BASEMENT STORES FOR THRIFTY CUSTOMERS gz 
start with. But if it does not sell at that price it is marked 
down at definite fixed intervals until finally it does sell, or 
until the successive mark-downs prove that the store cannot 
sell it. ‘Then it is given away. 
This is how the automatic mark-down plan operates: 
First 12 selling days....... ....... full price 
After 12 selling days... . 25 per cent mark-down 
After 18 selling days... so per cent mark-down 
After 24 selling days.. 75 per cent mark-down 
After 20 selling days.. given away 
Let us illustrate by a hypothetical case. A buyer in the 
automatic bargain basement puts soo articles on sale at 
$3 apiece. The tag bears, besides the size and lot numbers, 
the date and price, thus: June 12, $3. After 12 selling days 
there are, say, roo of the items left. On that date he runs 
a blue pencil through the $3 and marks the new price under- 
neath, $2.25. If there are 20 pieces remaining at the end of 
18 selling days, he marks them $1.50; and the balance 75 
cents after 24 selling days, finally giving away any that he 
cannot dispose of at this last price. 
In 190g this was a revolutionary step in retail merchandis- 
ing. The failure of the plan was freely predicted. It has 
not failed; nor has the plan been modified in principle. 
The automatic bargain basement affords a means to deal 
more than ordinarily effectively and profitably with odd lots 
and job lots. Its basic principle adapts it particularly to 
take care of the lots that buyers will be tempted to put into 
the full lines. If, however, this temptation is resisted, 
and the automatic bargain basement plan adopted in addi- 
tion to the Model Stock Plan,! then the store has a double 
force building up the goodwill of the business. Using this 
basement store plan, a store will strengthen its full lines’ 
reputation for having complete stocks and offering every- 
thing which will satisfy any reasonable customer. Also 
1Tt must be definitely understood that the automatic bargain basement 
plan is not a part of the Model Stock Plan. Rather, it is a specialized plan 
developed to grasp an opportunity that exists in basement store merchan- 
dising. It comes out of precisely the same kind of reasoning as that which 
evolved the Model Stock Plan. And because both plans are fundamentally 
sound and essentially similar in character, they make an effective team when 
harnessed together for a merchandising task to which both are adapted.