Kv 
INTRODUCTION 
We are now going through a period of change in methods of 
merchandising that is to distribution much the same thing 
the industrial revolution was to production. The goods 
produced in large quantities by our modern methods should 
have an equally economical and equally efficient distribution. 
Not every difficulty has been ironed out of manufacturing, 
but thinking observers realize that it is in merchandising 
that our major business problems are to be found. There 
has come a new era of ferment and of progress in business, 
an era in which many of our outworn traditions must be 
discarded. New methods are constantly being devised 
and tested. New ideas are being put into practice. The 
merchants who are eventually to emerge as leaders of their 
trades must keep their minds open and alert to the innova- 
tions that will bring different conditions next year or even 
ten years from today. There are tremendous opportunities 
in possible reductions in the cost of moving goods from 
producer to consumer, a field in which avoidable waste 
mounts into the billions of dollars. 
Much as in the case of the industrial revolution, there 
will undoubtedly be a great number of laggards in this new 
movement, merchants who are unable or unwilling to adapt 
unfamiliar methods to their own stores. These men will 
fail to realize the great advantages of riding with the tide of 
progress, rather than trying to move against it. Another 
class of merchants will draw upon the experience of others 
to enable themselves to reap a larger reward for a more 
efficient service to the consumer. It is for these that 
Mr. Filene has written “The Model Stock Plan.” 
In his endeavor to reduce his costs, the retail merchant 
will find great possibilities in a close cooperation with others 
whose business it is to place goods in the hands of the con- 
sumer. In this book, Mr. Filene describes the methods he 
has used to accomplish just such a result. His findings are 
the outcome of keen thought tempered by years of practical 
business experience and experiment. 
Turius Kien.