34 
THE MODEL STOCK PLAN 
help to modify ‘and correct stocks constantly from actual 
experience according to customers’ actual demands. Thus 
we give our operating method a total power that makes it 
incomparably more profitable than rule of thumb or the 
trial-and-error plan used in the past and for the most part 
in the present. 
So we want a general understanding of the physical aids, 
such as records and their uses, that help in running the Model 
Stock Plan when it is in actual operation. Let me caution 
against laying too great emphasis on statistics; as we have 
already said, the method of merchandising described in 
these pages is a method of planning ahead and adapting 
our buying to the new methods of production. The volume 
we are going to be able to sell, and the profit we are going to 
get as a result of selling it, depend on the skill we employ in 
planning ahead—in planning to have on our shelves the right 
goods, at the right time, at the right prices, and in the right 
quantities. 
The Model Stock Plan reflects our best judgment as to 
what we expect to do—first, in rather general form for a 
considerable period, and, then, in more and more detail as 
we approach the time of actual selling. 
We place orders for merchandise according to our plan. 
But we buy wisely only if we reserve a sufficient leeway of 
purchasing power to enable us to meet conditions which may 
arise unexpectedly and which often cannot be anticipated. 
As every experienced merchant knows, it is a common mer- 
chandising error to tie up too much money in stocks consider- 
ably ahead of the selling period, so that when demand 
develops for reorders or in unexpected directions there is 
no reserve purchasing power to meet it—or when selling, for 
some reason, unexpectedly slows up, there is little chance to 
avert losses on the stocks already bought. 
A delayed season does not necessarily cut down on the total 
sales or total profits for the man who has foreseen the possi- 
bility of it and has held his stock in such condition that he is 
not overstocked. Under the Model Stock Plan it will be 
possible for us to do this much more effectively; no successful