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By Merrill Lehrer

or your business will suffer. On-time delivery needs to be clearly spelled out to suppliers. Vendors need to be told precisely when the goods are required: before the date, exactly on that day, or within a window of days afterwards.

Although on-time delivery is basic and obvious, you should periodically review that everyone involved understands these specifications.

3. Competitive prices. We live in a competitive world, and someone is always undercutting the market's prices. Competitive prices don't mean that vendors are always giving you the lowest price (although that would be nice), but they are reasonable. More experienced purchasers understand that price isn't the only determining factor. Cheap is cheap, and quality doesn't come at the lowest price.

4. Co--unication. You need suppliers that communicate with you. If you require parts or products, and have very specific needs, you need a supplier that can understand that.

So many problems in the world today are tied to bad communication. We're all sending out signals, like FM radio stations, expecting others to have the proper equipment to receive our messages. However, sometimes we utilize unclear language or the message gets garbled along the way. There's lots of static in the air. Communication is critical to your success with suppliers.

5. Ne*, cutting edge products. The best suppliers are energizing and reinventing their goods on a regular basis. If you're dealing with a supplier whose goods that are becoming stale, how long before you'll want to end that relationship? Great suppliers reinvent themselves and their products frequently, letting you know that they are always supplying you goods that are the best design and most current in the marketplace.

Suppliers that are the industry's experts are constantly researching their customer's needs and adapting their products to meet these needs. Buying goods from the best suppliers helps to make your business stronger.

6. Profitability. If you can't make a decent profit because your suppliers are overcharging you, obviously you won't be buying from them forever (unless you want to go out of business). Challenge your vendors to help you stay profitable. The best suppliers have an appreciation for their accounts and negotiate winning deals to keep the business.

Profitability goes both ways, however. If you hammer your suppliers into the ground, demanding lower prices, ultimately they won't be profitable either. Who are we going to buy merchandise from if we kill all our suppliers?

7. Integrity. Yes, that's a critical component, too. Integrity is a wholesome word, implying honesty, honor, truthfulness, and reliability. If you're buying merchandise from a supplier that provides quality goods at reasonable prices; delivers them when you want them; provides quality service; knows how to communicate with you, and creates innovative, new products-that is great. If they do all that and they have integrity, that is outstanding. Then, you have picked a fine business partner.

Hopefully, all seven basics are focal points of your businesses. Yet, there's another factor that creeps into this discussion: reality. We may all understand the basics, but it often requires a superhuman effort to enact them. In the real world, each of us is faced with intense workloads and priorities that shift on a daily, or hourly, basis. However, the best organizations never lose site of the basicsthey're imprinted on their walls, engraved in their minds, and reinforced during every company-wide meeting.

- Merrill Lehrer is the author o/Retail Detailed: Secrets to Selling Retail Chain Stores and a speaker specializing in manufacturing, sales and retail consulting; www. re tail- samur ai- sale s.c om.

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Kerr Ace Hardware Building Cente r, Brookings,,,Or., recently completed a $1.5 million store remodeling

Builder's Hardware, Buellton, Ca., is seeking approval from the local planning commission to add a 40,000-sq. ft. building on 6.76 acres; the facility would include 6,000 sq. ft. for offices and 34,000 sq. ft. of warehouse space

Jones Hardware, Buhl, Id., is the new name of Western Auto ...

Lowe's Cos. unveiled new stores Feb. 7 in Citrus Heights (Sacramento), Ca. (Ron Latta, mgr.); Jan. 24 in Mill Creek, Wa. (Tim King, mgr.), and Jan. l0 in C. Tucson, Az. (Andy Fleetwood, mgr.); Hillsboro, Or. (Kurt Martin, mgr.), and Olympia, Wa, (Vernon Grieves,.mgr.)

Lowe's bigan construction last month on a 163,000-sq. ft. store in McMinnville, Or., for a summer opening and has selected a site in Fontana, Ca. ,..

