134 THE MODEL STOCK PLAN 
we get our prices down to three, for the same total investment 
we can carry at each of the three price levels stocks much more 
complete than previously ai amy of the many price levels. 
Also, under the Model Stock Plan, our stocks are made still 
more complete because many of the more desirable goods 
manufactured to sell at in-between prices are drawn to our 
next lower full-line prices. 
The effect is that of a far more complete stock than the 
customer has ever found in a store operated on traditional 
lines. We show the customer a wide variety of styles, colors, 
and materials in a complete range of sizes, at each of our 
three prices, and thus increase our sales. 
With our smaller number of variations and larger volume 
of sales, we do not suffer the usual fate of having the profits 
gained by completeness of stock offset by slower rate of 
turnover. We are turning our stocks so fast that we are 
able to keep our merchandise in step with style. Under the 
Model Stock Plan we do not have to spread our capital and 
our goods over too wide a range of prices. 
Failure to maintain really complete stocks is serious. 
Every time that a customer fails to find in our stock exactly 
what is wanted, this reacts definitely against the store. 
The customer goes to hunt for the article in a competitor’s 
store, and we lose the sale. Or else we succeed in selling 
something that is not the customer’s first choice; this, in the 
long run, reacts so unfavorably that it doubtless costs us 
more than would actually losing the sale. 
That the seriousness of this condition is not more generally 
recognized is due to its general prevalence in any community. 
Where every store in a community has incomplete stocks, 
the customer becomes so used to failing to find in a single 
store exactly what is wanted that this disservice is not seri- 
ously held against the merchant. But if even one store 
begins to carry really complete stocks, customers form the 
habit of going to that store first—if prices and styles are 
equally attractive there. 
As we strive for complete stocks under the Model Stock 
Plan, and as we find it possible to approach completeness