The Treble Clef Offers a Complete Line of Sheet Music

question 47

Essay

The Treble Clef offers a complete line of sheet music, musical instruments, and novelty gifts of a musical nature. In recent years, owner Gary Zahn has even served as the local representative of several musical instrument manufacturers, providing a contact person for three local school districts. "If we don't have it, chances are excellent that we can get it for you," Gary tells all Treble Clef visitors and customers.

Some patrons are interested in finding a specific piece of sheet music from a particular era. Others walk in just to browse among the hundreds of musical knick-knacks in the store.

Gary spends most of his time making presentations to beginning music students at the local schools and making bi-weekly visits to the schools in order to deliver instruments, to make minor repairs when possible, or to pick up instruments to ship to the manufacturer for more complicated repairs.

After dragging his feet for quite some time, Gary decided that a Treble Clef website would benefit his customers. He began with a simple site explaining store hours and depicting types of gifts and services available. The site was so well received that Gary added a question-and-answer option. Questions poured in, ranging from "Where can I get the sheet music for 'Hello, Dolly'?" to "Do you carry clarinet reeds?" to "My saxophone needs two new pads. When will you be at Elmhurst school to repair it?" Eventually, Gary added purchasing options to the website, so customers could shop for and order musical novelties online with a credit card. A gift could now be wrapped and sent to the recipient at no extra charge.

"I don't know how the Treble Clef managed without our website," Gary admitted. "It allows us to be so responsive. And our novelties sales have doubled!"

-In your opinion, what is the most critical element The Treble Clef should include in the website?

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Definitions:

Direct Labour

The cost of wages for workers directly involved in the manufacture of products or the delivery of services.

Fixed Manufacturing Overhead

Indirect manufacturing costs that remain constant regardless of the level of production, such as factory rent and salaries of permanent staff.

Variable Manufacturing Overhead

Variable manufacturing overhead includes all production costs that change with the level of production output and are not direct materials or direct labor, such as utilities for the manufacturing facility.

Direct Labour

The wages paid to workers directly involved in the production of goods or services, considered a variable cost.