New Mexico home center chain updates stores

LZEEPING up with progress in flSoutheastern New Mexico. T-Bird Home Centers is building a 15,600 sq. ft. replacement building for its Alamogordo store and combining its two Artesia units into one store at a new location.

March I has been set as the completion date for the Alamogordo building being erected on the same site as the present store which will be demolished after the move. The sales floor will be almost double the size of the present unit, allowing more merchandise with better arrangement. Product mix will remain relatively the same with continued emphasis on kitchen cabinets which Derrell Ballard, general manager of the eight store chain, calls "our best promotion. "

The Artesia T-Bird Home Center and T-Bird Home Center Specialties, a store stocking only specialty items such as carpet, vinyl flooring, cabinets, lighr tixtures, fireplaces and finishing items, will be relocated into a large building formerly occupied by a grocery store. This move will allow customer access to a wide selection of merchandise in one location.

T-Bird Home Centers is the retail division of Allied Forest Products, Portland, Or. Formed in 1976 with a nucleus of three stores. it has acquired five additional units. All are located in Southeastern New Mexico towns with populations ranging from 8,000 to 50,000 people. The Alamogordo store serves an area dominated

Story at a Glance

Chain adapts to changing market . . . record sales and profits .. customer mix shif' ting to d-i-y. new buildings and new locations.

by the White Sands Missile Range. Truth-or-Consequences, N.M., has developed into a retirement community with a population of about 8,000. Ruidoso is a popular resort area of 25,000, known for skiing and fishing as well as its race track, Ruidoso Downs. Artesia, Hobbs,

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