MAKING MARK-DOWNS PAY A PROFIT 107 
full-line price. My experience shows me that this is true 
beyond controversy. If the bulk of our stock is noi marked 
at a properly set full-line price when it is bought, an important 
part of it will be so marked before it is sold. A buyer may not 
know anything about this full-line price plan, but, uncon- 
sciously, he will be forced to mark his goods down in line 
with it; that is, mark them down to one of the prices at which 
his trade bulks. 
Or take a store in which the Model Stock Plan is being 
introduced but in which it is not as yet so understood that 
every step is surely and properly taken. Suppose here a 
buyer sets a full-line price at $1, whereas the price at which 
this class of goods is really in demand is 75 cents. It is 
not necessary to wait until the end of the season to know this. 
He should find it out rather soon. His mark-downs will 
show him that his price is wrong. By experimenting with 
various mark-downs he is almost certain to correct his earlier 
impression and set the full-line price at 75 cents, where most 
customers will buy freely. 
The Model Stock Plan ties in with the principle of using 
mark-downs to level the peaks and valleys not only of volume 
but also of profits. Taking our mark-downs early and liber- 
ally enables us to buy additional goods of the most desirable 
sorts at the best prices. In fact, under the Model Stock Plan 
hard times do not constitute a valid reason for either smaller 
sales volume or smaller total profits. We can sell more goods 
and make larger total profits in hard times than in good times, 
if we function properly. For, as we have already seen, there 
is no time when people will not buy goods at some price, and 
no goods they will not buy at some price. In hard times we 
can give them far better values than we can give in times 
when business is booming, for we are then able to buy the 
goods to far better advantage. 
It pays to have a definite rule that all goods must be 
marked down after specified times. But we must never make 
the common mistake of trying to limit, by an arbitrary rule, 
the percentage of mark-downs to total sales that a depart- 
ment will be permitted to have. Such a rule can result only