132 THE MODEL STOCK PLAN
mass selling arrives, in order to distribute the load of the
whole period more uniformly and to find out before our
competitors what the most customers really want.
Following the period of mass selling come the final dates
on the calendar, closing out and the end of the season.
These should be determined by the following considerations:
1. The desired condition of our stock in reldtion to the
manufacturers’ stocks.
2. Market conditions, which vary somewhat in different
years.
3. The demand for next season’s goods.
4. The first-showing and opening dates of the following
season and the stock-taking date.
One definition of the end of the season might be that it is
the time when the demand is about to change from the kind
of goods suitable for one season to those suitable for the next.
When it comes, we should definitely determine what part,
if any, of the goods we then have on hand will be suitable
for the coming season. The leftovers, such as we may have,
must be closed out. The object of this is to avoid the twofold
danger of reordering goods that cannot be sold profitably be-
fore the end-of-the-season date and of being out of goods that
might be sold profitably before the new season actually begins.
In this chapter we have seen that a complete stock pays
us, and that a large stock is not necessarily complete. We
have looked into the ways in which complete stocks at only
three price levels make it easier for the customer to buy of
us. Then we came Yo a detailed consideration of the selling
calendar and its usefulness in keeping our stocks complete
at the right times and getting rid of them before they hang
heavy on our hands.
We are now ready to consider the buying methods that,
combined with the other integral parts of the Model Stock
Plan, help us to make sure that our whole stock is of excep-
tional value. For this, after all, is a major purpose of our
merchandising method. If we can build an active, militant
goodwill toward our store throughout a sufficient proportion
of the public and support it with sound operating procedures,
