURN. LINES PIAGET-DONNELLY CO. RAND-McNALLY & CO. RED LION FURNITURE CO. RED LION TABLE CO. ROCKFORD CHAIR & FURN. CO. SHAW MFG. CO. SKANDIA FURNITURE CO. CHARLES R. SLIGH COMPANY THANHARDT-BURGER CORP. WARSAW FURN. MFG. CO. WEST MICH. FURN. CO. W. F. WHITNEY CO. WILLIAMS-KIMP FURNITURE CO. WOLVERINE UPHOLSTERY CO. WOODARD FURNITURE CO. We appreciate mentioning you saw this in FINE FURNITURE f o r A U G U S T , 1 9 3 G NINE ROUND ONE1 A good-natured battle of industrial giants will soon spawn a multiplicity of lesser skirmishes along the entire •furniture retailing front. We refer, of course, to the general activity aroused by Berkey & Gay's robust reincarnation. The other "giants" are notably Luce and Irwin. The latter's tieup with a movie producer in extensive magazine adver-tising is especially interesting. Incidentally, we believe this national campaign of Irwin's is certain to benefit the entire industry. It will help the retailer because he has long needed—but only really recog-nized— the prestige and pulling power provided by a trade-mark or definite identification familiar to the general public. It will help the manufacturer because it may induce others to sharpen their own merchandising wits in order to attain a similar objective. This show of spunk among furniture manufacturers is a most encouraging sign. More power to all the combatants who will glorify old and established new furniture trade marks. ff HOW MANY MARKETS? Because it's regarded as pretty good "filler" editorial any-time, anyplace, it probably is fitting and proper to comment here and now upon the how-many-markets-per-year contro-versy. Any furniture magazine that doesn't discuss it at one time or another in its career just isn't a full-fledged furni-ture magazine, that's all. So we'll up and get it over with once and for all while we're still fledglings. When one buyer in one store in Oskaloosa or Tuckahoe takes a notion in April, August or February to go and see a manufacturer's line in Chicago, Grand Rapids or Jabipp, he's going there and he's going to see it. This incident auto-matically creates what is called an "informal market". When Mr. Oscar from Oskaloosa tries it again, he is surprised to find practically ALL the display spaces in that market center are open for business. Thus is born a "formal" market. Manufacturers can resolute and whereas from now until hell freezes over — there still will be as many markets a year as a reasonable number of buyers will attend. We appreciate the viewpoint of the Southern manufacturers and the James-town crowd, because it's an expensive proposition for them to show in a distant exposition as well as in their own local markets. But after all, there isn't much they can do about it, retailers being what they are. We believe the fairest arrangement, and one that would involve a minimum of bickering and expense would be the shortening of all markets to a week or ten days and the same arbitrary dates for all of them. There! We've written an editorial about the number-of-markets- a-year situation, and the subject is covered for a lifetime as far as we're concerned. ff FETISH Three Lights on a Match, Friday the Thirteenth, and Sum-mer Refrigerator Sales Effort have been, and still are, re-garded with about equal logic as things to be avoided. Somehow we have always harbored the ridiculous idea that it's strange, stores can't sell electric refrigerators when people's tongues are hanging out a foot and the butter in the chest where ice is supposed to be resembles Mobil oil A. We have been laughed to scorn for our ignorance on the subject of Summer Slumps, when all the best merchandising Though other pages bare the minds Of many men, the credit or The blame I'll bear for what one finds On this, Page Nine.—The Editor. brains of the country are convinced that the peak for refrig-erator sales should be and is in April, May and June. So it must be merely accident when, with raised eyebrows, General Electric reports in a press release "Refrigerator prospects, who postponed buying in the Spring . . . have been turned into purchasers as a result of the heat wave. In Detroit and certain other cities. . . salesmen called back in extremely hot weather and in 90 per cent of the cases were able to close the sale with one call." Lay it to the heat wave if you like, but if I 10-degree tem-peratures will sell 90%, it's reasonable to suppose that a nor-mal 85-degree might at least close 50%. ff RABBIT KICKS LION We know at least a couple furniture departments in de-partment stores whose floors this Fall are going to be almost as empty as their merchandise managers' heads. Justice takes strange ways its wonders to perform, or some-thing like that, and the cumbersome open-to-buy system that ties the hands of the department store buyer happens, in this instance, to have created a swell opportunity for the furniture merchant . . . a real chance to lay it over his de-partment- store competitor like a tent when it comes to mer-chandising smart new furniture this Fall. The furniture dealer came to market and placed a whale of a lot of orders. The department store buyer, fairly well stocked after purchases at the May markets, either thought it wasn't necessary to take on any more at the July show, or had orders from his MM to lay off. Consequently he's going to be in a picklement when he tries to get merchandise and can't. Funny situation for him . . . he hasn't been up against that for years and years. Here's once when the heavy artillery of the department store is going to finish a bad second to a smaller but more mobile force — the furniture store. ff THAT BLOND Don't treat too lightly the blond amazon that appeared at the July markets. She has really developed since January when she first made her appearance. Nor does she confine herself to Contemporary, but steps right into the Traditional field with more than a mere rustling of skirts. You'll find her strutting her stuff in mahogany, walnut, elm, maple and birch, running under the guise of Queen Anne, Chippendale and Colonial. She should be a hot number for Fall selling. The big stores are featuring her for window and floor dis-plays and many are the stores that report requests for the style. How long will she hold court? Who knows? The whispering campaign against modern that was insti-tuted in May took a grand nose dive during the recent markets. As a matter of fact, cheap modern appears to be replacing the super-ornamented borax styles of the twenties. Cheap Contemporary furniture, enhanced by thoughtful de-signing, is actually leading sales in the big cities. In the upper brackets, but in slightly different contour — serpentine fronts, and low relief carving — you'll also find plenty of activity. Kern Weber's influence will be felt, though many will snort. Top price modern must stand on its own feet. It will be different and far more interesting. ff 10 FINE FURNITURE (Pride1- • • • No. 730 Sofa. 34" high, 36" deep and 78" long . . . . a n d PRICE PRIDE in beautiful merchandise that builds prestige is not enough! But PRICE that permits of attractive profit on a sure and steady volume, PLUS the pride that you, your salesmen and your customer share in distinctive living room pieces of quality—that's a v/inning combination! Smartness and style supremacy of Morse upholstery have long been taken for granted. Our hard-won success in bringing MORSE MASTERPIECES into your most profitable price brackets. RALPH MORSE FURNITURE CO. These Morse men to serve you JOE N. BALL RALPH D. MORSE FREDA. NELSON CHRIS PERKINS GEORGE F. COLLINS N. H. BRYANT JOSEPH GRISWOLD, JR. GRAND RAPIDS MICHIGAN We appreciate mentioning you sn:r this in FIXE FURNITURE f o r AUGUST, 1936 11 Realizing the futility of attempting to cover intelligently and completely the thousands of homefurnishing displays operating at a market such as the one just closed, the editors of FINE FURNITURE have indulged themselves to the extent of reporting only on those exhibits that they were able to regard conscientiously as outstanding. Omission of lines does not indicate lack of merit, but rather an absence of endurance and time on our part. It was a great show, and in the September issue we're going to present a pictorial review of as many of the outstanding groups and individual pieces as it is possible to assemble. We hope they'll refresh worn memories and stimulate re-orders. GREETINGS, ladies and gentlemen of the furni-ture audience. . . Salutations to those who came, saw and bought . . . condolences and regrets to those who were forced to stay away. You missed a great show. From the reports of the various market regis-trations over 50% of the furniture buyers in the coun-try were in attendance. Orders were placed. Furniture was sold. Loads of it. Manufacturers now are worried about getting it out. Dealers are wrinkling their brows over the possibility of fast-selling patterns being dis-continued and replaced by "similar" numbers—at an increased cost. We hope you department store buyers who thought you'd wait until early fall to place your orders, won't be too disappointed when you can't find any merchandise at any price suitable for Fall selling. . . Congratulations, furniture store buyers, on your fine representation, your sagacious broadening of purchas-ing budgets in preparation for a record-breaking fall and winter. Felicitations, Mr. Manufacturer and your designer, for developing salable merchandise. Merchandise carry-ing actual values in quality and style that can be turned into profitable business. Now let's take a flying review trip around the furni-ture markets in Grand Rapids and Chicago, hit the By ROD MACKENZIE Editor, FINE FURNITURE high spots and see some of the homefurnishing lines exhibited at the greatest market in 7 years. We'll transfer you now to our Chicago announcer waiting in the American Furniture Mart. Take it away Chicago! Okay, Grand Rapids • Here we are in the lobby of the American Furniture Mart. Someone just said it's 110. What a crowd. Smith Cady's Mart Daily screams the opening day's score — 3254 buyers registered. Nearly equalled the entire two weeks' show in 1932. . . Let's drop into the Landstrom space. Mr. Alclntyre, what's new? You've increased your open stock Georgian grouping with a new board and banquet table? Fine! The table is composed of a drop leaf and two consoles, with carved corner legs. The entire group retails for $395. French Provincial is gaining strength again competing with 18th Century English for preference in the top price ranges. Here's a char-acteristically quaint butternut bedroom suite retailing for $229. HJS* I 12 FINE FURNITURE Clark Equipment Co., manufactures this air-conditioning unit for an office. It was featured in the homefumishings exposition in the Mer-chandise Mart. There's Jim Lynch, president of the B. F. Huntley Co., and here's one of his popular suites, a Louis XVI bedroom group retailing for $139 for four pieces. A well-designed Chippendale open stock grouping, walnut or mahogany, retails ten pieces for around $189. This suite had a good play. Perhaps George Pelgrim of Bay View Furniture Co. has something to say. Yes, sir, George has a new typewriter desk built for a living room that will take a standard size typewriter, retailing for $29."i'5. And a curved drawer front, modern kneehole in walnut for $29. Entire cutting reported sold out in three days. . . Here's something novel. A revolving window display showing four pieces of a bedroom suite. It's the Camden Furniture Co. They've been hot, featuring modern, finished with the effect of fancy veneers accomplished through a special staining process. Retail price range runs from $29 to $89 for three pieces. Listen to this! One suite priced at $49, over 4000 suites re-ported sold the first four days of the market. . . Virginia-Lincoln Co. took advantage of the S. S. Queen Mary publicity wave and developed a show suite especially for the mar-ket. Here it is. Modern, in acacia Wait a minute! What's goin' on here? Looks like a first-night crowd. It's theThomasville Chair Co., space Let's see if we can squeeze through so we can have a look at this popu-lar line. One interesting note is the effort to style-up into higher price brackets. Here's a good example. An 18th Century dining room group with breakfront cabinet, swell-front console buffet and ladderback or shield chairs. Retailing, 10 pieces for $239. And Here's a "Blond" • The first we've seen. But the market is load-ed with them. In fact blond suites are affording one of the highlights of the season. Mahogany, maple, elm, beech. This Thomasville one is hot. Mahogany for $129. Back Robert E. Pierce, dis-playing his line of novelties in the Mer-chandise Mart, did much with his covered wagon styles, espe-cially in Hollywood, as Patricia Ellis proves in the illustration of the glider(?) u clusters and prima vera, with carved head board and veneered bases, selling retail for $159 for four pieces. The entire group sells for $550. American Batesville, displaying in the Mer-chandise Mart, stopped 'em with this modern suite. The combination of glass and unusual woods and the huge mirror for the vanity was featured at the homefurnishing show. And they said it was a blond market! in the volume end of the line is a mahogany bedroom, four pieces for $162. . . Do you need a kneehole typewriter desk? Here's one in the Karges line for $30. . . Who said modern wasn't selling? A Survey of the American Furni-ture Mart shows the style to be 50% ahead of last year, leading 18th Century merchandise which gained about 1%. Ah, here's a novel development in contemporary suites. This Williamsport Furniture Co. three-piece bedroom group in Myrtle cluster for $246. The feature being the combining of the vanity and chest in one unit. Smart idea for small homes and apartments. Mr. Wiener of E. Wiener Co., has a smart merchandising idea in a group of eight davenports, any one in the collection retailing for $110. Well styled. . . Here's another mod-ern line at a price. W. M. Bassett Furniture Co. From the crowd and the way the salesmen are writing orders the line must be right. How's This? • Modern, decorated, with six-leg or pedestal table, eight f o r A U G U S T . 