The Druggist and His Profits; A Practical Manual for Druggists in Business and for Students in Schools of Pharmacy

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1915. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER IX. WATCHING THE DEPARTMENTS. Everything that has been said heretofore refers to the business as a whole. This chapter will be devoted to a brief consideration of some of the departments in the store. The large mercantile establishments in the great cities are all of them rigidly departmentized. So also are the big drug stores operated by concerns like the Riker-Hegeman Co. and the Liggett people. Each department is really conducted and watched as a separate business, is made to stand on its own pins, and is strengthened and fortified if it shows the slightest evidence of weakening. If it doesn't attract enough trade the location may be changed to one more favorable; advertising and other stimulative helps may be resorted to; and if still it doesn't yield a sufficient volume, it may be relegated to a place in the background and something more profitable given its position. If its case is entirely hopeless it is thrown out root and branch. This sort of thing, however, is scarcely possible with the average druggist. His departments are too small, do not have separate employees, and are in a vital sense a part of the entire business. Nevertheless it is a wise practice occasionally for the druggist to take one of his departments and keep it under close observation for a while to see what it is doing or what it is not doing for him. If you want to know just what you are doing in your cigar department, for instance, it would be well to keep the records for one year, in order to get a thorough line on the situation. What do you need for such a purpose? Simply a repetition of the records you are keeping with respect to the business as a whole. Merely record the sales, the purchases, and the particular expenses, if any, of the department. By this method it...