Over the last decade sales at Fallon's Department Store have grown about 3 percent above the annual inflation rate. However, there has never been a complete review of the store's advertising expenditures An advertising committee created by the chain's president, Mark Fallon, has maintained a budgets of about 4 percent of sale, which he felt was similar to his competitors' budget. In some years the budget was not completely used because of the difficulty in obtaining adequate newspaper space around Christmas. In other years a little extra was spent to meet particular activities of competitors. Management never considered that the initial budget was "set in stone" and always tried to adapt to the competitive environment as necessary. Fallon kept a close eye on the store's volume figures, and if a merchandise area needed additional advertising, he gave it more money. In addition, if a merchandise area developed individual "hot" items, extra advertising dollars were allocated to that area.