1936 13 pieces for $119. Here's a modern bedroom in avodire, clean lines, four pieces $149, or an oak group with a dusty finish, retailing at $89.50. Let's make Showers Bros, space. Jack Dillon is busy writing orders so we'll look around. Just over-heard a party say that this new maple five-piece living room group is very popular. It retails for $89. Here's a modern dining room suite that appears to be creating a stir. Solid walnut, with walnut and metal hardware, six-leg extension table, retailing for $98. . . We're going to take a hitch in our belt now and wade into the Saginaw Furniture Shops line. It's tremendous. Well-styled and salable. We won't bother the Gaines boys. Perhaps Oscar Perry can give us a little informa-tion on some of the high spots. Modern again. An outstanding suite. But this time the waterfall effect has been discarded for serpen-tine fronts. Hardware is eliminated, each drawer being provided with a concealed groove. The beds have scroll tops. Shown in walnut and also cream and green enamel, four pieces approximately $250. Another modern bedroom done in holly, again with the hardware eliminated. The drawers form a center panel, pedestal effect. A pier mirror is employed on the vanity which also has revolving cabinets. The group is available also in rosewood and harewood and retails at $198 in holly. Modern, modern, modern, all over the place. But here's a hand-some Chippendale bedroom ensem-ble. Generous proportions, reeded pilasters and curved posts. Four pieces at $225. A group of 18th Century dining room suites received much attention. The chairs are par-ticularly fine, many of them being true copies of Chippendale and Hep- From the West Coast comes the suzy-Bar (and company) fea-t u r e d in the Los Angeles Furniture Mar-ket. It is an adaptation of the Lazy Susan, re-volving top table. The large plate holding the hor's-d' oeuvres re-volves. The lower tray is removable, providing space for cocktail shaker, glasses and in-cidentals. E. D. Tayler, Pasadena, Calif., is the manufacturer. plewhite models. Very well executed. But let's be on our way • Another lively space. Tennessee Furniture Corp. with an attractive open stock grouping of 20 pieces in American Georgian. Buyers seem interested because three pieces can be retailed for $69. That, apparently, is a new low for this type of merchandise. boudoir group, Chippendale style in damask, including a chaise longue at $59.50; wing chair, $35; love seat, $55; arm chair, $22.50; longue chair, $35; side chair, $17.50 and a bench at $15. Here's Leo Jiranek, who designed the Heywood-Wakefield line. Per-haps he can give us a few tips on what Ray Reed is doing with this great line. Just what we thought. More modern. And blond. Jiranek has developed a birch bedroom group with an Oriental motif. Unusual pulls supply an additional decorative note. The group is named "Zephyr." The maple line has been strongly augmented and officials re-port unusual interest. . . We'd bet-ter stop in at the attractive space of the Mersman Bros. Plenty of activity here. Just glancing casually over some of the items I see a smart drum table for $15.90 and a lovely drop leaf for $16.50. Occasional modern tables, lively and unique. Priced to move off the retail floor. Let's hear what T. Austin. Finch, president of the Thomasville Chair Co., has to say about the activities Sikes Co., Inc., pro-duces this permanent-appearing, yet port-able maple bar. With three leather stools it retails for $175. Dis-assembled it occupies a minimum of space. Here comes that blond again • This time Kling Factories presents it, in solid bleached maple. It's a clean, unembellished suite and priced to retail for three pieces at $79. A good response is reported on this number. . . Let's give the dogs a rest and sit down in one of these promotional chairs of Indian Splint, Inc. Solid mahogany occasional types, retailing at $19.75, Sleepy Hollow modernized, $29.50; plat-form rocker at $39.50. Then there's a seven-piece solid mahogany at the summer market. . . Go ahead, Mr. Finch. . . "The situation is the best since 1929 and for lines offer-ing best values in popular-priced merchandise there is an opportunity to break all records. Our own com-pany's 1936 dollar volume is already proceeding at a level approximately 45% over 1929, which means more than double the number of pieces of furniture because of the higher purchasing power of the dollar. People are in a spending mood as compared to 1932 and 1933. They 14 FINE FURNITURE have confidence in me future. They also realize that commodity prices must rise. Merchants have bought sanely without an attempt to specu-late. We are on the threshold of a wonderful season's business." Thank you very much, Mr. Finch, for those words of encouragement and confi-dence. Folks, were going to swing you back across Lake Michigan where Grand Rapids is breaking records for heat and furniture sales. Here we come, Grand Rapids ! Okay, Chicago! • How'd you like it, folks? Hottest day since ole "Deacon" Haldane made the first piece of furniture in Grand Rapids, 100 years ago. And a hot market, too. Let's take a stroll around and see what really makes a furniture market click. Here we are at the Keeler Bldg. . . Hello, there's Jimmy Ryskamp, manager of the building. Hi, Jimmy! What do you think of the market to date? Tell the folks! . . "Started slow here but is developing into the best since 1930. Buyers we haven't seen in years are coming back to Grand Rapids. And they're buying . . and they're buying in the better brackets." Thank you, Jim! Elevator! • Let us off at the Kit-tinger space. An interesting French Provincial bedroom here, done in bleached walnut. Notice the ex-quisite high-lighting. Unusual chest, with compartment for men's shirts. Kittinger is strong in 18th Century dining rooms in mahogany at this market. Look at this one with drop-leaf table—a Wallace Nutting re-production. Will retail for about $100, and this Sheraton board to sell for $30. Kittinger calls it their "Betty Laughley" suite and it's go-ing over well. Let's drop in on Tom Kindel. There he is with Jack Bowen, talk-ing to a customer. Well, let's just amble through and give the line the once-over while he's tied up. Km-del's finishes are their boast. Claim they can't be equaled. Here's an educational exhibit to prove it. Look, you can scratch this gloss}' mahogany and it won't even show. See this Chinese Chippendale bed-room with gold floral decorations on black background on the bed and repeated on chest and vanity. Four pieces to retail at just over $200. A line of armchairs to retail for $35 to $45 is an innovation in the Kin-del line. The stupendous Baker line is next. . . They're featuring Kem Weber's Modern line with pewter inlays on blond woods. Very effective! Groenleer-Vance, they say, are go-ing to town with this new Provincial suite in walnut. Retails for just over $200, four pieces. A French peasant wouldn't exactly feel at home in that bed, now would he? Here's Fred Nelson • Greetings, Fred! How's the Ralph Morse line going.' Even better than you ex-pected. Show us those English lounging pieces that are the real McCoy. Boy. did you ever sit in anything so comfortable? Retails for $139, all hair and down filled, sateen cover. But what a lifetime of loafing that would be ! Did you ever see such a well-styled line of tables.' \ es, it's the Paalman line. Harry Paalman tells us they are going places this mar-ket with their No. 2805 cocktail table and their No. 101 hospitality table. There's Bill Bowkamp of Luxury. Hot, isn't it. Bill? What? Buying is hot, too? Great! This is a great line of 18th Century wing chairs you're showing! See this one, with double-stuffed seat, down-filled and Chippendale legs, to retail for under $40. Nice going! Luxury construc-tion is making a hit with buyers, what with posture seating, full-web seats, hardwood frames. Kellctr Stem, to show us the proud-est oak line of Jacobean, Tudor and Gothic in America. The Grand Rapids Bookcase & Chair Co., of course. Here's a refectory table with four chairs, buffet and server that's new at this market. It re-tails for $250. Smaller, with less ornate carving, there's a hint of modern in this design, although it is basically Early English. Vander Ley Bros. • They certainly are clicking with their distinctive Seth Parker and Anne Hathaway chairs. Priced just right for better promotional selling, they're going like hot cakes. . . Victorian repro-ductions, in which Vander Ley spe-cializes, also are being well received by the trade. Well, got to be going! • All set for the Waters-Klingman Bldg. . . First stop, Bechtold Bros. Some of the best quality and the smartest styling we've seen in upholstered pieces, and they've lined up their prices to suit the retailers' best brackets. Eighteenth Century styles are be-ing accented here, with lots of big, overstuffed English pieces. Want a cookie? • Take a handful. We're in the Hekman space and there's Henry Hekman himself. New president of the G. R. Market Ass'n. A Centennial special . . . and every Grand Rapids manufacturer is featuring at least one Centennial number . . . is a curved lamp table, 18th Century design, to retail for $24.95. Here's something novel. A swing top dinette table with buffet cabinet underneath. So many smart tables, in fact, that it's hard to praise one above another. Karl Schmidt's done a swell job of de-signing here. There's Vance Mapes • Executive of West Michigan Furniture Co. Boy, look at that blond bedroom suite. Primavera, waxed finish, modern design, it will retail for just $200. Lot of interest reported in the Blond maple suite with pegs, cleats and long wooden drawer pulls. Grand Rapids Bedding Co. Here's a new one. It isn't exactly a bed-davenport in the accepted sense. Opens up into either a double bed or twin beds, with in-ner spring mattresses and bedding compartment. Retails at just over $100. Andy Mouw reports that the first cutting is all sold up, and that they are having the best market in history with the rest of their line. Bill Burke, as I live and breathe! You're doing a swell job, for Estey, Bill. These are your 20th Century groups by Donald Deskey, eh? Very well done! Fine detail in these 18th Century reproductions. That "Cripplegate" series, a Hepplewhite design, shows French influence. In mahogany, of course, this bedroom retails for just under $300 for four pieces. Phil Cornelius, in the W'olverine Upholstery space. He's featuring 18th Century reproductions, with a French sofa covered in mulberry brocatelle that's getting a lot of orders. Carved chestnut frame. A fine representation of well-designed modern upholstery here, too. Bobb Furniture Co. of Kalamazoo is doing very well with this modern vanity suite, No. 1006. It's made of harewrood veneers, yet it's conser- (Please turn to Page 39) f o r AUGUST. 