In New York the most prosperous pharmacists are those who carry many side lines-who give their most important spaces in the store to a display of side lines. Their drug and chemical stock is at the rear of the store, the shelf bottles often out of sight and the prescription department upstairs. These big stores have departmentized their business. They are very successful, which would intimate that the way to success is the modern side-line method-to branch out into as many side lines as circumstances will permit. Every pharmacist must work out his own problems, and these side-line puzzles are difficult of solution.

To sum up, you should have a legitimate reason for conducting special sales. Take the public in confidence with you. Tell them just why you are conducting the sale. When you cut an article cut it deep enough so it will be attractive. A small cut in price doesn't command attention. A sale to be successful must have a snap and a go to it, with lots of enthusiasm. It should be carefully planned in advance and dropped suddenly when the interest in it begins to lag. Add side lines carefully, in a small way at first, discarding those that do not pay and continuing and building up those that do. Special sales and side lines call for a display of good judgment.

DIVISION XI

BUSINESS BUILDING

CHAPTER XLIII.

BUILDING UP PRINCIPAL DEPARTMENTS.

BUILDING UP THE SODA DEPARTMENT.-The time has about arrived when soda dispensing is assuming the nature of a distinct calling. Soda water is the great American beverage. Even when traveling abroad, Americans have made such a demand for their favorite beverage that in many cities

FOURTEEN-FOOT ICELESS INNOVATION IN DRUG STORE OF JOHN H.
DORSEY, DORCHESTER, MASS.

American soda fountains have been installed in several stores and a specialty made of American soda water beverages. A whole book could be written on the soda department of a pharmacy. In the small space assigned to it in this book, we will assume that you have a fairly well-equipped soda department now in operation.

The very first point to consider is "How much do your plain and fancy drinks, your ice cream specialties cost you?" If you don't know that, you don't know whether a certain specialty is paying or not. A good soda dispenser always has his pencil and paper on hand and before he puts on a new specialty he figures out the cost of the materials, how many servings a certain quantity will furnish, and the profit per serving. Figure 120 ounces to the gallon instead of 128 ounces; that will allow a little for losses. If a gallon of mint julep syrup costs you $1.25 and you use one ounce in a mineral glass for each serving, that serving costs you about one cent for the syrup. The cost of the carbonated water differs according to whether you make your own or buy it.

You ought to double your money in your soda department. To do this, you ought to know what specialties pay the best, so they can be pushed. Phosphates and orangeade pay a big profit and are good things to push hard. If you buy your ice cream, keep a record of the next lot you get and see how many five and ten cent servings you get out of two gallons. If you are not careful in your measure you will find that if you have taken in $4.00 on ten cent ice cream sodas and college ices, about $1.80 worth of that $4.00 is what it cost you for the ice cream used. Add to this the cost of your syrups, fruits, nuts, and plain soda, and you will find out that you are not doubling your money.

The next time you grind up a pound of walnuts take your regular ladle, and count the number of ladles you get out of the pound. Then when you put that walnut dish at the fountain you will know exactly what each ladle of nuts cost you. The small ladles will stand you about one-half cent, the large ones about a cent. Measure the fruits the same way,

and be sure that they are sufficiently reduced with simple syrup. Know just how much every ladle of nuts, of fruits, and of ice cream costs you, then if your ladles are too large, get smaller ones. Just figure out to-morrow what your big specialties cost you. If the five-cent ones cost you three and three-fourth cents and the ten-cent ones seven and one-half cents, your profit is only twenty-five per cent. on sales and your expenses of doing business is twenty-five per cent. of sales. In that case your soda department is only helping to pay your expenses and doesn't contribute to the net profit.

The more specialties you have like that, the more you will have to push others on which you more than double your money, to get the proper balance of profit. You may be doing a rushing soda business, but if the sales result from high-cost specialties, you are not making any money. You are simply taking it in to pay it right out again for expenses. People demand new specialties at a soda fountain and you must add them, but before you do, use a pencil and paper and see that a substantial profit will be assured. You can use one good leader at a fountain on which you can afford to sacrifice your regular per cent. of profit. It will be a good ad. for your store. But see that such a leader doesn't contribute too largely to the sales.

You must make an intelligent study of the cost of materials and the finished drink or specialty, in relation to the selling price. If you neglect this point you will get patronage enough, but in the end you won't make much money and may be conducting the business at a loss. You must experiment to determine just how economical you can be in using expensive ingredients like cream, ice cream, crushed fruits, etc., without impairing the quality or excellence of the drink or specialty. If you make it too expensive you will not thereby greatly increase your patronage, whereas, if you go below the proper level as to quality, you will lose. To determine the proper balance and always calculate so as to realize an average profit, are fine points in the trade of your soda department.