Home Depot this month opens new home centers in Durango and Saddlerock (Aurora), Co., and an Expo Design Center in Scottsdale, Az. last month, Depot began operating a 750,000 sq. ft. distribution center on 43 acres in Lacey, Wa. (Dennis Hilborn, mgr.)

Home Depot has acquired 50 acres in Stockton, Ca., where it plans to build a 756,000-sq. ft. distribution center, and is looking to build in the East Bench area of Salt I'Lake County, Ut.

Home Depot is still attempting to purchase 13 acres in San Juan Capistrano, Ca., for a new home center despite 69Vo of voters rejecting the proposal on a Nov. 5 ballot initiative the chain will open 200 stores this year and spend $250 million remodeling older locations

The City Paint Store, City Heights (San Diego), Ca., has closed after 63 years in business ...

Truitt & White Lumber Co., Berkeley, Ca., and the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the National Association of the Remodeling lndustry recently held their "Tools for Success" business seminars for local builders and contractors...

Wnouslr,:rs/trruncrurEns Building Material Distributors, Galt, Ca., is now manufacturing Furring nails for the stucco industry with plans to include bulk and collated fasteners: BMD will also relocate and expand its packaging machinery to the Galt facility

Braided Accents recently opened its new 12,000-sq. ft. warehouse and office buildine in Hayden, Id.

Crown Planing Mill, Wilmington, Ca., has moved and changed its name to Meridian Forest. Santa Fe Springs, Ca.

C.C. Crow Publications Inc., Portland, Or., has been sold by Frank Vetorino to president Ken Tennefoss...

Caffall Bros. Forest Products, Longview, Or., has installed a new optimized trimmer ...

Hampton Affiliates, Portland, Or., plans a March 3 restart of its Darrington,'Wa., sawmill, down since mid-December to renovate and upgrade equipment ,..

Idaho Timber Corp. hasrelocated to new corporate Hq. in Boise, Id. ...

Weyerhaeuser Co. agreed to sell its Nipigon Multiply hardwood plywood underlayment operation, Ontario, Canada, to Columbia Forest Products, Portland, Or.; Weyerhaeuser's Building Materials Distribution Division will continue selling and disnibuting the line for Columbia...

Vaagen Bros., Colville, Wa., received word thaf rtear{y 500 citizens attended a'rally in late January in support of saving the company's Republic, Wa., mill which eventually closed at the end of the month (see Jan. p.,23)

Western Sash & Door Co.,Oakland, Ca., is now the exclusive No. Ca. distributor of Marvin's Inte* grity window and doors

Universal Forest Products was named to Forbes magazine's Platinum 400, which honors the 400 best performing U.S. firms ...

Brite Manufacturing Inc. was named as one of Canada's 50 Best Managed Privately Owned Companies by the National Post Anniversaries; Pacific Lumber Inspection Bureau, Federal Way, Wa., 100th ... Jones Lumber Co., Los Angeles, Ca., 80th . Denver Lumber Co., Denver, Co., 80th ... Disdero Lumber Co., Clackamas, Or., 50th Kerr Ace Hardware Building Center, Brookings, Or., 50th ... C&L Lumber & Supply, Ruidoso Downs, N.M., 45th ... Performance Coatings Inc., Ukiah, Ca., 25th ... Filler King Co., Homedale.Id.. 15th ...

Lo uisiuna- Pac ific, P ortland, Or., sold 9,000 acres of timberland near Urania, La., for $6.4 million to Barrs & Glawson Investments, which a month earlier bought 33,000 acres near Oakdale, La., from L-P for $30 million

New Web sites: Medford Moulding Co., White City, Or., www.medfordmoulding.com Veneer Profiles,lnc., White City, www.veneerprofiles.com ...

Housing starts in Dec. (latest figures) rose 5%o to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.835 million single-family starts climbed 4.9Vo to 1.473 million; multi-family climbed to a rate cf 321,000 for 5+ units... permits jumped 8.ZVo to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.88 million . for 2002, housing starts rose 6.4Vo to 1, 704,900 units.