1936 15 furniture Frolics Y/W-TIN. K v SO, ^ ' HOB ISTEP-WHAT THEy you OOT SOME John A GILMO&E DEAN OF THE SoUTHEP-N Menry HERMAN OF T4EK/MAM, HERMAN ASD HEKMAN , OF GRAND CAPIOS , MAKE &ISCUIT5,F5-USKS AND PUP-NITUP-E THE N&\W RA-BSIOENJ OF THE 6 R NUHICH H6 ORGANIZED IN 19IX./INDAS SECP-ET/4P./- ITS ACTIVITIES E-VER. SINCE — \JJHO \s PRESIDENT OF THE SOUTHERN FUP-NITUP-E AND D. F. HUNTi-E/ IS NOTHING J I M U/OULD DO T«AN H'S . EXCEPT CrOI-p AND WATCH CrAMES. IN JULY, TOE J-.FISH FUP-NITUP-E Co TOL-D Mi!t0n F I S H TO STICK HIS FEET UNDEP- THE LA PP.ESI06NTS DESK AND \ B E C O M E HEAD MAN OF THE COMPANY STOPEJ, IN CHICAGO o a when we buy UPHOLSTERED FURNITURE by RUTH McINERNEY The true English lounge chair shown at the top of the page is made by the Ralph Morse Co- Grand Rapids. It is hair and down-filled and retails for $139 as shown. Below it is a graceful chair suitable for women. Made by Schoen-beck. Grand Rapids, it is covered in blue damask, filled with hair and down, and retails for $50. Another feminine chair by Schoen-beck, barrel style, in mahogany finish. A leather chair by the Sikes Co., Inc., of Buffalo, is styled in the Modern man-ner. It is a $42.50 retailer. Chippendale chair also in leather, with mahogany frame, is shown at the bottom of the page. It is made by Schoen-beck of Grand Rap-ids and retails for $75. •"PEN years ago a family pur- _L chased a parlor suite at a fair price from a furniture house which has since been sent to the limbo of lost business by the Better Busi-ness Bureau. "Twenty year guarantee, madam." said the merchant. "Look! We got the guarantee actually stamped on the back of the sofa." Two thousand suites with a simi-lar guarantee were sold by the firm. Within four years, when these two thousand families, noticing that the springs of the chairs were giving out and the fabrics breaking through in spots, confidently turned the sofa upside down to uncover the guarantee, they discovered that the statement had been thought-fully written in disappearing ink. Nothing but a faint gold-edged space was left of the guarantee. Recently, I had an opportunity to interview a number of the fami-lies gypped. Not one of them had purchased a single piece of uphol- The Federal American sofa at the bottom oi the page (left) is made by the Wolverine Upholstery Co. of Grand Rapids. With down cushions, it retails for $168. At the right below is a rich Sixteenth Century davenport with adjustable arms. Covered with imported fabrics, down-filled cushions, finished in antique oak. It is made by Century Furniture Co., Grand Rapids. THE CUSTOMER'S VIEWPOINT stered furniture since. And ten years had passed. What did they do about the bargain furniture? An upholsterer had patched it up, and a slip-cover maker had made smart sets of materials that cost very little and could be kept fresh and clean easily. The big slip-cover business done dur-ing the past two years covers a vast multitude of sins — and bargain furni-ture. It also covers the increased ad-vertising costs of legitimate houses who are forced to pay and pay and pay for the business methods of their con-scienceless competitors. You can outwit the slip-cover habit of housewives by again build-ing up the quality of your merchan-dise right from the bottom — begin-ning, say, with the frames of the upholstered furniture you sell, and continuing right along to the fabrics. If you do sell good merchandise, you have everything to gain by tell-ing the whole world and his wife — especially his wife — all about it. Housewives are now buying scienti-fically. If they don't carry an actual score card in their hands, they nevertheless mentally check off frames, webbing, springs, twine, fill-ing, fabrics in the upholstered, and other furniture they buy. Why is it good? And what facts would we like to know about it? Here are a few: Frames • Of rigid construction, made of well-seasoned hardwood I - I . . ] • • I ' . • . i i M . | i , . ,. ;, i . V ' for AUGUST. 1936 Namm's furniture depart-ment, Brooklyn. N. Y., regularly features educa-tional exhibits in show windows. This one shows how living room suites are constructed. Namm's have been a pioneer in the educate-the-public trend. joints double doweled with braced corner blocks. Guaranteed against defects. Made of wood averaging V/2" thick. Glued joints, screwed corner blocks. After a lesson like that, with your salesman pointing out each detail, your customer will begin to see why it pays to buy the best in the house. Such a frame makes for sturdy furniture. Webbing • Sag-proof features. Bottom webbed with 3^>" wide tightly woven jute, closely inter-laced, further reinforced with a steel banding. Webbing tested by United States Testing Bureau, or others. Springs • Further facts that indi-cate sag-proofing, such as heavy gauge tempered steel coils, made from fine high-carbon premier wire which made for greater resiliency and longer life than any other type of spring used in upholstery work. Each spring tied eight times with U. S. Government tested twine of hemp, sewed to webbing to hold them securely. The twine is even dry-rot resisting. Spring Covering • Of ten-ounce India-woven jute cloth which pre-vents seepage of filling. Or material of heavy cotton, or springs encased in heavy muslin with burlap to pre-vent spreading and obviate noise. Fillings • Of new materials? Horse-hair filling is strong and resilient. The better quality is long, does not slip through or lose resiliency soon. The moss used in the less expensive sofas may lose its springiness in time, may crumble and mat. Cotton alone will pack down into an un-resilient surface. The customer soon sees that it is more economical to spend a little more. But if she does purchase the cheaper product, she knows exactly what to expect of it. A layer of cotton is used over the horsehair, insuring a smooth surface and protection. Then the muslin covering which adds further reinforcement. Fabrics • The woman with a large family of young children will appreciate learning which fabrics do not show wear. Furthermore, it ought to be the duty of the sales-man to learn whether the fabric and color are suitable for the room in which it is to be used. His expe-rience will prove valuable in select-ing the right shades to harmonize with furnishings already in the room. Often, considerable tact is necessary in getting the informa-tion for many housewives are un-aware that there are professional interior decorators among the sales staffs of furniture stores. Adver-tise the fact that your salesmen are qualified to recommend interior decorations. Pillows • Down-filling with an explanation that down that con-tains more than 10% feathers may not be termed down. Yet an 80- 20% is satisfactory. Some feathers are necessary to hold the down. Encased in down-proof ticking. Questions running through the mind of the average customer can be answered with definite construc-tion details as above — will the furniture keep its shape? Will it re-sist moths or attract them? What are the sag-proof features? How can it be kept clean? Appearance. Comfort. The home-maker unconsciously relates the quality details to these two evident facts. She doesn't give a hoot about the number of springs or the kind of twine used to tie them, so long as it refers to some manner to appear-ance (which is really continued durability) and comfort (mostly durability). Women Are Short • In designing furniture, manufacturers will do well to take into consideration the fact that most women are short. Also that they prefer to look grace-ful while sitting. The fad of sofas which cause the occupant to sink to the floor with his knees touching his chin fortunately seems to be passing. But no one can tell when a modernistic designer, believing that he is soaring in the stratosphere of sophistication, will coax some manufacturer to turn out a line of goods that make occupants look de-formed. Meanwhile, thousands of short-legged women continue to fidget uncomfortably on the edges of sofas or upholstered chairs. And if you don't believe that has an effect on the market, remember that it's the woman of the house who has the say about furniture. A housewife who has never known the luxury of a properly sized uphol-stered chair will not feel much urge to purchase any. And most living room pieces seem to be built for men. A woman can scarcely be expected to get excited over buy-ing an article which she knows will never give her any comfort. If you carry a line of woman size mer-chandise, call it to her attention. The more you tell us about your goods, the more we will want the better quality, the less we will be likely to expect the impossible from cheaper items, the more we will be able to point out these details to visiting friends who are your potential customers. 18 FINE FURNITURE DIRECT MAIL IS BACK on the JOB by K. C. CLAPP Merchandising Editor, FINE FURNITURE 'T'HAT furniture will come in for a large slice of the i . public's buying dollar this Fall is strongly inferred by surveys, various and sundry, of the manner m which the soldier's bonus is being used. Estimates of the portion of Uncle Sam's June gift to ex-service men which will be, is being, or was spent on furniture and homefurnishings run from 18 to 35%. It's no sloppy reasoning to go on from there to the conclusion that the majority of other citizens are also clear down to the springs on their davenports and sick of looking at tables and chairs tied together with wire and binder-twine. With even slightly improved in-come, the Missus is hell-bent on replacing her depres-sion- dented furnishings with the first bit of "velvet" she can coax out of the old man. How are we going to pull these ready-to-buy, these anxious-to-buy women into the store? That's going to be one of the biggest immediate problems and the de-partment store will surely beat the furniture dealer to the punch if he depends solely on luck and ordinary customer-traffic to boost volume and to move more room outfits and complete home jobs. Advertising * Much of his success from now on will depend upon advertising. But, with increased lineage >$£ *** '4 KC: "To save wear and tear on the retailer's cerebrum, about the best answer to the mail-ing- piece problem is a suitable, inexpensive store paper . . . sent out regularly to a pre-ferred list of the store's customers." in newspapers and with competing commodities, from beer to brassieres, crowding his ads farther and farther into an off corner of Friday's Evening Squawk, how can he make his refined voice heard above the rabble? It can be done—but not easily in newspapers. It seems to me that now is a propitious time to do a job with direct mail, and when I say direct mail I don't mean statement-stuffers. Unfortunately, most small and medium-sized stores neither can afford nor are they competent to do the right kind of job with mailing pieces, and in most cases these attempts, sporadic and unplanned, are unproduc-tive in the extreme. I saw a typical furniture store mailing piece this morning, and I'll bet it cost the mer-chant a pretty penny at that. The center spread had a blurry photo, taken about 1913, of the store's main furniture floor, another of the floor-covering depart-ment, two horrible etchings of boraxy overstuffed three- Typical pages oi one store publication that is now available to stores at a very mod-est price. Most of the merchandise shown is in medium to low price ranges. Copy is direct selling talk, tied up effectively with brief articles on room arrangement and understandable d i s-cussion of furniture periods. It is eight pages, printed in let-ter press on enamel stock and uses fine-screen cuts. f o r AUGUST, 1936 19 piece suites and a lot of printed yakimashi about how anxious this particular store was to be of service and what swell-looking displays they had. That was sup-posed to make the customer who got it all itchy to replace her sway-backed dining chairs and buy a new rug for Johnny's bedroom. Store Magazines • To save wear and tear on the retailer's cerebrum, about the best answer to the mail-ing- piece problem is a suitable, inexpensive store paper, magazine or house-organ prepared by an outside organ-ization of furniture-retailing experts, bought in bulk by the merchant and sent out regularly to a preferred list of the store's customers—accounts that were good, but have been closed, accounts that are alive and that are capable of paying for add-ons, prospects that are known to have adequate incomes, etc. Every store has such a list. The Century Associates, one of the smartest group of retailers in the country, have seen the hand-writing on the wall, are convinced that now is the time to do effective work with store magazines, and have just begun to publish them for their members. The Grand Rapids Furniture Makers' Guild, with its 300 member stores, is doing an outstanding job with its magazine, The Stylist. Both the Century pub-lication and The Stylist are available only to a limited number of stores and, in the case of the latter publi-cation, the cost to the member store is rather high because of the superb quality of the book. Cost Prohibitive? * Cost, in fact, has been a serious deterrent to the widespread use of store publications in the past, and even now, costing more than $50 a thou-sand, they are a luxury that few merchants can afford, as effective as they may be. There are, however, two or three publishers who make a business of printing store papers distinctly in line with prices smaller stores can and should pay. These do a creditable job in giving the store's better customers every month, or every other month, a pub-lication devoted, ostensibly at least, to the improve-ment of homes but which, fundamentally, and because of clever copy and persuasive pictures of merchandise and room groupings, really do a two-fisted selling job right in the home, where it does the most good. If and when you, as a merchant, come to consider the use of a store magazine, pick one that is in line with a price your advertising budget can stand; one that is not too high hat for your class of customers; one that talks about the type of merchandise you carry; one that is not afraid to talk to customers about easy payments and to urge them politely to buy rather than to deal entirely with decorative generalities. Direct mail pieces of this sort are effective and will be the answer to many of the advertising problems that are shortly going to confront you, if they are not already problems. FINE FURNITURE will be glad to send the names of publishers of suitable store magazines to inquiring readers. IRWIN GETS SET FOR HUGE NATIONAL CAMPAIGN \ Dealer helps include- Irwin distributor cards, suite; identification cards, illus-trated booklets, folders with dealers' impimtf., .suggested newspaper ads and a com-plete newspaper mat serv-ice. Shown at tho left are two of the "handouts" with fine illustrations of movie stars for distribution either at the store or at the dealer's local movie house. rPHE Robert W. Irwin Co. of Grand Rapids makes X . '•! .'