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INTRODUCTION

We are now going through a period of change in methods of
merchandising that is to distribution much the same thing
the industrial revolution was to production. The goods
produced in large quantities by our modern methods should
have an equally economical and equally efficient distribution.
Not every difficulty has been ironed out of manufacturing,
but thinking observers realize that it is in merchandising
that our major business problems are to be found. There
has come a new era of ferment and of progress in business,
an era in which many of our outworn traditions must be
discarded. New methods are constantly being devised
and tested. New ideas are being put into practice. The
merchants who are eventually to emerge as leaders of their
trades must keep their minds open and alert to the innovations
 that will bring different conditions next year or even
ten years from today. There are tremendous opportunities
in possible reductions in the cost of moving goods from
producer to consumer, a field in which avoidable waste
mounts into the billions of dollars.
Much as in the case of the industrial revolution, there
will undoubtedly be a great number of laggards in this new
movement, merchants who are unable or unwilling to adapt
unfamiliar methods to their own stores. These men will
fail to realize the great advantages of riding with the tide of
progress, rather than trying to move against it. Another
class of merchants will draw upon the experience of others
to enable themselves to reap a larger reward for a more
efficient service to the consumer. It is for these that
Mr. Filene has written “The Model Stock Plan.”
In his endeavor to reduce his costs, the retail merchant
will find great possibilities in a close cooperation with others
whose business it is to place goods in the hands of the consumer.
 In this book, Mr. Filene describes the methods he
has used to accomplish just such a result. His findings are
the outcome of keen thought tempered by years of practical
business experience and experiment.

Turius Kien.