AN ENTIRE STOCK OF BARGAINS 161
a leader, and if competitors do not adopt it. make our. store
the leader.
For instance, if our store were still operated along tradi-
tional lines, we should expect that when customers cannot
find in one section what they want, they will go to a rival
store. But if we can teach them that we are likely to have
it in another section, we get another chance at the sale.
For example, if it is not in the cheapest full line, they may
go to the basement and find something to suit their require-
ments. If it is not in the highest-priced full line, they may
find it in the de luxe department.
Ordinarily, in a good-sized department store one buyer
buys all the goods of a given sort at all the price levels of that
store. We have already touched on the advantage that
comes to both the store and the buyers through subdividing
the buying so that instead of having one general buyer
spreading his attention over a whole field, we have under the
general buyer three experts each of whom buys for only one
selling price.
This sets up a direct competition within the store, a com-
petition which is just as helpful and profitable as is good brisk
competition outside. It is, in fact, more profitable, since
with all the competition under our one roof we get the benefit
of all the additional sales volume that this internal competi-
tion stimulates.
It is perfectly clear that the buyer for the cheapest full
line will, if he is ambitious, make extraordinary efforts to
get into his buying price range some of the most desirable
goods in the best-selling line. The basement buyer will
meanwhile be searching for ways to bring some of the cheap-
est full-line goods, which now he can only get whenadistress
lot comes on the market, into his stock. The best-selling
full-line buyer is aiming for goods in the highest-priced line.
The highest-priced full-line buyer is hot on the trail of mer-
chandise in the de luxe department. And the de luxe buyer,
with no restrictions on his prices, is out scouring the markets
to get the very latest and most exclusive merchandise for
his high-income customers, but he must get goods that his