••< i.sive bid for new business this fall with a - • ;_•'•• .mer advertising campaign. . of national magazines will be used, and '•• supplemented with a variety of merchan- : an unusual character. : :.n the list of national magazines are: // me, Country Life, Harper's Bazaar, House House and Garden, Time, and Town and leir total combined circulation is more than 2,000,000. An arrangement recently has been effected with Warner Bros., photo-play producers, by which the Irwin Co. has the right to use Warner stars in all of its advertising. The advertising thus takes on the com-plexion of a testimonial campaign, although it avoids the odium usual-ly attached to such a paid testi-monial drive because the famous stars are not "endorsing" Irwin furniture. They are shown actually using it. Irwin has access to all "stills" and "posed shots" in cur-rent cinema productions. Dealers in Irwin furniture are offered the opportunity of capital-izing upon this unusual tie-up and a wide variety of merchandising aids. At the July market, the Irwin campaign was outlined to hundreds of enthusiastic buyers. 20 FINE FURNITURE RETAILING TIPS Promotes Quality Lines by Radio—Resultful Year-'Round Toy Dept. — Favors Three-Year Financing, and Why — Lifts Bargain Basement to Fifth Flooi Credit and Col-lection Ideas. Radio and Roto SUNDAY-evening radio homilies by "The Man of Good Taste," discussing a variety of subjects dovetailing into a consideration of fine furniture, have been a success-ful advertising promotion for Mur-ray Sales, Inc., 1332-36 Broadway, Albany, N. Y. These five-minute talks are pre-pared and delivered by Dr. Royden N. Rand of WOKO. The program opens with organ music and con-tinues in a vein suited to the Sab-bath but not keyed in an over-preachy tone. There is a brief announcement at the sign-on that "Every Sunday night Murray's presents the Man of Good Taste and every day Murray's presents the finest in furniture;" also that the store is exclusive dis-tributor in Albany, Troy and Schenectady of "The famous Ber-key & Gay Line." Dr. Rand con-cludes his discourse with a brief advertising message. This touches on Murray's planned budget pay-ments for amounts of $50 or over. For the modest financial outlay, the program is considered a good one. Murray's is the only local furni-ture house using rotogravure and is one of the few featuring in copy a single national brand of furniture. The Sunday insertions illustrate rooms furnished by Murray's Home Planning Department for a patron. Name, street address, city and some-times husband's business connection are listed. A Keeps Talking Toys T7ISIT OUR YEAR AROUND V TOY DEPARTMENT." This simple slogan used twice a month in general store newspaper adver-tisements of the Dorris-Heyman Furniture Co., Phoenix, Ariz., keeps constantly before the public the Estey's Chippendale bed-room grouping was given good reception at the mar-kets. This room may be varied by an open stock of Chippendale pieces. Set-up includes five beds, three dressers, four chests, dress-ing tables, vanities and highboy, all in mahogany. Dorothy Canterbury encour-ages this little Cuban ma-hogany tree so that maybe one day it will grow up and become one of these half-ton beds featured by Wheeler-Okell in their space at the Merchandise Mart. Mahogany chest. No. A657, by Kittinger Co., Buffalo, is 26" wide, 15ya" deep and 30" high. Hepple-white chair. No. 2281, also is mahogany. This Kittinger group was popular at the July markets. matter of toys and wheel goods. Run in large letters, this message stands out in the page in such a way as to tell the whole story. Cost is very small. Like most other furniture stores in cities the size of Phoenix, Dorris- Heyman formerly operated only a holiday toy section. But executives realized they were losing a chance to clean up holiday leftovers by continuing the section through the year and also losing other potential volume. Their decision to extend the division in this way has proved profitable. The section occupies only a small space so that overhead is kept well in line with volume. An attractive and yet small wheel-goods display (this is the line which presents the greatest problem from a space standpoint) is built in stepped form. It consists of three large steps built up in a rack in the center of the department. One row of merchan-dise is kept on each step. Likes 3-Year Pay Plan •"PHREE-year financing of instal- X ment accounts has stimulated volume and increased the unit sale . - . - • . ' • • • * : • . -. f o r A U G U S T . 1936 21 for the McMahan Furniture Co., Bakersfield, Cal. Nearly 20% of the firm's business is now done on this basis. "For any store that's in a posi-tion to carry its own paper as we do, I believe this is the logical method of selling," says Joe M. Schaaf, manager and partner. "On this basis, quality has increased importance. When people can get what they really need and want and keep the instalments within reach, they don't worry about the total price or how long it takes to pay out the account. "The plan .makes complete new furnishing possible in many homes where this would otherwise be out of the question. Many families that can and will pay $10 a month with-out missing a payment simply couldn't handle $20. "With close collection follow-up and reasonable care in selecting risks, we have a very small percent-age of delinquencies and reposses-sions." Customer Honesty ADOPTION of the theory that JTx. the average customer is honest and wants to pay for what he buys has paid dividends for Henning's, major appliance dealer of Phila-delphia. Not only has business doubled within a year, but Harry Burger, store manager, reports that no trouble has been encountered in making collections and not a single appliance has been repossessed. "We believe that the average cus-tomer resents having credit investi-gators call on neighbors for infor-mation, thus advertising the fact that some item is being purchased on credit. "We tell the credit customer that we want the essential facts. By acknowledging that we consider him honest we gain his good will and his answers to our questions will be more frank than otherwise." In general Henning's requires a 10% down payment on an appli-ance. If this condition is met the store arranges weekly or monthly payments to suit the income of the purchaser. Fifth Floor for Bargains AN upper floor that acts as a .clearing house for heavily marked-down furniture is one answer to perpetual bargain-hunt-ing. The deeply innate human in-stinct which sends flocks of persons scurrying daily into innumerable bargain basements is apparently in-satiable. But it is the fifth floor of the Tacoma, Wash., house of Wil-liam L. Davis Sons Co. that is utilized for this purpose. The problem of selecting mer-chandise for this clearing center is an important one. But with selec-tion of the right furniture, in good variety, the plan is effective. Retailers saw all sorts of new-fangled housewares and novelties at the Merchandise Mart show. Space-saving and effi-cient, this new cocktail tack stands upright when not in use and swings to horizontal when in service. Glasses, bottle-holder and ice bucket swing on pivots so they are always up-right. Old Hickory Furniture Co. always has an in-teresting variety of cottage and outdoor fur-niture. This wormy chestnut group for a cot-tage or summer home, with antique black hard-ware, was well received by retailers. Helps P. D. Accounts HERE is a plan, demonstrated by Adam's Furniture Store, Gunnison, Colo., whereby furniture dealers can capitalize the present universal interest in contests to speed up collections. "Double votes for payments on old accounts" is the appeal. This Gunnison furniture dealer, along with other local business men, put on a popularity contest, the winner, "Miss Gunnison," to go on a glamorous vacation trip. Votes were given for cash and charge pur-chases. Then it was announced that dou-ble votes would be allowed for pay-ments on all accounts which came due on January 1, 1936, or before. For example a $5.00 payment would command 1000 votes. How productive this appeal is naturally depends upon the zeal of contestants and their friends, plus the promotion skill of the furniture dealer. MRS. SARA SANDUSKY FINE FURNITURE WOMEI Clinton D. Sandusky lights the birthday candle in honor of his mother and of the store that Mrs, Sandusky has served so capably for 37 years. Mrs. Sandusky is at his right with Ed Weir, general manager of the Grand Rapids Furniture Makers' Guild of which the Sandusky store in Danville is a member. youth her hobby SIGNALLY honored by representatives of the entire furniture industry at a recent anniversary cele-bration of her store, Mrs. Sara Sandusky, president of the Sandusky Furniture Store, Danville, 111., is in her own right and by her own efforts one of the most able furniture merchants in the Middle West today. Like her contemporary, Mrs. Miller, she was once a school teacher, but became intrigued with the busi-ness of retailing furniture through working in the office of her uncle, a former furniture dealer. In 1896, Airs. Sandusky entered the employ of the C. H. Gones & Bros, at a salary of $:> a week. This store occupied, at that time, the present site of Mrs. Sandusky's store. "Because I liked orderliness," she reminisces, "I was on the floor arranging stock and selling before I real-ized it. My husband and I purchased half interest m the Gones business in 1899 and the other half in 1901."' "This profession of furnishing homes is a beautiful business of service," observes this active little woman. "However, I would advise anyone entering it really to be in love with it, for it requires long and unfailing-devotion. But what a privilege is ours in bettering the homes of our friends and neighbors and in thereby raising the ideals and "Self respect of those who are affected by finer, more artistic surroundings!" Mrs. Sandusky's hobby is Youth—with a capital Y. She has one fine son of her own. Clinton D., who is a member of the firm, and her life has been full of the love that comes from responsibility and care of rear-ing a man-child whose father died IS years ago. To be sure, she spends considerable time at her small home about 9 miles from Danville where, in the sum-mer, "I tend my garden with my own hands and that's relaxation enough for me." Charles Lindbergh is the public character most admired by Mrs. Sandusky. She likes to travel but would rather motor than fly. She isn't much of a movie fan, but likes the theatre and enjoyed Green Pastures more than any other current play. This gray-haired woman who has spent many years in the furniture trade, although she is 65, cannot visualize retirement. "It doesn't seem near," she de-clares, "so, really, I have never thought what I'll do when I shall have to stop working." business by bequest WHEN both partners of the Serviss-Passenger Co. of Newburgh, N. Y., died on the same day last January, the wridow of I. R. Serviss found herself at the head of a thriving furniture business after having purchased from Mrs. C. C. Passenger the latter's in-herited interest in the firm. Mrs. Arline L. Serviss is 64—a tall, stately woman with a strong, handsome face beneath her gray hair. Socially one of the most active women in her com-munity, Airs. Serviss is remarkably fitted to turn her numerous social contacts to the advancement of her furniture business, for she belongs to almost every worth while women's organization in Newburgh. Mrs. Serviss' hobby is, as you may have supposed, an interest in historical affairs. Her chief relaxation is travel and her favorite sport — believe it or not'—is horse racing. True to her patriotic temperament, her for AUGUST, 1936 FURNITURE most admired character in history is George Washing-ton; her favorite song and composer the Star Spangled Banner and Francis Scott Key, although her antipathy for England apparently is confined to the Britain of the 18th Century, for her favorite public personage is its present ruler. At the Mt. Vernon seminary, where she completed her education, Mrs. Serviss was active in dramatics and music, played considerable tennis. Her conception of the most delectable dish extant is broiled chicken, and she would rather listen to Wagner's Tannhauser than any other symphony. •I.'