THE MODEL STOCK PLAN 
those intended to make money from financing instead of 
from merchandising. 
Everything of value that this book can give us is based on 
the fact, long accepted by leaders of business, that the most 
dependable source of profit is helpful service to the public. 
If a business method can eliminate wastes, reduce costs, and 
otherwise make the consumer’s dollar buy him more or 
better goods, it will at the same time increase total profits 
for the business that employs it. 
The Model Stock Plan is designed to operate in exactly 
this fashion. Skilfully employed in a store, it makes more 
money for the store. At the same time it saves money for 
the consumer, makes more money for the manufacturer, 
and any other resources that regularly work with the store 
where it is in use. 
Consider the burden of non-selling help common in retail- 
ing; for instance, in the ordinary department store only one 
employee out of three works at selling. Moreover, not 
more than half of that employee’s time is taken up in actually 
selling. 
If we do not appreciate the possibilities of improving 
this showing and something of the merchandising principles 
that make improvement possible, let us walk through any 
good-sized, modern, Woolworth store and look it over. 
Here we shall see how unbelievably much value can be provided 
for a nickel or a dime and how busy all the salespeople are 
practically all of the time. 
The principles explained in this book are exactly those 
that Woolworth’s applies to make low prices and high total 
profits. So are the methods, in essence. Woolworths 
L In another place I have tried to formulate what seems to me the basis of 
a simple code of business ethics. I included two points, as follows: “1. A 
business, in order to have the right to succeed, must be of real service to the 
community. 2. Real service in business consists in making or selling mer- 
zchandise of reliable quality for the lowest practically possible price, provided 
that merchandise is made and sold under just conditions.” It strikes me 
that many business men have yet to learn the lesson so strikingly demon- 
strated by Ford and Chevrolet, that low prices, large sales, and a large total 
profit, under proper management, go together. (See the Annals of the 
American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. CI, May, 1022.)