AN ENTIRE STOCK OF BARGAINS 163 
line at a single price, the chain will build a stock against which 
not even the most competent and sophisticated of] general 
buyers could profitably compete. 
If 10 years ago such a group of stores as those composing 
the Retail Research Association had adopted the Model 
Stock Plan and coupled with it their group buying—to 
which, as has already been pointed out, the three full-line 
prices are an indispensable aid by avoiding the difficulty of 
agreeing on price levels—it would have been, in effect, just 
such a chain, although voluntary, instead of centrally owned. 
By the enormous buying power that would have developed, 
for these stores did in 1929 a total sales volume of hundreds 
of millions of dollars, distribution would have been revolu- 
tionized. It would have compelled the creation and exten- 
sion of competing chains of the same kind. Out of this 
trend there would have come a development altogether differ- 
ent from anything in our experience. These great chains of 
department stores operating by the Model Stock Plan would, 
I am convinced, have prevented much of the extraordinarily 
rapid growth of the chains during this period. Likewise, 
the sales volume of this highly successful group of department 
stores would be today enormously greater than it is. 
The growth of the chains during recent years, chains both 
of small stores and large stores, singie-line chains and depart- 
ment-store chains, foreshadows one important development 
that must come very soon. The other developments in 
distribution now going on point in the same direction. The 
most effective buying methods of the almost immediate 
future will be those which combine with skilfully planned 
buying the power of combined purchasing with other stores, 
or mass buying. The Model Stock Plan possesses the advan- 
tage, among others, that its adoption brings about a type of 
organization and method of operation which eminently 
fits the store to take its place in group buying, whether of a 
voluntary or centrally owned chain and to derive the maxi- 
mum benefit from it.