. ' '/ MRS. ARLINE SERVISS she fancies fine glassware . . CEEING a rather small, deli- O cately round woman, of mature beauty and kindly, smiling eyes pottering about in her flower garden, guarded by a black and a white Persian cat, you might think to yourself, "What domesticity! The paragon of femininity!" But then, you might be looking right at Mrs. Samuel B. Miller who, besides being decidedly domestic and feminine, is also a keen business woman — a successful furniture merchant in her own right. At her home, 320 North Quannah Ave., Tulsa, Okla., Mrs. Miller is socially active. She is a member of the D. A. R., and the Federation ow Women's Clubs, and is very much occu-pied with her collection of Early American glass, her hobby. At the Miller-Leggitt Furniture Co. she is the busy executive and partner of that aggressive firm. Mrs. Miller, her husband and two brothers all operate different stores. It happened this way. In 1928, she went to a furniture market with her men-folks and then and there they all decided they'd like the furniture business. So they bought a complete stock and started in. Mrs. Samuel B. Miller "I used to be a country school teacher," admits Mrs. Miller. "And I am convinced that this career of selling fine furniture is fully as important a contribution to social and educational ad-advancement as is teaching the Three R's. Proper home fur-nishings help to bring out the finer qualities in a person, and traditional furniture of course helps to educate him in the early history of our country. "Can ANYONE be successful in furniture retailing? I'm not sure, but I do know that with a basic and sound knowledge of woods, construction and styles they have the most important fundamentals for successful mer- (the lady on the cover) chandising of furniture. "I'm more than enthusiastic about this business of selling bet-ter homes to my friends. I'd rather be doing it than anything else, and I'm still very ambitious — I want to have the most out-standing store in the country. Until I achieve this, I'm keeping right on plugging at my chief business philosophy — that of treating everyone of my custo-mers fairly and giving each of them all I can for his money." She's a good swimmer, is Mrs. Miller, and aquatics is her favorite sport. She loves to travel, but has never been in the effete East. One can well imagine that a woman whose favorite song is "The End of a Perfect Day" and one of whose favorite authors is Gene Stratton Porter would want, when she retired, to get "a house by the side of the road and be a friend to man" and, as we left her, she mused, "My! Asking me all those questions made me think of things I hadn't thought about for ages!" How many "ages"? "Well, now, like others of my sex, I'm not going to tell you what year I was born in. But mv birthday is March 7." FINE FURNITURE METAL furniture has made tremendous commercial progress since its colorful promotion at the 1933 Century of Progress World's Fair in Chicago, where every sun porch, solarium, bar, waiting room and ad-ministration building appeared to be equipped with either tubular or flat steel furniture. Developed originally in Europe several years ago, the metal "S" chair soon appeared in this country in a variety of forms, the majority employing Continental lines and silhouette. American designers, however, soon began to develop their own interpretations of comfort and utility in metal and today grotesqueness in shape has given way to a scientific treatment of bending and tension, as applied to designed comfort in sitting posture. Tables and other furnishing units of steel have been combined with wood, glass and other materials, producing attractive and utilitarian effects. For this month's Sketch Book, Salvatore Bevelacqua presents a sketch of a chair manufactured by the Mc- Kay Co., Pittsburgh, large producers of metal furni- FAMILIAR DESIGNS, INTERPRETED By F A M O U S DESIGNERS ture, named the Bachelor Chair, that has received wide acceptance — approximately 30,000 having been sold since it was developed several months ago, at a retail price of about $15. The simplicity of the chair on the opposite page belies its comfort. The unusual feature of the piece is that the spring motion begins at the front edge of the arm and moves up to the top of the chair, from where the fabric back is suspended. Thus the weight of the sitter's body in the fabric actually affords the swing-ing motion, characteristic of chairs of this type. Extremists in the modern school who believe that nothing in contemporary is worthwhile that traces its ancestry to other ages, may come up with red faces when they learn that Bevelacqua received his inspira-tion for the Bachelor Chair from a Roman bench, sketched in the left-hand corner of the drawing. Bevelacqua explained: "In developing a chair of this type it occurred to me that it should be stately and luxurious and in searching for a motif I adapted my line for the steel chair from this Roman bench on account of its simplicity of line, which is, of course, typical of metal furniture. In order to inject a dec-orative note, the arm received a moulded shape (see section) which permitted color being employed as accent for the chrome finish." AN ARCHITECT EXPLORES THE FURNITURE FIELD SALVATORE BEVELACQUA . . . Won gold medal for a client. SALVATORE BEVELACQUA belongs to that school of furni-ture designers who emanate from architects' offices — men who re-ceive their artistic training develop-ing floor plans and elevations, eventually being called upon to create special furniture to fit the buildings they have erected. As architecture and furniture are prac-tically simultaneous, it is natural that some of these architectural tyros should ambitiously embark upon the diversified seas of indus-trial design. Bevelacqua has not only been de-signing furniture for twenty odd years but has continued his archi-tectural excursions as well. In fact from 1926 to 1931 "Sal" served as consultant architect for many of the Fox Film Theatre buildings erected throughout the country. In the furniture designing field he has developed designs for such out-standing concerns as W. & J. Sloane and Kensington Mfg. Co., New York; Robert W. Irwin Co. and Century Furniture Co., Grand Rap-ids, and Jamestown Lounge Co., Jamestown, N. Y. Numerous other important furniture firms have been included in his clientele. About a year ago Bevelacqua started work-ing with the engineers of the Mc- Kay Co., of Pittsburgh, in the de-velopment of steel furniture. Bevey's designing ability once re-sulted in one of his clients being the recipient of the gold medal for fur-niture design awarded by the Archi-tectural League of New York. This was the first instance of the medal being presented to the furniture field. Born in Italy, in 1893, Bevel-acqua's family moved early in his boyhood to New York where he attended the public schools, return-ing to Italy later to complete his academic career. His memories of early days in the furniture business recall a lack of beauty in commer-cial furniture, so his professional aim is to assist in bettering this condition through improved design. "Bev" is married, has two chil-dren and a dog and his favorite dish sounds typically Italian—soup, fish and fruit. He has traveled exten-sively here and abroad. Napoleon is his favorite character in history and President Roosevelt in fact. As a hobby, he is a collector of rare books. i o r AUGUST, 1936 : fc i ; t"! f i i 26 FIIIE FURNITURE MILLION MOVIE PATRONS LEARN ABOUT MOTH-PROOFING MILLIONS of American movie addicts, visiting their favorite cinema palaces, are learning, in spite of themselves, the facts about moth-proofing of fabrics through the medium of a popular series of shorts, "Popular Science." The value to the trade in such an educational effort is pointed out by M. F. Schmitt, ad-vertising director of the Collins & Aik-man Corp. in whose mills a n d labora-tories the m o v i e scenes are laid. He says, "Distributors estimate that many millions of people will have seen the film before the reel has run its course. It is hard to over-estimate its value. . . The more the story can be put across, the better selling story the re-tailer has, the easier the s t o r e sales-man's problem, and the higher the unit sale." The original suggestions for the moth sequence came from the film editors themselves. Collins & Aik-man were quick to cooperate, and weeks were spent shooting manufacturing processes Promoting Fabrics NOT only customers, but salesmen of furniture stores are becoming more and more eager to be better informed about fabrics. BATTLEFIELD CAMPAIGN. In a laboratory, scene of an active moth war. Dr. G. S. Hiers, in charge of Collins & Aikmcm laboratories, confers with Dr. W. F. Bird, director of research and technical control, over the results of an experiment. Cameras and lights are trained on one of the looms. The result — an educational sequence on moth-proofed mohair reaching several millions of people. An ever increasing number of stores, for this reason, are finding educational promotions to be productive in sales as well as in better salesmanship. Goodall-Sanford Industries, for example, is one of the alert manufacturers co-operating with stores in observance of this trend and have prepared a group of manufacturing process displays which are routed to stores for promotions of Chase Velmo. The accompanying photo, taken in the G. Fox store, Hartford, Conn., is typical of what stores and manu-facturers, working smoothly together, can do. Rug Design Keys Room "T^ESIRING to develop a floor l^J covering medium expressing the current trend toward texture and yet retain geometric pattern practical for the smart, everyday home, Charles B. Hanlin of Mod-ernage, Inc., New York City, has achieved a unique development in floor coverings, aided by leading mills and their distributors. Chenilles Educational display on fabric manufacture that drew heavily from sidewalk traffic passing the G. Fox Co., Hartford, Conn. f o r AUGUST, 1936 27 were manufactured by the Mohawk Carpet Mills. Hanlin retains the idea of a plain carpet which he believes the suit-able basis for the modern interior. In superimposing a simple abstract design that combined colors of mod-ern tonal values, a vehicle is created to supply the room's color ensemble. The rugs are composed of three main colors and one accent color. The ground color is about 60% of the color scheme; secondary colors are about 25%; tertiary color about 10%; fourth, or accent color, about 5%. This arithmetical proportion may be applied inversely in working-out the furniture and wall treat-ment. For example, the rug shown on this page has a central abstract fig-ure of chartreuse, coral and choco-late on a pebbly textural ground of brown and beige hard twisted yarns. As the fourth and accent color in the rug, the chartreuse may be used for the wall treatment. The coral, third in importance from the view-point of area, becomes secondary in the surroundings and may be used in draperies or major upholstery fabrics. The chocolate and brown become merely accents. It is readily seen how appealing a rug with a ready-made color scheme may become, for the bane of the homemaker's life has always been choice of harmonizing colors and their proper distribution. In Hanlin's Chenilles and Wiltons, abstract designs are centrally or symmetrically placed so they will not be covered up by furniture. Rug Washing Plant 7\ CHEMICAL washing plant for -Li- rugs, reputed to be the first on the Pacific coast, was established recently by the City Dye Works, Los Angeles, Calif. The entire chemical washing will be sold through Barker Bros., according to C. X. Ruff, floor coverings buyer for the store. Ruff has been work-ing with the City Dye Works for several months on the project. All types of chemical washing, cleaning and dyeing will be handled, including shearing. Rehabilitation work of every description will be possible, even to the revitalizing of rugs that have been returned be-cause of non-payment. The washing in place of just cleaning of cus-tomers' rugs will also be part of the service. Instead of shipping work of this nature to the east as was heretofore Textural rug with simple abstract design centrally located supplies the color scheme for the room ensemble of chartreuse, coral, chocolate and brown. Setting by Modemage. New York. necessary, entailing some four weeks' time, a ten-day service will be established, according to Ruff. Trading Up Linoleum MERCHANDISING of quality floor covering is no problem to Donald C. McElhinney, manager of the linoleum, linowall and linotile department of John C. Reeves & Co., Denver. "Even the price-conscious shopper can be won over to a quality price line by using the service angle," says McElhinney. "An explanation