THE MORE-PROFIT TIME TO SELL 131
store a good many customers who otherwise would buy of
bur competitors.
The cheapest full line ought not to be overemphasized at
this stage. It ought to grow out of our experience with the
best-selling full line, and the best-selling full line, in turn,
ought to grow out of our experience with the highest-priced
full line. This is the way demand travels: first, something
very exclusive is put out by a high-priced store; presently,
a popular-priced store gets out something like it; and, finally,
a cheap store finishes it.
It may seem that all we have been saying here does not
apply to staple goods. This is true to a degree. But we
should bear in mind that the whole tendency of production
is to put as much style and as much variation as possible
into staples, so that a style element enters importantly into
most of the merchandise which most stores handle today.
Manufacturers in general understand and try to apply the
principle of the even load better than retailers do. They
know that it tends to lessen the percentage of overhead
expense; and yet the principle can be applied just as profit-
ably in the store as in the factory. There are some factors
that one cannot wholly control, such as the annual rush at
the Christmas season; but one should determinedly do as
much as possible to distribute the business more evenly.
It is better to build up a business of $10,000,000 by doing
$200,000 a week than by selling $300,000 in some weeks and
only $100,000 in other weeks. We must have a larger force
in order to take care of the rush business of the $300,000
weeks. Unless we are willing to have the uneven distribu-
tion of business cause us in the $300,000 weeks to augment
our force with temporary salespeople, we have only one
possible course. If we value a well-trained selling force we
shall support it in comparative idleness through the $100,000
weeks. The dissatisfaction among employees from the
strain of heavy weeks and the idleness of light weeks is about
as harmful as the expense.
We all know, therefore, that much is to be gained from
strong publicity to stimulate buying before the real peak of
