MORE PROFITS FOR PRODUCERS 195 
to retailers on stock control, turnover, mark-ups, margins, 
and the like; they laid particular emphasis on the importance 
of scientific buying of style goods in their field—men’s under- 
wear, hosiery, and pajamas—which style had invaded only 
comparatively recently and where staples had been the rule. 
Coopers soon found that the necessary basic information 
could not be obtained by salesmen interviewing buyers or 
merchandise managers. It could not be attained short of 
getting carefully audited sales figures on a more realistic 
basis than is ordinary practice in stores. So this company 
employed a firm of store accountants to audit the underwear, 
nightwear, and hosiery sections of a number of representa- 
tive stores. Not more than 1 out of 12 or 15 was using really 
scientific buying and stock control in these departments. 
The wastes uncovered by this accounting study are so 
significant that they are worth describing in brief outline. 
Many merchandise managers did not in any great degree 
control their buyers excepting by financial limits—definite 
maximum expenditure for the department in question. 
There was found no general effort adequately to distribute 
the budget by sections. The result was that often a buyer 
was likely to overbuy in those lines in which he was partic- 
ularly interested and underbuy in the lines in which he was 
not personally interested. The other major tendencies away 
from profitable stock control were due to lack of sufficient 
emphasis on style trends—a subject of comparatively recent 
importance—and to disregarding the price ranges in which 
the store or the department could best operate.! There 
were also the ever present short stock in the best-selling sizes, 
the equally dangerous long stock in slow-selling sizes, and 
very often an unusual quantity of stock in staple goods, 
solid color hosiery, for example, which could be procured 
from manufacturers at short notice and so was an unneces- 
sary burden on the store’s merchandise investment. 
L As we see throughout the cases in this chapter, any model stock method 
employed by a manufacturer or a retailer would be immeasurably streng- 
thened by being based on the Model Stock Plan’s basic standardization of 
prices at the three prices that meet mass demand.