84 
THE MODEL STOCK PLAN 
ments and the basement store. But if the basement and the 
de luxe departments are handled scientifically, with mental 
energy and with minds open to learn by experimentation, 
the sales in each—the one above the full line prices the other 
principally below the full line prices—will be larger than is 
commonly thought possible or than experience has up to 
now shown attainable. 
What a basement can do that is operated with the aid of 
this kind of thinking and planning is indicated by the auto- 
matic bargain basement of the Filene store in Boston.} 
This basement is doing over $10,000,000 of business a year. 
The volume of sales is obtained by a method that in compari- 
son with the standard current practices in buying and selling 
is far more different, far more revolutionary, than is the 
Model Stock Plan, A detailed account of the methods and 
principles of the Filene Automatic Bargain Basement is 
given in this chapter because some of the planning and rea- 
soning on which it is based could be used to increase the 
total profits of basement stores which are not operated on the 
automatic mark-down plan. 
Once it has been decided that the opportunity exists for a 
basement store, we come to a consideration of the mer- 
chandising principles specifically applying to basement 
operations. The first, and most obvious to any experienced 
retailer, is that the basement store should not try to make the 
bulk of its sales in the same goods at the same price levels 
as the upstairs departments. The basement should sell 
mostly goods at prices cheaper than the prices in upstairs 
departments.? Yet these goods must be of sufficiently high 
! As bas already been pointed out, I have used illustrative material from 
this store only because I am more familiar with it than with any other busi- 
ness. But the whole Model Stock Plan—it cannot be stated too often or too 
strongly—is applicable to all types of businesses and all kinds of goods. 
* There is a profitable way of running a basement store where this state- 
ment does not apply. In an automatic bargain basement, such as that of the 
Filene store jn Boston, higher-priced goods can be sold in very successful 
quantities, with no harm to the upstairs departments. Such a basement, in 
fact, can greatly increase the reputation of the store for low prices at all 
price levels, much as the upstairs departments aim to increase the reputation 
= the store not alone for good price values but also for especially good style 
values.