you chose that particular location and your mind is at ease. BUYING AN ESTABLISHED BUSINESS.-The same method of investigation should be followed if you intend to buy out an established business. Find out all about the neighborhood -the terms of the lease of the store and how long it has to run and if it can be renewed-the former reputation of the store-the bona-fide sales for the past year or two-the accurate inventory-the depreciation of the fixtures-the list of unpaid accounts due by the store.

This latter is very important. Be sure that all the unpaid accounts are accurately listed, otherwise you will be paying out money for unpaid bills for several years. A friend of the writer had a bitter experience. He bought a pharmacy in the suburbs. The former owner gave him a list of the unpaid accounts. It developed later that his accounting methods were so loose that he omitted many claims which were satisfactorily proven so that the new proprietor told the writer that he was paying up unlisted unpaid accounts for a year, amounting to about $1200. So the pharmacy cost him $1200 more than the price agreed upon. The writer knows another pharmacist who had a similar experience in one of the largest cities in Massachusetts.

ABOUT THE LEASE.-Get a lease from the landlord and don't forget to read the lease before you sign it. It is far better to know then what you are going to sign than to find out a few years later that the lease contained a clause or clauses that had you known it, you would have thought twice before signing it. Many landlords refuse to give leases, so if you happen to get this kind of a landlord have your store equipped so that you can go traveling at short notice. Ordinarily a landlord won't turn out a well-conducted store, but they want the best returns on their building, and if somebody else wants your location and is willing to pay extra for it, then the landlord becomes a cold blooded business man, and you are asked to meet the advance or vacate. The landlords don't hesitate to raise the rent of unleased stores without the slightest provocation. If you have a lease your

rent is sure to be the same during the term of the lease, and you can have clause inserted that on the expiration of the lease you are entitled to the privilege of re-leasing at the same rent.

Of course there must be a distinct understanding with the landlord as to his part of fixing up the store. If he is to put in the ceiling and floor and keep the ceiling repaired and painted, also the outside front of the store painted, have the agreement so understood that there will be no wrangling about it later. Many landlords voluntarily offer to put in the floor and ceiling, also the shelving and partitions needed in the basement, and keep the outside front of the store properly painted. Other landlords won't do anything. It is advisable to get them to do as much as possible, also to have an understanding as to their position regarding repairs that may be necessary in future years. Landlords should aid a pharmacist tenant as much as possible, but they won't, and the pharmacist with a good landlord has a prize that ought to be appreciated.

VENTILATION AND SANITATION.-Arrange with your landlord about the plumbing and ventilating, as well as the heating of the store. Be sure that the plumbing is modern and sanitary. If the outlet to the main sewer is too small you will have trouble all the time with the water backing up and running over in your sink. A store should be well ventilated even if it requires an extra window to be put in. The heating should be such as to get an even heat throughout the store. From sixty-five to sixty-eight degrees is about the right store temperature. The customers are warmly clad when they come in and they won't stop to look around if the store is too hot and stuffy. A poorly ventilated store has a tendency to make the clerks feel dopey.

Don't forget the water rates. Some landlords pay them, some don't. Find out your landlord's stand on the matter. If you have to pay for them see that your water meter is your own and not have some office upstairs connected with it and you paying for it. Take the same precaution with the

gas meter, or else you'll find out some day that the meter in your cellar connects with the gas pipes in one or two offices upstairs and you are paying the gas bills for yourself and some office tenants over you. This may seem a small matter, yet the writer knows of some store-keepers that were in this position for some time before discovering it.

Another thing, always read your gas meter, electric meter and water meter. If you don't understand it, follow the company's agent when he takes the reading and he will show you. Compare your figures every month with those of the company's. These precautions should not be overlooked. Before you put your name on the lease, be sure that the landlord delivers the store to you in immaculate shape and all agreements as to future improvements have been specifically stated and understood.

