Planning a truckload sale

f\ RAW attention to your I-f establishment with a brightlybannered truckload parked directly in front of your showroom. You can run weather-proof streamers (light-weight brightly-colored vinyl strips) from corners of the truck to your front entrace. You might have a loud-speaker hooked up and play lively music outdoors as well as in your showroom. Give the entire promotion a lively character.

Arrange to have a powerful searchlight to ply the sky with streams of bright light.

Begin your truckload sale at dusk on a Thursday evening and continue it through to Saturday's closing hours.

When you hold a sales promotion you should offer Mr. and Mrs. American Shopper a valid reason to come to your store to buy a particular item at that precise time. It can be a reduced price, a better selection than your competitor has, friendly service, a special credit plan or a door prize.

Truckload purchasing is one method of giving your customer a better deal. It enables you to pass the savings in quantity-buying on to him. It is a "format" he understands and appreciates. It works. It has been successful in moving every type of merchandise in your field today.

Your advertising can point out the economies of buying from you during this special promotion as well as the fact that you will continue to offer better selection, friendly service, and special credit (if you haVe a plan available in your area).

Story at a Glance

Practical suggesiions and some new ideas and hints from Celotex on various phases of holding a truckload sale ..,. these proven merchandising methods can be real moneymakers for you.

successfully by going through a premium catalog and noting the wide range of items the general public is saving "gift stamps" to acquire.

Perhaps an arrangement might be worked out with whomever you get the door prize from whereby you mention his store in your advertising and get the prize free or at a special price.

Don't overlook the home-improvement and remodeling contractors in your community. Make up a mailing list of these contractors and drop them a note informing them well in advance of the sale. Follow up with a phone call two to three days later and inquire as to their specific home-improvement needs.

Getting Ready

Here are a few hints to follow:

(1) Set a date which will not con- flict with other local celebrations or promotions that could divert traffic from your showroom.

(2) Contact your reps who often :an give valuable planning assistance and arrange product demonstrations.

(3) Place product displays in a strategic area of your showroom.

(4) Prepare mock-up product installation for demonstration purposes.

(5) Order adequate product inventory and make sure you have sufficient quantity of brochures of all products stocked.

Free Refresiiments

If your sale is held in the Fall, how about cider and doughnuts for Mom and Dadand maybe fresh apples for the kiddies? Cider is easy to serve from paper cups and it gets away from the need for cream and sugar which coffee usually presents.

If you want to be a bit "fancy" about it, you could have a pretty hostess serve the cider from a punch bowl. The serving table might even be decorated with brightly-colored leaves, gourds, small pumpkins and Indian corn for a festive touch.

If your sale is scheduled for Spring or Summer, you might serve lemonade and cookies .. and in Winter hot chocolate (made with an instant, easy mix) and doughnuts will probably meet with your customers' approval and enjoyment.

All of the foregoing advertising and promotional materials are merely suggestions and creative "pump-primers" to assist you in planning. Many of you will undoubtedly have additional ideas which can be incorporated into the general scheme and further generate volume business.

Use this check-list to keep track of your coordinating effort of various portions of the sale. It will be handy in the future as a record to check back to in setting up another similar promotion.

You might tie-in the women'sinterest angle by having a furniture antiquing demonstration. Or you could feature an interior decorating seminar with a local decorator or drapery and upholstery fabrics store. Cooperation between merchants with allied interest lends itself to your truckload sale and creates better business for both!

You might also invite members ofyour area's antique or classic car club to stage an antique auto and truck show.

You can overcome customer reluctance to registering at the door by offering a door prize drawing. Choosing an appropriate prize which may attract new customers is truly a trick. Many retailers have solved this problem

(6) Assign someone of your sales staff to oversee registration of customers as they enter your showroom.

(7) Provide indentification badges for your sales personnel.

"ABSOLUTELY the finest convention I've attended," was the phrase heard over and over again at the Tlst annual Western Building Material Assn' Convention/Building Material Mart, held recently in Portland.

The numbers back uP the state' ment: registration up 30%, some 250 more than the previous Year; a complete sellout of all available exhibit space; virtually everY event on the comprehensive program was S.R.O. Total registration was ll22 and the "feel" of the show was one of enthusiasm and cooperation.

The evergreen favorite Western Welcome Wagon Mixer-Buffet was so popular, with more than 600 tickets sold, that some had to be turned awaY as this was more than the facilitY could accomodate.

The slate of 1915 officers for WBMA is topped by the PoPular E.P. "Woody" Railey, Scharpfs Twin Oaks Builders Supply, AlbanY, Or. First v.p. is Tom Howell, Cascade Building Center, Yakima, Wa.; 2nd v.p., Charles Shafer, Irrigators Lumber Co., Caldwell, Ida. National Directors are W. Stewart Orr, Three C's Lumber