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BILL FISHMAN

BillFishman & Affiliates

1'1650 lberia Place

SanDiego, Ca.92128

QOVe interesting rrends are devel- lV oping in home center retailing. Many of the mass retailers, who have already established their low price position within the do-it-yourself market, are now promoting service in their advertising. They are also makinga bigger and bolder bid for industrial and commercial accounts.

Payless Cashway's ads now feature: "lntroducing. COMMERCIAL ACCOUNTS lf your business is property management, residential remodeling, retail, manufacturing, building maintenance, school, government agencies, etc., you need our Commercial Credit Account."

Payless offers an open line of credit, centralized billing and accounting and itemized monthly statements.

Handy Dan's ads now read: "Attention Purchasing Agents Handy Dan Commercial DivisionYour single source for maintenance and renovation supplies."

The Handy Dan ad boasts credit programs, centralized billing, advance order placement and field reps.

Although I haven't seencopies of their directmail program, I'm sure that both these retailers have identified and direct mail targeted this high-volume market segment. One service feature that is now being promoted heavily by the chains is delivery and more frequently F'REE delivery.

Mr. Cjood Buys promotes: "We deliver anything you purchase from our store FREE within our normal trading area."

B & B Home Supply Warehouse advertises: "Only $10 will deliver anything within 20 miles of any B&B store."

Somerville Lumber ads read: "F'REE DELIVERY (others charse a lot for it)"

Lowest price guarantees are still prevalent in the mass merchandisers' ads most with qualifiers relating to close-outs and going-out-of-business sales.

Scotty's "will give you l0% off anybody's ad price. No Hassle! No Cards!"

Builders Square will change their price and give their sharp-eyed customers "100/o more in Square Bucks ."

Lowe's offers to meet the price and refund an additional 10% of the difference.

Rickel says that they'll beat advertised prices by 50h. So say Cirossman's too!

Hechinger and Payless Cashways will match competitors' advertised orices.

On the negative side almost all home centers and building material retailers run the full range of disclaimers in their ads. "The right to limit quantities," "lllustrations may not depict the actual merchandise," "Rain checks for items out-of-stock," etc.

I don't know if these disclaimers have ever been court tested, but they do give the store manager a fighting chance with an irate customer.

Two of the most unusual copy lines that appear in our industry's ads are Builders Square's "NO MIDDLEMAN MARKLIP" and National Lumber's "National Lumber Stock is Publicly Traded on NASI)AQ symbol NTLB." Hmmm!

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