Lowe's Casting Off Eagle Name

Lowe's is well underway converting all its Eagle Hardware & Garden stores to Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouses by year's end.

Since acquiring Eagle last April, Lowe's had moved forward slowly, first by switching Eagle stores to Lowe's computer system and in-store credit cards.

More noticeable will be changes this year, including reconfigured store layouts, addition of some new, Lowe's exclusive products, signage, store colors and the name itself.

The first Eagle to be converted, in Norwalk, Ca., closed last October and reopened in January as a Lowe's. Next up are the four remaining Eagles in California, which will be changed over without closing, then stores in other states, with Puget Sound, Eagle's strongest market, saved for last.

The conversions coincide with continuing layoffs at Eagle's former Renton, Wa., headquarters as well as transfers to Lowe's smaller, regional office, located above an Eagle store in Tukwila, Wa.

Eventually, Lowe's also may close Eagle's 265,000-sq. ft. Auburn and

306,000-sq. ft. Kent, Wa., distribution centers, which are dwarfed by Lowe's latest 1.25 million-sq. ft. superwarehouses.

"The facilities we operate are much larger, highly automated and serve up to 100 stores," explained Lowe's corporate spokesman Brian Peace.

Copeland Finds More Buyers

Copeland Lumber is down to operating 26 lumberyards after finding buyers for four more locations.

Three-unit Frontier Industries, Anacortes, Wa., agreed to purchase Copeland's Freeland, Wa., unit, while Home Lumber, San Bernardino, Ca.. agreed to buy yards in Bishop, Ca., and Yerington, Nv.

Parr Lumber, which last year acquired seven Copeland yards, will also purchase the Albany, Or., facility.

Bruce Oswald, assistant mgr. of Parr's Hillsboro, Or., location and an employee of the chain since 1981, will be the new manager in Albany. Most of the Copeland staff will remain, with the addition of a new contractor salesman. Jon Rae. former-

ly of Lumbermen's.

Copeland closed yards in Ferndale and Oak Harbor, Wa., Feb. 4.

Ziggy's Merging Businesses

Ziggy's continues integrating the electrical and plumbing outlets it acquired last year into its building materials locations.

In July, Ziggy's acquired four-unit Zig's Electric & Plumbing from Dave Moore. who founded the business in 1969 with Vern and ErnieZiegler.

Two of the locations. which shared a roof with Ziggy's stores on Valley and North Point streets in Spokane, were easily combined with the hardware stores by tearing down a divider wall and merging the sales forces.

The company is just finishing remodeling its Market Street store in Spokane, since the local Zig's was in a separate building, requiring its operations be relocated. The unattached businesses in Hayden Lake, Id., have yet to be merged.

Ziggy's stores built in the 1990s in Post Falls and Lewiston, Id., already have electrical and plumbing departments.

In addition, Ziggy's continues scouting for sites in new markets, including Moses Lake, Wa.