THE WAY TO GREATER TOTAL PROFITS 3 
tion, to the great benefit of producers; the reason is that 
under this business principle producers will get bulk orders 
from their customers. 
The benefit that he gets from these bulk orders, the manu- 
facturer will, of course, share so that the retailer can in turn 
share them with the customer, thus increasing the total 
business of both of them. A manufacturer who initiates 
the Model Stock Plan in his own business without waiting 
for pressure from his trade will find additional profit in the 
advantage he will have over competition by being able to 
help his customers to put it into effect in their businesses. 
In stating adequately the advantages of using the Model 
Stock Plan, it is hard to avoid terms that must, to the man 
unacquainted with it, seem overstatement; and overstate- 
ment is certain to antagonize the successful business men and 
the coming leaders of business for whom this book is written. 
The most successful business today is being operated with 
a degree of scientific skill unheard-of a few years ago. Gone 
are the days when haphazard methods could be depended on 
for profits; the basic difference between the method explained 
in this book and the old method is the substitution of facts 
for opinions. The continuance of pioneer conditions in some 
lines is all that has permitted many stores, factories, and 
wholesale houses to make money while going contrary to 
scientific merchandising principles. 
Pioneer conditions are rapidly giving place to an era of 
still more intensive competition. Basic changes are occur- 
ring, more than at any time since the First Industrial Revolu- 
tion which came with the substitution of machinery for 
handwork. Every line of commercial activity not already 
affected will feel the drastic changes before long. 
Distribution is the best example. It offers rather more 
than its share of these major changes. Most in the popular 
eye at the present moment is the growth of chain stores. 
But this is only one of many basic changes. Numbers of 
great department stores are being merged under group 
ownership. In many industries we see a trend toward 
elimination of intermediate distributors, a trend notably