CHOOSING PRICE LEVELS TO INCREASE SALES 15 
may be its principal characteristic. On this reputation it 
stands or falls. 
As people from a given level of economic life find the stock 
and atmosphere of a store to their taste, others of the same 
income groups follow. The retailer observes a steady 
demand for goods of the sort these people buy and tries to 
supply them. 
We all know that while his store is small the merchant is in 
such close personal contact with his buying public that he is 
likely to recognize the impossibility of stretching his capital 
over too wide a range of prices. By the time most stores 
grow to good size examination will show that they are 
offering goods for sale at far too many prices. The advantage 
of having fewer price levels may not at first glance be obvious. 
It is none the less real. 
Successful business men accept and act on the principle of 
simplification, the great advantages of eliminating needless 
varieties.! Price simplification and standardization are 
quite as advantageous. And the Model Stock Plan isactually 
the first comprehensive practical method for simplifying 
and standardizing prices. When we get a real simplification 
and standardization of retail prices eliminating wastes in 
retail distribution and working back into production to help 
manufacturers eliminate their wastes, the resultant savings 
to business and to consumers will far exceed the savings that 
have come as yet from simplification of varieties. 
How many price lines should our store have? In accord- 
ance with our policy of substituting facts for opinions, we 
must look to our customers and their buying habits for the 
answer. Let us say that our average woman customer, the 
average of the economic level we serve, pays $10 for a street 
! How generally simplification of varieties has heen accepted throughout 
industry is exemplified by the large number of industries—constantly increas. 
ing—that have reduced the number of varieties by industry-wide agreement 
arrived at under the auspices of the Division of Simplified Practice, Bureau of 
Standards, U, §. Department of Commerce, This work was initiated by 
President Hoover while he was Secretary of Commerce and has been con- 
tinued actively by his successors in this office, The division estimates con- 
servatively that this simplification is saving American industry $300,000.000 
A year.