86 THE MODEL STOCK PLAN
merchant has at some time legitimately bought some goods
of this sort, by recognizing and applying to his advantage
the lack of coordination between production and consump-
tion, and producers’ or importers’ errors of judgment. These
are usually goods of reliable quality; for the most part they
are available in large quantities. Yet they can be sold
only if offered at much less than usual prices.
Of course, manufacturers often have special reasons why
they want or are forced to sell at prices much lower than
usual, and why they are very glad indeed to be assured of a
large cash outlet which is always open to buy.
This is possible because production and distribution,
manufacturing and selling, are not in general coordinated.
Many manufacturers are individualists and devote insuffi
cient time to the study of larger questions involved in run-
ning their businesses to yield the greatest possible total
profits. For instance, few manufacturers study total
demand. As there are hundreds of manufacturers in most
lines, even if they should all produce the right goods, the
result would still be that many of them would be wrong,
because they would have produced more than their cus-
tomers, the retailers, could use at any one time. Frequently,
a manufacturer who has produced a desirable article fails
to find just the buyer who wants it. Or, as often happens,
a manufacturer produces the goods he would like to sell
instead of what buyers want to buy.
To these conditions arising from weaknesses in production
and distribution must be added such extraordinary happen-
ings as unforeseen financial or other economic or political
events which may defeat even good planning by the producer.
Consequently, there are goods in the market to be bought to
yield values as good as, or better than, those in the three full
lines.
Usually these goods are sold to the store at less than they
cost to produce. There is a good reason why the store should
not take advantage of this extremely low purchase cost to
put the goods into one of the full lines and get the larger
profits that this might permit. If a store tries this, it is
