CHOOSING PRICE LEVELS TO INCREASE SALES 29 
ambition on getting at these prices everything possible that 
is sold at a higher price, exactly as do Woolworth’s buyers.! 
To return to specific ways of setting price levels scien- 
tifically, there are two general methods open: (1) by sales 
records kept for that purpose; (2) by what we can learn from 
other stores and all other sources, including our own business 
Experience. 
The price of each full line must, to an extent, be deter- 
mined in relation to prices at which competitive stores do 
their largest business. From long experience let me warn 
especially against the dangers of implicit trust in store 
statistics. Properly kept and used with discretion, they 
are a genuine help when carefully considered as a partial 
means of determining full-line prices. But they are not 
necessarily trustworthy. 
An outstanding danger of keeping statistics is that when 
the average retailer gets as far as using statistics, he believes 
he is being scientific and, therefore, is cocksure that he is 
always right. Store statistics can seldom be used as the sole 
guide. They must be interpreted in the light of corollary 
fact and logic—not opinion. 
For example, suppose that in our store we intend to sell the 
largest volume of gloves at $1.50 and that the cheapest full 
line is $1. But if customers always see $1 gloves displayed 
more prominently, their resultant purchasing will bring 
$1 gloves into the statistical position of being our best- 
selling full line. If we believe our statistics, then, we shall 
have to come down to $1 for our best-selling full line and 
provide a lower line for our cheapest full line, which is, of 
course, exactly what we should not do. Instead, we should 
revise our store methods so that our $1.50 line, the correct 
best-selling price at which most customers will most readily 
buy, should actually be our best-selling line and have an 
opportunity to earn for us the greatest total profits. 
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