THE MODEL STOCK PLAN

hastened by the chains. Group buying by retailers is
increasing. Style is penetrating into many lines hitherto
free from style influence. Major outlets for many types of
goods are shifting from one kind of store to another; small
hardware and notions into chain variety stores; nationally
advertised men’s clothing and furnishing goods into retail
outlets owned or controlled by manufacturers. The list
could be extended indefinitely. These suffice to indicate
the trend.
We may depend upon people to keep on eating, wearing
out clothes, building houses, running mileage on their automobiles.
 Whether your business and mine make money
by supplying these wants depends upon our adaptability
to changing conditions. If we combat today’s and tomorrow’s
 supercompetition by simple but scientific methods,
we shall prosper safely and surely. If we do not adapt
ourselves we must eventually go under.
The principles and methods of the Model Stock Plan are
the surest way to net profits, although they are not always
the line of least resistance in running a business. In the
first place, they are predicated—just as are Ford's, Chevrolet’s,
 Woolworth’s, and other modern merchandisers’ —on
actually thinking our way through our business, using facts
as a guide and a check-up rather than traditional opinions.
The Model Stock Plan is not difficult to carry out. On the
contrary, it is simpler and will cause us much less work than
the currently accepted methods. The only difficulty comes
in deciding to carry it out. All of us tend to continue using

1 Many other examples could be cited from higher-priced lines of business
2s well. Cadillac automobiles have of recent years shown the results of much
he same kind of thinking; American Telephone and Telegraph Company is
an excellent instance in a service industry. Woolworth, Ford, and Chevrolet
are used as examples throughout this book because they are the most conspicuously
 successful in working along lines similar to those of the Model
Stock Plan. But this choice of examples must not be misinterpreted as
meaning that the Model Stock Plan applies only to the lower-priced fields of
business. Actually, the opportunities for increasing profits by using the
Model Stock Plan are incomparably greater in the field of higher-priced
merchandise than at the lower levels such as Woolworth’s nickel and dime
prices, as will be clear after the workings of the plan are explained in detail
3 little further along in this book.