CHAPTER III 
WHAT IS A MODEL STOCK? 
Six steps to a Model Stock. A full line; “a given class of goods.” 
Six classifications that make up a full line. The Best Buy, BB, and the 
More-Profit Item, MP. How they differ and how they supplement each 
other, Ideas vs. intrinsic worth. Mass-selling goods cannot be ugly. 
When the MP sells poorly. Must a BB sell at alow margin? Four BB 
principles. How to build a BB. When is a BB beaten? The BB asa 
measure of competition. Laying out BB’s for comparison. How many 
BB’sareneeded? Substituting BB’s for “bargains”; not a leader or bait. 
How BB’s increase total profits. “Every day is bargain day all through 
our store. 
A Model Stock is one which has the right goods, at the right 
time, in the right quantities, at the right prices. The Model 
Stock Plan provides the means by six distinct steps, all so 
closely related that they form an integral whole. The 
procedure is: 
1. To determine for any given class of merchandise, and 
for all classes carried, the three prices—low, medium, and 
high——at which the largest quantity of this merchandise 
can be sold and the greatest total profit earned for the 
business.! 
2. To concentrate probably 85 per cent of the stocks at 
these three prices. 
3. To provide a scientific basis for building up a stock that 
will most profitably meet and beat competition. 
4. To build up in the full lines really complete stocks that 
will turn over rapidly. 
5. To regulate the sizes of stocks at any given time by a 
selling calendar that shows in detail consumers’ buying 
habits. 
1 The whole question of three full-line prices is explained in detail in Chap. 
IT, p. 14. An understanding of Chap. II is essential to a full compre- 
bension of the material set forth here. 
TS