of the how and why of laying floor covering is the first step. The im-portance of making the job con-sistent with the kind of linoleum purchased is also an impressive point." Service items—some of which are called to the customer's attention for the first time—include: Insistence on installation of felt base on all jobs. Waxing each floor after it has been laid. Instructions in waxing and care of floors. Institutional guarantee of each laying job as well as the •product sold. Basing merchandising on these points, the store finds it unneces-sary to go into sales of competitively priced products. This was true even during the low turnover days of two and three years ago. "Since service sells quality, it fol-lows that the type of work we offer would be inconsistent with cheap goods," says McElhinney. The felt base sale is accomplished with the explanation of additional years of service at 8% additional cost. When, for example, floor cov-ering at $1.80 per yard is sold, the additional cost of the base, 15 cents per yard, is mentioned as an invest-ment to increase the life of the floor from four to ten years. Actual ex-amples of jobs laid with and with-out the base are used to back up the argument. The wax job given with each sale has a dual purpose. First, it puts the floor in condition for a month— so that cleaning is unnecessary, ex-cept for a dust mop and wiping up mud that might be tracked in. More important, from the merchandising standpoint, it means a sale of a waxer and a gallon can of wax. McElhinney favors employing his own layers rather than letting the work out on contract. "It means the store can uncon-ditionally guarantee any contracted work," he says. "When an outsider does the work only his reputation stands behind it. In addition, the method of payment—by the job— means the layer works with speed foremost in mind. When the store has its own trained layers, there is always the possibility of the dull season, but that has not been a problem." Stock work, work on other jobs sold by the store, are two things that keep the layers busy on idle days. However, with the service angle played up in selling, these dull periods are infrequent. 28 FINE FURNITURE C H E T S H A F E R "LAZIEST HUMORIST IN THE WORLD' SEES A SEA-SERPENT AND SAGIE CHET SHAFER . . It is a pleasure to announce" Three Rivers, Mich., July IS — (Special dispatch to FINE FURNI-TURE) I have just received a brief note from Editor-Woodcutter Mac-kenzie that this copy for the August issue should be in his hands within the next two weeks—and today is July 4th. The notice catches me in a 4th of July mood. I just finished writing a piece for the Chicago Journal of Commerce — (another good publication)—about the time they fired the Civil War Cannon down on the Pump House lawn out over the Emery millpond at sunrise —and Cash Young's brother slipped a croquet ball in the muzzle—and when the ball whistled over the Long Bridge over the pond it just missed Yank Waters who was on his way over town in his uniform to get in the G. A. R. parade. Now I've got to make a lightning change and get myself into my Advance August Mood—which is quite a shift. And not an easy trick to do. Especially when these dis-patches are supposed to contain valuable information and basic, underlying truths—because, if they don't — how would our peerless The findings are startling. Accord-ing to Shafer the depreciation of linear feet has caused the sea-serpent— possibly the Loch Ness exhibit A — to recline on the beach and register fatigue. From the market comes the latest reports on sea-serpents. Bid 121/; — Asked I31/4. Quotations supplied by the City News Bureau. Illustrative re-search by Edcutter Mackenzie. Wooditor & Edcutter get anyplace in his chosen field? Sea-Serpent Survey • However, it is a pleasure to announce at this time that through the efforts of the City News Bureau and representa-tives of the Furniture Capital Pub-lishing Company, a sea-serpent sur-vey has just been completed. And the findings, indeed, are startling. Linear Leakage • The survey, con-ducted with a tapering-pod auger and other delicate instruments essential to the work in hand, shows that a distinct depreciation in linear feet has been registered, as against the year 1935. In 193S a high mark of 18.95 linear feet per inland lake was established, while this season the figure will barely exceed 9.08 linear feet per summer hotel. This is a loss of almost 50%, which ordi-narily would have a depressing effect on the furniture industry, as a whole. But, in the progress of the survey, investigators discovered that the name of the cook at the Tavern Hotel at Lake Wawasee, Indianny, is Sagie Stewart. She's a Mrs. and comes from Brazil, Indianny. And this fact, according to those in close touch with the situation, at least partially offsets the falling-off in net serpentage. So there is no need to view the situation with alarm. Soaring Sagie • I feel, in making this exclusive announcement of this survey that uncovered Sagie, that the publishers of FINE FURNITURE and the astigmatic attaches of the City News Bureau, have done much toward getting the furniture indus-try on a sound economic basis. It is so essential to know, offhand, with-out having to stop and figure, how sea-serpents are running, fiscally, that the information should be acclaimed by all readers. And if plans now in the formative stages are carried out, FINE FURNITURE will inaugurate a regular monthly bulletin service with Bid and Asked quotations, together with the net sea-serpent footage available. But the department will probably never uncover another cook named Sagie. Doggin' It • Otherwise, conditions — that is, prevailing conditions — seem to be enjoying a healthy, normal increase. I haven't been down to Roody Culver's yet. I noticed the other day that Hayes Tackaberry, the nightwatch down at Ben Wheeler's tann'ry, has changed dogs for the summer. He is leading around a white poodle in-stead of the dolorous hound he had on a leash last winter. But he still carries his horse-coat over his arm. "You can't tell when it's li'ble t' turn off cold," says Hayes. A & B • And (a) just the other day Jess Fredericks was going over the viaduct over the L. S. & M. S. tracks and it had been raining and there was a big puddle of water on the planking and Corp. Linsley (Please turn to Page 40) f o r A U G U S T , 193G STUDIO ENSEMBLE for an AUTHOR Decorative Scheme Combines Litterary Atmosphere and Unique Practicability HAVE you, as a retailer, ever been called upon to furnish a studio for a writer? Perhaps a peep into this charm-ing "work room" of Chet Shafer, author and Three Rivers, Mich., correspondent for FINE FURNITURE, may give the retailer the very sug-gestions he needs for this type of decorative job. The main theme for such a studio is, "A place for everything and everything in its place." The style of the furnishings, while important in the extreme, is second-ary to the practicability and handi-ness of the arrangement, for, after all, an author must have a place to put things and stuff. Illumination • First of all — light! A writing man must have light. Mr. Shafer, who may be seen seated in the background at his typewriter, is adjacent to a large window. While his landlord has not seen fit to have this window washed since 1904, enough sunshine percolates through it on bright days for the author to differentiate between "rejected" and "accepted" slips from editors. On dull days, Mr. Shafer does not come to the studio — in fact he does not even come to. Cleverly disguised filing cabinets, a profusion of them, are essential of course. The two flanking the typewriter are of the Floridan period, having once been used for oranges from there. Heat and Air • Heating and venti-lating have been given minute at-tention here — especially ventila-tion which is provided by several missing panes in the windows. The heater in the right foreground is a Shows FINE FURNITURE'S correspon-dent contemplating detail of ventilating system- (paper-stuff er, deflector and breeze modifier.) View also shows ceil-ing plaster on iloor. Says Mr. Shafer, "When all the plaster falls, I plan to have the building turned upside down, this rather than re-plaster." Principal interior view of the studio looking past Indian through window which overlooks back end of Melv Malbone's Hardware & Implement store. Access to toilet facilities is through door at left. Closeup view of Only Female Headless Wooden Indian in the World — unsul-lied and incorruptible. Under light is Operations Spindle No. l1^. This is emptied every July and filed in the cheesebox to make way for another year's accumulation of the author's "Must" Business. multiple purpose unit. Capable, after considerable coaxing, of burn-ing coal, wood, paper and even plaster which drops regularly from the walls and ceiling, it acts also as a container for a ball of binder twine for the manuscript shipping depart-ment. The aperture in the heater's door conserves time and energy, obviating the necessity for opening the entire door when the fire has to be blown into. It also is handy for cigaret butts, burnt matches and spittle (as is the buttertub top directly beneath it). Dents in the stovepipe are caused by the author's system of removing soot by sharp raps with the poker when it can be found. (G. R. Blowpipe and Dust Arrester Co. please note) Decorative Scheme • The center-of- interest in this decorative scheme is the only headless feamale wooden Indian in existence. This antique lends atmosphere to the entire room and establishes its color theme which the author terms "manure brindle". This studio has a Southern ex-posure, and plenty of it. It over-looks the back of Melv Malbone's Hardware & Implement Store which is six doors north of Roody Cul-ver's Undertaking Parlors & Furni-ture Emporium. 30 FINE FURNITURE WHILE early showings of 1937 radio models did not attain expectations of stimulating summer retail sales to any great extent, they nevertheless served to indi-cate that the active Fall season will start earlier and that sales of sets will break five-year records. A consensus of opinion among producers attending the RMA con-vention in June was that an in-crease of at least 10% in distribu-tion of radio sets during the 1936- 1937 season could be expected, and they estimate that about six-and-a-half million sets will be sold this year. RCA-Victor officials look for a 50% gain in business this year. Added affirmation of the confidence with which manufacturers are go-ing ahead is General Electric's national advertising campaign of $750,000 for its radio division. Philco's sales are running well ahead of last year, and Bosch executives look for 100% gain over 1935. Materially increased adver-tising is being planned by this firm. What part will the furniture re-tailer play in the Fall revival of radio sales? Frankly, he has been rather sour on the •" :•'!• •'• • RADIO SELLING GETS AWAY TO A FAST, EARLY START Left, General Electric's Model E-86 with eight metal tubes, three bands, range 542 to 18,000 kilocycles, music-speech control, bass and treble com-pensation. Hand-rubbed walnut cab-inet. Dimensions, 39" high, 24" wide, lls/l(," deep. Eastern list price, $74.95. Below, RCA Victor Model 6-T-2 with six metal tubes, new edge-lighted dial 10:1 and 50:1 tuning ratios, phonograph connection. Height 19%", width 133/4", depth 8y2". Left, Zenith Zephyr 7-D-148 with seven tubes, continuous type tone control, Split-second Relocater. Designed in the Modern, streamline manner, it is only 23" high. List price, $84.95. Above, Philco's 37-630T table model, •with six tubes, shadow tuning, color dial, three tuning ranges. Walnut case with light harewood inlays. Height 11%", width 20", depth 9y8". List price, $62.50. methods of many manufacturers having been given little protection against widespread and indiscrimi-nate competitive selling by any and all types of outlets ranging from garages to barber shops. The furniture merchant this fall should line up solidly with repu-table manufacturers who refuse to sell every Tom, Dick and Harry on the street and who will protect him on discounts. Extensive outside selling is no longer a requisite to success in radio retailing — in fact, the dis-counts still allowed stores almost preclude any such extensive cultiva-tion, nor is it now necessary, radio being a staple product. The retailer will be most inter-ested this Fall in sets listing be-tween $30 and $100, with more sets selling in the higher price brackets than last year. Public interest in short-wave is still a stimulating factor and should be sustained for some time to come, as more than 50% of sets now in use are obsolete in that respect. Left, International Kadette Model 500 is a new laydown style self-contained battery radio, five tubes, superhet with standard and short-wave bands. Height 11", width 24", depth 11%". Crosley's Model 167 Console, 13 tubes with Phantom conductor, mystic hand, triple-twin push-pull control, full-vision Magna Ceramic dial, time-log tuning. Height 44%", width 28", depth 13%". List price. $167.50. for AUGUST, 1936 31 'T Right, Philco's Spread-band Dial Model No. 37-650X, with Jour-point t o n e control, foreign tuning system, push-pull audio sys-tem, shadow tuning and three tuning ranges. The cabinet is especially handsome, utilizing butt walnut with narrawood in-lays, hand-rubbed finish. List price, $100 less aerial. Left, Zenith Model 10-S-156, 10 tubes. 