238 THE MODEL STOCK PLAN 
we understand it. Every trade to be a good trade must be 
mutually profitable. This is so important that it should be 
posted in all sample rooms, and all our treatment of salesmen 
and resources should be based on it. Resources must under- 
stand that if any part of their experience with us goes counter 
to this basic rule, we shall be very glad to talk it over and 
to remove any injustices from our way of dealing. 
We are not doing the salesmen a favor by looking at their 
goods or buying of them. Any store that buys of a resource 
or salesman as a favor to him is going to correct that error 
in the bankruptcy court if the store continues it long enough. 
We must make our arrangements to conserve the time of the 
salesmen. The out-of-town salesman deserves special atten- 
tion. We should see him before local men. In doing this 
we are not doing the salesman a favor; we are simply following 
a practice that is good business. For all waste of salesmen’s 
time, like every other waste, finally has to be paid for in the 
price at which the article is distributed. It is curious that 
any store should short-sightedly force salesmen to undergo 
indignities, such as riding in freight elevators or waiting 
unnecessarily. Such procedures are fundamentally wrong 
and unprofitable. Because they are wasteful they get in 
the way of our own selling. 
We have already studied! the methods to assure buying 
more regularly the right kind of merchandise ahead of com- 
petitors and our whole principle of applying to any resource 
the test of whether it makes prompt deliveries. It is in 
this whole field of prompt deliveries and general good service 
from resources—the very phases of the relationship which 
most directly affect our total profits from sales—that we 
reap the benefit of our attitude that there is no element of 
doing a favor in the whole buying-selling relationship. If 
our dealings with resources are considerate and profitable 
to them, they will do everything possible to hasten production 
and delivery of our orders, whether large or small. 
Whenever we can save a day in getting goods onto our 
shelves, we shal] do well to save it. We know that for many 
1 Chapter XI, p. 147.