Home Center Merchant

Bill Fishman

Bill Fishman & Affiliates

11650 lberia Place

San Diego, Ca.92128

MY SON Rob was one of 6.000 students who filed into the Aztec bowl to receive degrees recently. It was a typical San Diego State University graduating class. Approximately half the graduates were business majon. (Rob received his MA in drama.) The total enrollment in the school each year is approximately 33,700 students.

SDSU's library is a five-story building. Rob took me on a tour of the facility. It's an impressive strucrure. I learned how to locate books by computer, accessing by title, author, or subject. The basement floor of SDSU's library is devoted to periodicals with an outstanding collection of both consumer and trade magazines. The periodicals also can be located @ a computer search...and that is what caused me to become disillusioned.

SDSU, with its large business school enrollment, houses not one issue ofany ofthe trade publications that you receive at your office or home. Neither this magazine nor any of the others. The words home center. home improvement, and d-i-y are non-existent in this library. I novr uonder hov many other colleges and universities fail to recognize the size and scopc of our industry.

It's predicted that ry the turn of the antury (only 13 yeam from no\v) the home center industry will reach the $100 billion mark. The industry today supports 9.619 retail companies with over 24,000 store units. The National Home Center Show brings almost 50.000 industry execulives together with more than I,400 manufacturers exhibiting in over 4,000 booth spaces. Big! You bet your boots it's big. Ask your local newspaper publisher. He'll tell you that home centers contribute a lion's share of his linage. The radio and tv media also send some pretty hefty invoices to home centers every month.

Wall Street, too, has its eye on the home center industry as it watches and forecasts the activities of Wickes. K marl. Zavre.

Grossman's. The Home Depot and all the othen. But. we seemed to have missed recognition by our learning institutions.

"Where will our future executives come from?" is a question that has been raised at almost every trade conference I've attended. For years we've been pirating from the discount stor€ industry (the library did retain discount irdustry trade magazines). It's time we started nurturing talent at the college level rather than continuing to hire the drop-ous of other industries.

The librarians at SDSU inform me that it is the head of the depanment that dictates publications the library will inventory. Maybe a copy of this column with your letter anached addressed to thedean atthe collegein your community will be forwarded to the proper channels. Mrybe one hudred billion dollan will impress someone.