THE MORE-PROFIT TIME TO BUY 139 
orders comparatively early. Their location causes them to 
demand a very early first showing of manufacturers’ samples. 
So, planning a long time ahead of the retail selling season 
as he must, the manufacturer guesses. When the manu- 
facturer comes home from Europe, the European public’s 
verdict on the style he brings has usually not yet been handed 
down. We touched upon this before, but it is worth empha- 
sizing once more. In our first buying we must not fail to 
remember that we are virtually guessing that a guess made 
by the manufacturer, before style for the season is fixed, may 
or "may not be a good guess. 
By no means should we on that account refrain from 
doing our best in making selections. But the proper atti- 
tude, when first we go into the market at the start of a new 
season, is one of great modesty. 
In buying the first goods, it is usually helpful, first, to 
make up our minds whether we want certain goods and, 
second, before ordering, to learn as much as we can about 
what other successful buyers have selected. Any amount 
of information, good or bad, is continually to be had in 
market centers. It serves any man who can make it serve 
him. Within the bounds of fair dealing we shall find out 
what the most successful houses are buying, and use it as a 
basis for comparison with our own tentative selections. 
We may then want to correct some of our first opinions or 
make some entirely new selections. 
The second date on the buying calendar is the time when 
manufacturers make up complete sample lines of those 
styles which have been favorably received. They determine 
what has been regarded favorably, first, from the attitudes 
of the buyers themselves and, second, from the reorders 
which may have been sent in following the retailers’ first 
showings. 
Before this date there is very little buying in quantity, as 
purchases are largely restricted to the merchandise needed 
for the first showing of the retailer, plus enough merchandise 
to handle the business that results. In any event, this 
volume is not large. The appearance of the complete sample