158 THE MODEL STOCK PLAN 
needs before he can make a plan that will be of real service 
to him. The mere fact that he gains a complete grasp of 
these preliminaries before he buys a dollar’s worth of goods, 
even if he goes no further, must bring him greater total 
profits. 
This planning, coupled with the results of buying to sell 
at the three full-line prices, leads the merchant straight to the 
merchandise which he can sell in large volume. Then, as 
he takes advantage of the consequent opportunities of dealing 
with mass-production resources, he attains mass distribution 
with its elimination of wastes all the way to the consumer. 
Buying along these lines is more immediately profitable 
to the store through having the right stocks on hand when 
they are needed. Also, it helps to get at the root of a serious 
distribution-production waste by helping manufacturers 
do away with seasonal production—supplanting this by all- 
year-round production and thus helping to hold down factory 
costs, maintain a more experienced force of employees, 
and bring about other improvements that go far in eliminat- 
ing wastes. In fact, a major advantage of the Model Stock 
Plan is, as we have seen in the preceding chapter, that it 
helps us to understand better the conditions of manufac- 
turers” stocks and the opportunities of getting from present 
resources the right goods to satisfy customers’ demands; it 
helps us to find out when the manufacturers are likely to 
have a lot of stock on hand, whether they are likely to make 
price reductions, whether they are closing out soon, and so 
on. It substitutes for opinion and “inspiration” an orderly, 
definite way of thinking about buying. 
Let us keep clearly in mind that when we speak of under- 
standing the conditions of manufacturers’ stocks we do not 
intend to use such information as a means to browbeat 
the manufacturer out of his legitimate profit. No buy is a 
good buy unless it is profitable to the producer as well as to 
the buyer. Only when the producer makes money can we 
expect him to keep on improving his styles and his values 
and his production facilities. In fact, it is only by making 
money that he can remain in business and continue supplying