HOME GENTER MERGHANT

BILL FISHMAN

Bill Fishman & Atfiliates '11650 lberia Place San Diego, Ca.92128

AovnnuSING is the most expen- Asive and least productive cure for a sick store. I've been witness, and sometimes party, to increasing an ad budget in the attempt to bring the volume and margins up to a store's projections. Alone, an increased ad budget never worked!

Many retailers look upon advertising as chicken soup, penicillin, the wonder ingredient that's going to bring in traffic and make customers buy. It won't. Advertising is the vehicle that carries a message about merchandising and services. No matter how fancy or powerful that vehicle, unless the store realistically presents those products and services, the advertising alone won't cure the ills.

During my days as director of sales promotion for a home center chain in the midwest, the fifth store we opened in town missed our first year's goals substantially. A task force moved in to uncover the problems. We found the manager w€$ a close-minded, iron-fisted, do-it-my-way personality-and the rest of the store's management team was ineffective. There was much employee dissension. Customers felt uncomfortable shopping in the store. The out-of-stocks were at two or three times that of the other stores in the chain. And, we were not as competitively priced as the market area demanded.

Immediately we replaced the store manager with the best "people" man we had in the bull pen. Next we instituted a special promotion program in the immediate shopping area of the store. The finest sales letter I have ever written was part of that campaign. It was a simple letter. The top was adorned with a photo of our new, smartly attired manager. Over his signature was an invitation to come in, see the changes, and shake his hand. The letter was warm, sincere and inviting. But it was also too soon! The letter was a cure for the traffic ailment-but the patient almost died.

Our campaign brought back many customers who had previously committed themselves never to shop there again. They shook the manager's hand, and then proceeded to seek out the promised changes. They couldn't find'em. Instead they faced the same disgruntled sales staff, the same poor housekeeping and merchandising and the same noncompetitive prices. Many said goodbye forever. This time we added a credibility gap to our other illnesses.

The store eventually made it. It's now doing very nicely, thank you. But it took the third time around for us to realize that it takes more than words. It takes merchandising action. In-store merchandising. In-store action.

By the way, here are a few of the functions from a current in-store merchandiser's action check list: o Maintaining an in-stock condition o Creating visual displays that take the customer through logical price steps a Mass displaying specific products in conjunction with promotions o Signing the displays o Creating dual displays to crossreference specific product categories o Creating promotional signing during an event

O Rotating aged stock o Policing the price stickers to be assured that all pricing within the same product, same model number is identical

I Competitive shopping o Maintaining the inventory of d-i-y instructions o Scheduling clinics and demonstrators a Communicating price changes to selling force a Communicating promotional pricing and inventory location to store personnel a Removal of expired signing

Most importantly we learned that we had to be specific in telling the sales force what is expected of them and how they can meet our expectations. Our ads talked about our "friendly, knowledgeable sales help." Too many times, however, our customers recognized that the guy behind the counter wasn't the guy who wrote the ad.

New Beam Distributor

Rolando Lumber Co., Inc., San Leandro, Ca., has been aPPointed the Northern California wholesale distributor of stock laminated beams for Weyerhaeuser Co.

Operating in association with the Weyerhaeuser customer service centers in Hayward, San Jose, Sacramento, and Fresno, theY now have the capability of delivering beams that are r/s or textured to the customer's requirements to yards. The beams, which are sold wholesale only, in one ft. multiples are available in 3 l/8"-5 l./8" and 6 3/4" x to 36" x l4O'.

Rolando also has a distribution yard and mill at Cloverdale, Ca., and a sales office at Etiwanda, Ca.

Oun big Woodland, Ca., plant has the equipment to do the job for you. Oun nemanufacturing machinery in- I cludes a planen, moulder, straight line nip, a gang rip, a single and a double resaw and P.E.T.

We'ne ready to help, just call Portland, On. [503] 684-0440

Bard Brown

Jim Heberlcin

Woodland, Ca. [916] 666-1s91

Dick Chcrmak

Frank Hssy

Ouan Charter

Matlhaw Thomea

Ed Ceglc

Frcd Duchi

Weed, Ca. [916] s38-2771

Bill Duchi

Joe Hdtrup

We're proud to be membens of the Western Wood Pnoducts Association Grading Service.

Rr Reload Center

(Continued from page 8)

70,000 board t'eet per car. Approximate loading time is 2% hours.

Crow's Nest uses truck transport for one-fifth of its orders at the reload center. The contractor's four-man crew loads both railcars and trucks.

The facility usually allows two to three weeks from the time an order is taken until it is loaded on the railcars. A rush order can be shipped the same day-even during peak times-due to the reliable car sup- ply, according to Bryan Burgess, ass't. sales mgr. at Crow's Nest. While the agent at Eureka orders cars through a computerized system at BN's St. Paul, Mn. headquarters, the crew at the reload center receives the specifications from Elko and prepares the lumber for loading.

The company currently loads three cars per day, six days a week, at the Eureka operation. Maximum load is five cars per day, Burgess said.

Burgess finds operating through a reload center no more costly than maintaining the entire inventory at its Elko mill site. "The loading costs are the same no matter where we store the lumber," he claims. The only additional cost is the truck charge between the reload center and the mill, "which is more than offset by the lower freight rates out of Eureka."

Nor is Burgess concerned about maintaining control over the operation. "Ideally, we would like to have BN's service directly at the mill site, but we would lose the freight rate advantage," he said. "And we've got a good working relationship with our carrier and our reloader, so things run smoothly."

Other lumber shippers have noticed. "Several mills have approached us lately about setting up reload centers or sharing ours," Burgess said. "The advantages must be very apparent."

NAWLA Membership Grows

"Wholesalers must march to a different drummer," says "Pete" Niebling, NAWLA exec. v.p. "At a time when most organizations are cutting back in their commitments, NAWLA is pleased to report a net gain in membership."

Since April l, 23 companies have applied for membership. NAWLA membership chairman John Weston, Far West Fir Sales, Hun- tington Beach, Ca., reports "Our industry has been particularly hard hit by the housing construction slump, and the problems created by transportation deregulation have compounded the difficulties. Answers and assistance are needed, and NAWLA can be of real help in many areas of concern to the sales and distribution segments of our industry. "

NAWLA has three categories of membership: Wholesaler, or active, is the primary group and includes both office and distribution yard operations as well as those remanufacturers who take title to the product. The second category is associate, which covers all manufacturing entities. The third is service affiliate, designed to provide a forum for firms offering services to wholesalers and manufacturers. Included are railroads and trucking companies, insurance and communications operations and brokerage houses.

The latter reflect the rapidly increasing interest in the future s trading of forest products contracts. This has been accelerated by NAWLA's recent election to membership in The Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the chicago Board of Trade.