12-inch elec-troc- dynamic speaker. Voice-music high fidelity control lightning station-finder, target tuning, split-second relocater, overtone amplifier, acoustic adap-ter. List price, $109.95. • o\ •>"r fjl Above, General Elec-tric's popular Model E-71, has seven metal tubes, three bands, sliding-rule tuning scale, tone control, wave trap. Dimen-sions, W/s" high, 13" w i d e , 9iV deep. Eastern list price, $44.95. RCA Victor's Phono-graph- radio Model 9u-2 is show at left. It has nine metal tubes, four bands. Phonographic fea-tures include auto-matic record changer, volume control, auto-matic tone compen-sation, automatic stop. SPECIALIZES on $100 MODELS THE BOYS AT HARBOUR-LONGMIRE'S, BY A FEW NEAT DISPLAY TRICKS, HIKE UNIT SALES CELLING S50 radios for 1935 and more than half O that many for the first four months of 1936 creates a nice record for the Harbour-Longmire Co., Okla-homa City, Okla. But the big point in this number of radios sold is the fact that the average radio sale in this store is $100. One idea that stepped up the unit sale for radios was the building of a series of modern booths or dis-play compartments for individual radios. One of the boys in the department who had a flare for cabinet work decided he could make the department more attractive, emphasize and spotlight each radio by giving it a compartment apart from the other sets. Fixture design • A long, modern fixture was built from scrap lumber salvaged about the store. Some of the booths or stalls are wider than others, some are higher. The fixture is set on a black base six inches off the floor. The top and outside of the long series of stalls is covered in blue velvet. The inside of the com-partments is painted silver; a bright red molding is used to form a border around each stall. In addition to this one large fixture there are three other smaller fixtures, two and three unit compart-ments. These smaller fixtures are spotted about over the sales floor, while the long fixture is placed against the wall equipped with aerials. Each compartment has a cabinet model radio on display and above each set is the companion table model. All sets are plugged in ready for demonstration. Interest centered • When a prospect comes into this department he is invited to look through and any indication of interest is considered an invitation for a demonstration of a set. As all radios are within a sep-arate booth, the prospect's attention is centered on the set that the salesman is demonstrating, not only cutting out other sets that may conflict with a selection, but adding a bit of glamor and effect by having an attrac-tive background and setting for the radio. With the table models above the companion console units often the sale is made of the larger unit for the living room and the smaller set for a bedroom. But this store does not push cheap radios of any size. Less than 20 of the $20 sets have been sold during the past twelve months. Most sales are for sets ranging from $100 to $185, with some going to $347.50. Radios are not sent out on any and every pretext of a possible sale. The Harbour-Longmire Co. will de-liver a radio for trial to a customer of good standing, or if the customer comes to the store and makes a selection. The sales contract is agreed to and then the salesman follows the set out that night or the follow-ing night to close the sale and see that it is functioning properly. In this way repossessions are nil. 32 FINE FURNITURE GET SET! FOR A BUSY FALL IN APPLIANCE SELLING Constant research resulting in innumerable utilitarian improvements as well as increased attractiveness oi models are keeping electric refrigerators well in the van oi furniture store selling. Here's Crosley's Model GAQ-70. 7 cu. it. net capacity. Features include Shelvador with glass jars, feather-touch, knee-action door handle. Dimensions, 58%" high. 33V4"" wide, 28%" deep. List price, $179.95. One of this Fall's bright selling opportunities is the power ironer, earning rapidly growing con-sumer acceptance. This is General Electric's Flatplate Model AF-10 with 300 sq. in. ironing area, fully automatic control, highly polished aluminum shoe, ruffle iron, moisture trap. Calrod type heating elements. Top is ivory lacquer with green legs. Weight 95 lbs. net. Dimensions, open, 56" x 20" x 33%" DOG days nearly done. . . The August Sale, that famous in-stitution founded by John Wana-maker, is in diminuendo. . . The tempo of homefurnishing sales will soon quicken to the brisker beat of fast Fall merchandising. . . What part will appliances play in the lusty try that furniture stores make for Autumn volume? . . What elec-tric lines can be thrown into the breach to take up the seasonal slack in sales of refrigerators, for exam-ple? . . . Radio, of course. Washers, to be sure. Vacuum sweepers, obvi-ously. . . But how about NEW appliances. . . Have you investi-gated them thoroughly? . . . Is there perhaps an overlooked oppor-tunity for the furniture store in •— Oil burners? Automatic Stokers? Dishwashers? New types of cooking and heating appliances, major and minor? Power ironers? Above, Crosley's Spe-Dry Washer Model 64. Tubs are heavy 18-gauge Armco. Washer tub capacity 18 gal-lons of water with eight-pound dry clothes capacity. Mid-zone agitation. List price, $99.95. Bight, Altorfer's ABC cabinet type Model YA Ironer with two improved thermostat heat control units, finger-tip and knee controls; oversize ironer roll with two speeds, extra large chromium plated ironer shoe, con-venient pull-out shelf. If you are a key store, even a small one in a limited trading area, there's real opportunity for vigorous promotion of any or all of these lines. Not that power ironers are strangers to furniture store selling, nor cooking and heating appliances, for that matter. However, they do present profit potentialities that perhaps are not fully appreciated. . . Ironers, because they are now riding on the ebb of a reawakened public acceptance and because you already have a splendid list of active prospects — those who have bought washers from you. . . Small f o r AUGUST. 1936 33 How About AUTOMATIC HEAT? i , ! i ! ; I For at least five years the general public has been definitely interested in automatic heat, but has been unable to afford it. With the perfection of unit oil burners, such as the Kelvinator model at the right, to a point where they can be purchased for less than $300 on liberal budget plans, auto-matic home-heating devices of all sorts are decidedly within the possibilities of a furniture store's merchandising scope. A set-up whereby a furniture store assumes the selling, dis-play and advertising functions and a co-operating plumber or contractor does the installation and servicing is the most practicable at the present time. The automatic coal burner is making an interesting fight for popularity with the oil burner. Above is shown a 1938 Kelvinator coal burner. Two small models are designed for small and medium size residences, and three models for larger homes and institutions. Air is delivered to the fuel bed by a specially designed tuyere block, insuring distri-bution of air for proper combustion to all parts of the fuel bed. Coal food capacity per hour ranges from seven to 150 pounds. Smallest size has a hopper capacity of 350 pounds. While the merchandising of such major units as dishwashers and electric ranges is not yet entirely practicable for the furniture store, favorable electric rate structures and other factors are rapidly shaping up so that resale possibilities on such items will be more attractive in the very near future. At the left (above) is General Electric's Sovereign Model G-17. Among its new features are: smooth top thrift cooker, reversible wire rack, new operating sequence, front removable pilot light, new pilot shield, longer life and higher efficiency of Calrod unit. At right is GE's Type S-4 dishwasher. Top is stamped from stainless metal. Space below utilized for drawer and cupboard storage. Equipped with V4 h. p. motor. and major cooking and heating appliances because of readjusted rate structures by most utility com-panies; because of new designs, improved manufacturing processes and other refinements that endow them with every known appeal to the housewife. Automatic-heat merchandising will be extremely active this Fall, with new building outstripping five-year records. . . Retail prices of these units are now approaching closely the general public's pur-chasing power, on budget plans of course. Many alert furniture dealers will be bidding for good automatic-heating franchises, and will be giving them the good old college try this Fall. Why not get in on the ground floor, too? Seasonal slump in refrigerators? There really doesn't have to be one. Ice-weary housewives and husbands are now, that Summer is nearly over, increasingly conscious of the savings and other advantages that would have been theirs with elec-tric food conservation. Indeed, it's going to be a busy Fall for furniture stores that aggres-sively seek electric appliance busi-ness, new or old. August is the month to begin planning an active campaign that carries through Christmas. Write FINE FURNITURE for any information concerning new lines, prices or retailing problems in your appliance department. We are here to serve you quickly and intelli-gently. 34 IT'S TIME FINE FURNITURE FOR THE FURNITURE STORE TO CASH IN ON SMALL APPLIANCES '••' store is presented, silver platter, with :ontribution to net tie this Fall of small s. Sales possibilities mm I Right, Oxford model in GE's long line of electric percolators, is strikingly Modern in design, with attractive embossed design on Chromeplate finish. Available in seven or six-cup capacity. List price for latter, $7.95. Smart, streamline design has been one of the big factors in the rapid sales of Westinghouse's Adjust-O-Matic iron, an $3.95 retailer. New models of electric clocks are strikingly handsome with their combinations of beautiful woods and metals. At the top of the page is shown General Electric's new Concord Model 3 F-66 of satiny striped mahogany and rosewood. Overall dimensions 4%" high, 8" wide, 2y8" deep. List price. $7.50. Left, General Electric's Westches-ter Model •waffle iron. Chromeplate finish, old ivory Marblette han-dles, scratch-proof feet. Base di-ameter, 11%". List price, $9.95. Below, GE's portable mixer Model 139 DM4 with Glasbake bowls, rubber spatula, double beater. Finished in cream with green trim. List price, $18.75. in these household electric items are unusually great for several rea-sons: First, because people are moving into new homes; second, because there is an enormous re-placement market for small appli-ances that have become obsolete or actually inoperative during the de-pression; third, because department stores generally are and have been doing an admittedly poor job with the sale of small appliances; fourth, because of unprecedented improve-ment in performance and appear-ance of latest models as a result of manufacturing ingenuity, many manufacturers having waited until the economic skies had begun to clear before introducing new devices and new departures in old devices. The furniture store, with its established place in the community, its display and advertising advan-tages, its knowledge of the handling of credit sales, is the logical outlet for all small cooking and heat-ing appliances, electric clocks, irons and all manner of kitchen and laundry aids. Top, General Electric gem box hostess set with cooker (capable of cooking anything from waffles to steaks), smart wood tray, glass batter pitcher and syrup pitcher, stainless steel knife and fork. List price, $14.95. Below, another buffet set showing GE Hotpointer toaster, fully auto-matic, Chromeplate finish, black Calmold turning knob and handles. List price, $16. f o r AUGUST, 1936 35 'TWAS A DARK and STORMY NIGHT BUT A BUSY AND PROFIT-ABLE ONE FOR THIS STORE'S REFRIGERATOR CREW ATIRED crew of 36 embattled refrigerator salesmen straggled into the Midwest Furniture Co. store in Indianapolis one evening not long ago, ready to make out their reports and call it a day—and a tough one at that. It had been raining steadily and their spirits were as soggy as the weather. But Earl Newlin, the store's sales man-ager, had a delightful restorative ready for them, although few among their number were keenly apprecia-tive of it. In fact there was more than one murmur of protest when Newlin called them together and proposed a refrigerator drive that would carry through that entire night. But he finally succeeded in selling them the idea, which is prob-ably one reason why