WHAT CLASS OF TRADE TO CATER TO.-Now comes the outline of policy. Your choice of location and your knowledge of the circle of people who will trade at your store, should show you what class or classes to cater to. It is usually better to cater to only two classes-either the rich class and middle class, or the poor class and middle class, preferably the latter. It requires less stock, and less investment to cater to the poor and middle classes. They pay cash and are the best spenders. The rich class as a rule run accounts and pay only about twice a year, and, anyway, they usually make their big purchases in the large pharmacies in the nearest large city to where they live. Many goods purchased for the middle class are equally appropriate for the rich class. Generally speaking, the rich class in a small city buy at a pharmacy only the goods necessary for their immediate needs.

The majority of pharmacies then should cater to the middle and poor classes, regardless of their religious preferences. You shouldn't bother your head about the religion of your customers. They may be Baptists, Unitarians, Episcopalians, Catholics, Hebrews, Presbyterians, Spiritualists, Christian Scientists, or of other denominations. They earn their money honestly and you are in business to get their money,

and the money of one is as good as that of the other. They should all receive equal treatment.

WHAT WILL YOUR PROFIT BE.-Having decided on the classes to cater to, the second step in your outline of policy should be to fix your percentage of expense and percentage of gross profit, both figured from gross sales, not from cost. For instance, if you have 200 customers per day with an average purchase of twenty cents, your daily sales will be forty dollars. Then you should say to yourself, "I will buy my goods and mark them so as to make thirty-three and one-third per cent. gross profit, and will allow twenty-five per cent. of the gross sales for expenses (which will include my own salary), then I will have eight and one-third per cent. of the sales left as net earnings on my investment over and above my salary. This I can put in the bank or leave in the business for the purchase of more stock, or to add a new department, or for general development of my store.'

Then your forty dollars sales per day would split up like this: Thirty-three and one-third per cent. would be thirteen dollars and thirty-three and one-third cents, which would be the gross profits or the amount received for the goods over and above what they cost you. Twenty-five per cent. of forty dollars is ten dollars, which is the amount of expenses-the cost of running the store. The gross profit, thirteen dollars and thirty-three and one-third cents, minus the expenses, ten dollars, leaves three dollars and thirty-three and one-third cents, the net profit which is eight and one-third per cent. of the total sales of forty dollars.

Now you say: "Besides my salary which I figure in with my expenses, I shall receive three dollars and thirty-three and one-third cents for myself every day, provided I can get 200 customers to spend twenty cents each at my store every day.

"To make this thirty-three and one-third per cent. gross profit on my sales I cannot pay more than two dollars a dozen for twenty-five-cent articles, four dollars a dozen for fifty-cent articles and eight dollars a dozen for one-dollar articles. Therefore, I must buy the best goods for the poor

and middle classes that I can get at these figures and cannot go above these figures without sacrificing my fixed percentage of gross profit. If I am obliged to pay more than these figures for some goods, I will offset the extra price by marking my side lines and fancy goods at a figure to permit me a return of thirty-five or forty per cent. gross profit. This will help me also to cover slight losses and deterioration of goods, so my gross profit of thirty-three and one-third per cent. and net profits of eight and one-third per cent. on the total sales will not be disturbed, and I will allow nothing to alter these fixed percentages."

That is an outline of policy, and every pharmacist, whether conducting a store at present or about to start one, should have a definite outline of policy. That marks the channel in which your ship of pharmacy should be sailed. If you get outside the channel marks you will soon be in shallow water and your ship will get stuck in the mud, perhaps so hard that the referee in bankruptcy may have to be secured as pilot.

Be sure and keep that eight and one-third per cent. difference between your gross profits and your percentage expense. That is an open space of water which should be kept clear and nothing allowed to encroach upon it. If you can net ten or fifteen per cent., all the better, and the quicker you adopt eight and one-third per cent. and realize it the better prepared you are for netting ten or fifteen per cent. You will have to "go some," however, to net eight and onethird per cent. and keep it there. This will be gone into at greater length in the chapter on commercial arithmetic.

A brief summary of this chapter proves that no pharmacy should be established without proper appreciation of the value of the location, a specific understanding with the landlord, or without having a definite outline of policy which includes the classes of people to be catered to the kind of goods required for these classes-the price to be paid for these goods-a fixed percentage of gross profit, expense, and net profit-and a resolution to the effect that the conditions. included in the outline of policy should be strictly observed.