MOST IMPORTANT JOB IN DISTRIBUTION 231 
Call slips and stock records are good. But any methods of 
presenting the facts on paper are most valuable as supple- 
mentary to the department head’s observations and expe- 
fences in the selling departments. He cannot get a 
subordinate to do this job, for only he himself has the final 
authority to correct all of the weaknesses of stock and selling 
practice. The department buyer, simply because he is 
accustomed to think of his function as primarily one of going 
to market, selecting goods, and placing the orders, is likely, 
at first, not to see how much this idea can help him to sell 
more goods, to make more profits, and, therefore, to make 
him more valuable to himself and to the store. 
Like most merchants, we are inclined to defer tremendously 
to any opinions or even prejudices of a good buyer. (In 
fact, if our buyers are not convinced, we shall probably never 
get our courage up to the point where we shall really and 
fully adopt the Model Stock Plan.) Actually, a good buyer 
can increase his department’s profits notably by changing 
his conception of his function. An alert, skilful buyer is 
most valuable when he uses most of his ability, his energy, 
and his time in finding out from his customers what goods 
they really want to buy. Here is where the buying should 
be planned. 
From the store he can send his assistant buyer or his buying 
agent into the market to place the actual orders for what he, 
the buyer, orders him to buy. These goods will include, in 
addition to the reorders, largely those articles which close 
contact with his customers has shown the department head 
are in demand and which, therefore, will sell most profitably. 
They will not be the goods which, in the manufacturer's 
showroom or with the manufacturer’s salesman, the buyer 
makes up his mind, sometimes rather arbitrarily, will prob- 
ably sell most profitably. 
Of course, the buyer should go into the market himself as 
frequently as he wants to. Certainly he should go at regular 
intervals to keep himself posted on the market. But if his 
huying agent can get for him what the buyer has ordered 
him to get, what the buyer has found, from personal observa-