he's a sales manager. With territories quickly assigned, the tired men went forth to do bat-tle in the drizzling darkness. They ventured into bleak industrial areas, tramped through dripping fields and farmlands, into outlying residential districts. Came the Dawn1. • When the cold gray dawn of another day had broken over the Hoosier horizon, it was found that Midwest's three dozen night raiders had been in con-tact with well over 100 prospects— good, bad and indifferent. By midnight, communiques from the firing line showed a total of 26 refrigerator sales and by morning this figure had reached 32, cash collections amounting to $700. As the bedraggled and droopy-eyed crew trickled (literally) into the store the next morning, Newlin had a steaming, bountiful breakfast " . . . the novelty of the solicitation in-trigued the night workers. They were glad of the interrup-tion in the usual night's monotony . . . " ready for them. The coffee did its work and soon the gang were laugh-ing and exchanging their experi-ences of the night. No Leads • The only lead of any sort given the salesmen was instruc-tion to go wherever they saw a light and interview whoever was there. They went to police stations, fac-tories, bakeries, fire stations, farms, markets and even railroad round-houses. Says Newlin, "One thing that helped the sales along was the fact that the men were contacting a group of people who seldom are reached personally, as they always work at night. Also, the novelty of the solicitation immediately in-trigued the night workers. They were glad of the interruption in the usual night's monotony and readily listened to the whole story." The contacts were the best credit risks. All were employed and most of them had held jobs steadily for many years. Although no deliveries were made until a customer's credit standing was found satisfactory, de-liveries made the next day were the largest for the year. Follow-up • A direct-mail follow-up was immediately dispatched to all prospects—a personalized letter in the salesman's own handwriting —conveying the salesman's thanks for the time given him. A second all-night drive was put on a week later to follow up the hottest of these prospects. This effort, however, only lasted until 3 a. m. By that time the list had been entirely covered and a gratify-ing percentage of names was on the dotted line. Various schemes were used to stimulate the salesmen's enthusiasm for these drives; one, the payment of a flat 50% bonus on each electric refrigerator sold. Another was a competitive form of assessment worked along chain-letter lines. A group of fast-selling heating and cooking appliances that have been fast-sellers and will continue to make their bid for a share of furniture store profits. Left to right, Westinghouse de-luxe electric roaster; electro-tray set by Westinghouse, retailing complete for $16.95. Westinghouse Cozy Glow heater, with 14-inch reflector, has been a fine seller at $4.95. At the right is the new modern gas range. Model 310, brought out by Cleveland Co-operative Stove Co. to retail for $64.50. 36 FINE FURNITURE BREUNER'S BEARS DOWN on SALES TRAINING EVERY SALESMAN IS A SPECIALIST IN HIS LINE WHEN volume and quality meet good profitable business inevi-tably results. That is being proven daily at Breuner's, Oakland, Cal. While all departments of this fine furniture store have shown remark-able growth, the spotlight is on the appliance department, which now is keeping 40 salesmen busy. "It is really the salesmen on the firing line who win new customers," says L. B. Quimby, department manager. Everything we can do to provide him with more selling ammunition and help him do a bet-ter selling job is bread on the waters. "We find it is better to keep each department separate, and not to permit salesmen to sell in any other department. Ranges and washers are under one supervision, refri-gerators under another, hot water heaters under another, with our floor and basement furnaces under the supervision of a heating expert who has two men to secure leads. "We have five floor salesmen in the refrigerator department, and a crew of 18 outside salesmen for house-to-house selling and for the following up of prospects. The others alternate one day inside and one day outside. Meet Daily • "We hold daily meet-ings for each crew of appliance salesmen, and weekly meetings which all crews attend. We sub-scribe to the specialty school in appliance selling, and in these daily meetings we try to show our sales-men how to meet all situations which may arise. "One of the biggest problems of an appliance department lies in the number of visitors who state they 'are just looking around.' Fully 90% of these visitors are potential buyers and can be sold if the sales-man is sufficiently clever. If he is well versed in his merchandise he can always make an opening for a conversation. In encouraging this idea, we ask our salesmen to sell an appliance in sales meeting. We all contribute to these sales build-ups, and thus work out many im-provements in methods of closing. "We find that an alert follow-up on all prospects is most impor-tant in getting more business. We use all the usual methods of obtain-ing names. Also we make it worth while for employees to turn in the names of prospects by paying them a commission on all such prospects to whom we sell. In addition, we get the names of newcomers and of people who are building or moving. Vigorous Advertising • "In fea-turing our appliances, we use aggressive newspaper advertising, window displays, of which we al-ways have some space, and house-to- house broadsides. Special feature values are promoted as well as our regular price lines, and in all our advertising we play up terms. In newspaper advertisements we dramatize one type of appliance at a time, and consistently tie in appliance window display with all advertising. "An 8-page broadside in black and brown dramatizes our electrical appliance week. A 4-page green tabloid circular features unusually liberal terms. By eliminating the down payment and delaying the first payment, we offered real in-ducement to people to buy new equipment now. "Our electric appliance depart-ment is arranged in telling displays to make the most of every foot of space. Every type of appliance re-ceives excellent display. The size of the stock alone is a convincing L. B. QUIMBY " . . . careful sales training is bread on the waters." Below, scene in. Breuner's electric refrigerator de-partment. sales aid. The patron cannot fail to see that she can surely find what she wants. "Breuner's is the only store in the East Bay area to maintain a home economist for the convenience of our customers. Shortly after a new appliance has been installed in a customer's home, she goes out and gives the customer a thorough demonstration of the operation of the appliance. If it is a range, she may bake a cake or prepare part of a meal, and she gives the cus-tomer some recipes. In this way we are sure the customer thoroughly understands how to use her new appliance. Complaints and service calls are reduced, and the customer is pleased and satisfied. Further-more, by going to the customer's home the economist can note what other appliance is needed. She is a prolific source for prospects for sale of additional appliances. "We believe that we have devel-oped a merchandising and adver-tising policy and plan that gives our salesmen maximum support. Con-centration on the importance of better selling and thorough sales training gives salesmen complete information about the merchandise they are selling and inspires them with enthusiasm for it." f o r AUGUST, 1936 37 "Soloizing" BUSINESS in the home appli-ance department of Schoen-felds' Standard Furniture Co., Seattle, doubled during 1935, is expected to go even higher this year. A third generation of store man-aging Schoenfelds — Berman Jr., son of Berman Schoenfeld, retired head of the store; Kenneth, Her-bert, and Ralph, sons of the late Herbert Schoenfeld—take the mer-chandising viewpoint that versatility of selection is the keynote of appli-ance volume, plus dramatic mer-chandising in the form of windows and newspaper displays. "Soloizing" is a favorite Schoen-feld way of window-merchandising appliances, as verified by this win-dow which displays the humble kitchen range in the manner of exclusive gowns. Note how one model is raised on a dais, which is black velvet covered and further accentuated by the draping of vel-vet (in burnt orange shade) at the base. In contrast to windows, which are designed to win appeal for specific models, departments displays are arranged to give a conception of huge merchandise stocks—the selec-tions possible. Arrangement of the electrical refrigeration section con-veys an impression of large, com-plete stock to suggest to the custo-mer that there is no need to "shop around"—that every type of model and every wanted price is met in the Schoenfeld selection. New type washing method called Hub-a- tator for which Holland-Rieger, San-dusky, Ohio, is making unusual claims. Agitator is designed to cause close con-tact with clothing in tub with corruga-tions provided in its side. Effect of such contact is to give up-and-down move-ment from top to bottom of tub and circular motion at same time. The four corners of the agitator also brush or rub the clothes while oscillating backward and forward. Sliding Scale T J A R T M A N BROS., Indianapolis X i furniture store, pay appliance salesmen a sliding scale of commis-sions as an incentive to grade up sales. Introduced a year ago, the success of the plan is shown by the fact that 50% of the sales of refrig-erators, ranges and washing ma-chines have been in higher price units. The store holds the distinction of selling more refrigerators at $200 and up than any other models, partly as a result of the application of sliding scale compensation. Salesmen receive an extra 2}4% commission on the total amount for the sale of a range, refrigerator or washing machine in a designated price bracket. This is in addition to salary plus 5% commission on sales. On ranges, the extra 2^4% com-mission applies on units selling at $150 and up; in refrigerators, on units selling at $200 and up; and in washing machines on units selling at $90 and up. Under this method of compensa-tion, the salesman receives an extra $3.75 on a range, $5 on a refrigera-tor, and $2.25 on a washing ma-chine, and still more if he grades up still further. "We can well afford to pay the extra commission because appli-ances in the higher price brackets have a better markup spread," explains Roy Stanford, manager of the appliance department. See Your Grocer! TIE UP with an alert grocer in your own block! He may be one of your strongest allies in the pro-motion of electric refrigeration. After the Morris Furniture Co., Muncie, Ind., sold a refrigerator for the personal use of the manager Display of ranges and refrigerators, with center of interest focused on the model on the black-velvet-covered dais, an example of Schoenfeld's policy of "soloizing" units in its display windows. of a grocery store in the residential district, a live display idea popped into the grocer's mind. He persuaded the Morris com-pany to lend him a refrigerator to carry for two weeks in the window of his grocery store. Around this he grouped food products which could be economically purchased in quantities. Although changing the merchandise in the display and the wording of his signs every few days, his sign always featured the thought: "Quantity buying saves money if you have a refrigerator that will keep surplus foods fresh." At the end of two weeks the store manager was able to turn over to Morris the names of 20 future pros-pects and six active "hot" leads. In addition, this display of a refri-gerator in a grocery store window attracted considerable attention and discussion upon the subject of re-frigeration, leading to other sales. The scheme was more or less accidental. Worked out carefully, it has widespread possibilities. A new electric shaving device, the Hanley Clipshave, featuring a clip-ping unit of a design which enables it to sever either long or short hair with equal effectiveness and without clogging, has been announced by Clipshave. Inc., Port Chester, N. Y. It lists at $10. The clipping unit is driven by a small electric motor encased in the handle of the center. 38 FINE FURNITURE DO MODEL HOMES PAY? Yes, If Definitely "Aimed ", Says the Broadway AMID the welter of model-home projects attempted .successfully or otherwise by furniture stores, one occasionally stands out as an exception of merchandis-ing skill. Such is the home built by the Broadway- Hollywood Store of Los Angeles in the little town of San Fernando, 20 miles away in a farming district. This home has increased furniture sales for the store by better than 50%, has put its furnitu
Date Created:: 1936-08-01T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Grand Rapids Public Library (Grand Rapids, Mich.)
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