HOME GENTER MERGHANT

BILL FISHMAN

?ill^lfLtq" &,Affiliatest.rser price, someone will point his 1'1650 lberia Plry:-^^ finge. at me and shout, "look at this San Diego, ca' 92128 ctriieting so-and-so trying to beat the lT'S ALMOST inevitable that when I Iwork with conventional contractor lumberyards in their conversion to retail home centers we do battle over three issues . the ticketing of advertised items at their sale price, trade jargon and abbreviations in advertising and store hours. The importance of all three to building sales volume can be attested to by every seasoned retailer, yet, the traditionalist in the lumber industry fights hard to block a change. Cost is a factor . but arguments usually go beyond cost.

Customers are reluctant to purchase items that are individually ticketed at a higher price than is indicated on the sign. Me too. Maybe it's the fear that the cashier won't know that the item is on sale and will ring it up at the regular price. I'm also afraid that if I have to tell the cashier that I should be charged a store out of 150."

It's been a struggle to get some retailers to go through the operational procedures of ticketing the mass displayed inventory at the sale price and reticketing after the sale. In spite of the fact that I can show that every successful chain does it, management at some home center/building material retailers can't overcome the flack from the sales floor about the time it takes to become a sales oriented store. I recommend this experiment to prove a point: Dual display an advertised item in two locations. Keep one display priced at regular price with a sign showing the sale price reticket the other display at sales price and use the same sign coPY. Now just watch which inventory moves out first!

AVD TR JGN & ABBV* Beware of the trade jargon and abbreviations that keep crawling into home center and *avoid trade jargon & abbreviations building material advertising. Recently I told a meeting of building center managers that the term CDX had no meaning whatsoever to the average doit-yourselfer. "You're crazy, Fishman, " they said, "maybe in the big city the consumer doesn't understand that term, but here in the rural areas everybody knows what it is."

That evening the President of the chain'ind I stopped the first six people we met and asked them if they would tell us what CDX meant to them. One knew. His dad was a contractor.

Here's a list of some terms and abbreviations that should be avoided-or explained: o United Inches o Mill Certified a Resawn o Per Square o Rev. bd. & battan

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