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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