This retailer is also celebrating fiftY years in business

fT has been half a century since r Geib Lumber Co. first began in business in Huntington Park, Calif. Unlike nearly all of the many yards that have opetated in their industrial south-central Los Angeles area over the last five decades, they can make the best business boast of all: still in business and still profitable.

Why? "Maybe we didn't know enough to go out of business," smiles Amos Geib, son of the founding J. J. Geib.

There certainly were times when they must have considered the possibility. In the pit of the depression, prices had dropped to $9 per - M. AST and sold for $15-$16, when buyers could be found. The lumber was number 1 common Douglas fir dimension, though in those days it was called Oregon Pine. It got so bad that they were doing only $1,500 per month in sales; had only four employees and the yard help earned 30{-35{ per hour.

In the summers of 1922 and 1923, ' Amos Geib worked in the yard driving a Model T Ford roadster with a two-wheel solid rubber tire trailer. They used it to pick up lumbe,r from Hammond Lumber on Terminal Island and carry it up to the yard. The old Consolidated Lumber Co., now defunct, had scores of these r combinations that were used, as was Geib's, to make deliveries.

The most significant ctrrange in : the intervening 50 years, Geib obli ventory. The yard then was basicallv a softwood lumber yard, though they also carried some builders hardware and some hardwood.

Story s| s Glonce

Fifty years of hacking it in the retail trade has brought about numerous changes . . . increasing emphasis on consumer selling to continue . . and do you remember the days when no. L common sold for $15/M?

Credit selling was a good deal riskier in those days. Under the old five draw system, contractors could, and did, draw money and disappear. The only real protection was a lien, even though they didn't have the current lien refinements. "It was still a hassle," Geib recalls.

A. G. "Butch" Heberle owns the firm with his mother and runs it for them. Amos Geib owns the land and the company is ttconnected, more or Iess, through family and financial connections," with six other southern California yards: Bauer Lumber in Compton and Carlsbad; Holzinger Lumber, Yucaipa; Geib Lumber, Vista; part of Escondido Lumber. Ilscondido; and Rancho Lumber. Midway City. There are also two additional yards in Minnesota, where the family lived before moving to California.

The firm's ability to adapt to an ever shifting market condition where one year was never quite the same as the year before has undoubtedly been an important factor' in its fifty years of successful operation. And the process is an ongoing one.

Presently doing about 30 percent of its business with d-i-yers, "Butch" Heberle is aiming to continue the increase in this phase of the business toward an eventual goal of one-third of the total trade being cash and carry. They are continuing to service the contractor and indus. trial trade that has been a mainstay through the years.

To promote their 50th anniversary and some more business to boot, they gave the entire yard a fresh coat of bright yellow paint; advertised in two local shoppers to an audience of 40,000 readersl are adding additional hardware lines and a plumbing line; drew unexpectedly large crowds to the 50th anniversary saleabout 70% were new facesand stayed open during one of the Sundays of the sale, something they usually don't do, and found that they still had a good busi' ness day.

They have signed with Promart, the eastern hardware people. through Budrow & Co., a local hardware firm, and plan five major promotions a year and a more consistent advertising program.

At the anniversary sale, the-v called on the help of suppliers and had G-P's Bill Anthony, Stanlineos Dick Banks and Ron Oldewurtel of

Johns-Manville to cope with the crowds drawn by the advertising.

The yard, in addition to that jazzy yellow paint job, was bedecked with flags, numerous price and product signs and stacks of lumber, plywood (an especially god mover) and oth. er materials. A Model T coupe and a Reo touring car were parked in the yard, directly behind the showroom. Derbies were worn by all, balloons were given out to kids of all ages and a real air of festivity was generated.

The next five years will see a continued emphasis on selling the con. sumer, o'Butch" Heberle says, noting that the sale of common lumber to contractors is their least profitable transaction, in terms of markup, not to mention other problems in selling the contractor trade.

THE FUTURE

Another possibility for the coming years is that Geib may face the decision so ma.ny yard owners have in the fast-growing West-the land may become too valrrable to operate a lumber yard on it. "If and when that happensr" says toButchr" towetll probably move to an outlying town."

For the present their plans are more expan'sion of the most profit. able segments of the business, more improvements to the look of the yard and a bigger budget for advertising.

With the way they are doing and what they've been through, we'll bet they're good for at least another fifty years.