Hardwood Flooring

by Dave Ferrari President Virginia Hardwood Co.

This is onother in a series of columns by Dave Ferrari to oid retailers in selling hardwood floors.-ed.

.FINE of the strongest selling Ypoints for hardwood flooring is the abundance of attractive parquet and plank designs that range from modern contemporary to Early American and Old Europe. Home improvement centers and building supply dealers must learn to take full advantage of this most important feature in their merchandising programs, not just let it be assumed. Most potential purchasers of hardwood flooring have little concept of the vast number of beautiful patterns and textures that are available todav for the do-it-yourselfer. Often, the only hardwood surface they are familiar with is the gymnasium floor where they went to school, or the narrow strip flooring at their mother's house that collected dust and always needed cleaning and waxing.

Constant effort should be made by hardwood flooring retailers to acquaint their customers with the attrac- tive designs that are available. We must reiterate that an eye-appealing hardwood floor display is an absolute necessity for any store that is reasonably serious about selling hardwood flooring. If you do not have one, we urge you to contact your local hardwood distributor.

Many people have difficulty in visualizing how a floor will actually look from only viewing a two-footsquare sample. Every store should allocate some space (as much as possible) to a laid-down floor with sections of different patterns. Virginia Hardwood has learned from experience that dealers who have an actual installation of a floor in front of their hardwood flooring display will sell more flooring than those dealers who have none. The larger the display, the better.

A l2-foot-square display floor is an ideal size. But if you do not have sufficient floor space available, use the walls! Wall pattern displays can be spectacular. At Virginia Hardwood, we have utilized our showroom walls for floor-to-ceiling displays to visually present designs to trade visitors. Otherwise this amount of display would have been impossible.

"Our competition isn't standing stiil . . that's why we're always one step ahead."

Hardwood flooring displays should be constantly updated and supplemented as new ones become available. It is important to capitalize on the many striking patterns and textures that are available to show the customers walking through the store what's new in the hardwood flooring market. Ask your local hardwood flooring distributor for assistance.

An excellent way to call attention to the various hardwood flooring patterns is to take a sample from your display and place it on an easel. Position the easel in a high traffic area and call it "Floor of the Week" or "Floor of the Month." Try placing the easel and sample in the front window and showpiece it at night with a spotlight.

Going one step further, offer a special discount on this particular floor pattern for a limited time. This type of promotion can be effectively coordinated with newspaper ads which call attention to the floor of the week or month and invite the readers to come in, see it, and take advantage of the reduced price.

In essence, what we are suggesting is that a dealer use every possible means to inform the potential buyer what is available to him or her in doit-yourself installation of hardwood flooring.

Because what customers never know exists, they certainly cannot purchase.

K mart Adds D.l.Y Centers

As part of a movement to refurbish and move their image upscale, K mart will open 125 do-it-yourself home improvement centers in its stores this year.

About 650 "kitchen korners" featuring kitchen equipment have been added. In addition several hundred bed and bath sections have been updated.

K mart plans to spend $450 million on such projects in the next two years.

Truck Lease Extension Sought

The Private Carrier Conference has asked the Interstate Commerce Commission to allow private carriers to lease drivers and equipment from any direct source, whether it be another private carrier, owner-operator or equipment and driver leasing firms, on a trip basis.

Current leasing regulations allow private carriers to trip lease to authorized carriers. However, the rules require that any lease between a private carrier and a non-regulated lessor (i.e. another private carrier, owner-operator or an equipment or a driver leasing firm) be for a minimum period of 30 days.

It is this 30day requirement PCC is seeking to eliminate.

In its recently affirmed decision allowing private carriers to trip lease to authorized carriers, "the Commission was satisfied that the term of such lease, admittedly less than 30 days, would not, in and of itself, compromise or negate the for-hire carrier lessee's ability to demonstrate its assumption of control and responsibility for the operation during the lease," PCC stated in its petition. "That be- ing the case, there is no reason to assume that the situation would be any different when the lessee is a private, rather than an authorized carrier."

PCC argued that the traditional 30-day minimum lease requirement did not develop from a concern over ensuring safety, but rather a desire to minimize competition in the transportation marketplace so as to protect the interests of authorized carriers.

"Both the Congress and the Commission have, in the past six years, initiated measures which confirm that a shipper may transport for itself on a one-way basis, yet utilize the instrumentalities of carriage on backhauls for purposes unrelated to private carriage without sacrificing its status as a private carrier or undermining the legitimacy of its claim that it controls the transportation service. "

Such options include hauling regulated commodities on backhauls, compensated intercorporate hauling, trip leasing with regulated carriers and an expanded number of exempt commodities. So-called private carrier to private carrier trip leasing is but another manifestation of one-way private carriage, according to the PCC petition.

These reform initiatives "were implemented as a means of mitigating the pernicious effects of exhorbitant energy costs, unavailability of fuel resources, and a severe inflationary spiral, which, if left unchecked, posed extremely serious threats to the fiscal well-being of this nation."

L-P Workers To Vote On Union

Union decertification elections at 12 Louisiana-Pacific Corp. plants have been made possible by the National Labor Relations Board's dismissal of charges filed against the company by the Western Council of the Lumber Production and Industrial Workers union.

LP workers in Big Lagoon, Carlotta, Cloverdale, Crescent Mills, Fremont, Keystgne, Oroville, Samoa and Truckee, Ca., plus Tacoma, Wa., and Trout Creek, Mt., will take part in elections.

The strike started in June, 1983, after L-P chairman and president, Harry A. Merlo, tried to bring Pacific Northwest wages in line with those at southern lumber companies by offer- ing lower starting wages for new employces.

The company says about 30.q0 of the union rvorkers have crossed picket lines to return to rvork with 15 of 17 mills rrow in operation usiltg a combination of old and new workers.

Rate Discrimination Changes

Unless it can be proved that two shippers actually paid difl'erenr rates for the sarne service, unlawful rate discrimination has not occurred.

Complaining parties r','ill havc to shou, evidence of actual charges, according ro the ICC'. Parric. in:piring lhe complainl are nor requircd to produce er,idence.

In thc past on11' a potential for discrimination had to bc orolcd.

REDW()()Dwas used both inside and outside t0 creale a ruslic mood at the Lakeside Medical Center, ncline Vl lage, Nv C ear all heart vertical grain 5l 4 x 8 beve s ding from Pacific Lumber, Scotia. Ca covers the exter0r lnteri0r wood is clear a heart vertical grain 1 x 4/1 x 12 f rom Simpson Timber. Arcata, Ca The lumber was acquired through Lrttle Lake Industries Willrts Ca.

Phil Robinson is now marketing and merchandising mgr. for United Lumber Co. Inc., Anchorage, Ak.

Sterling Wolfe, Marquart-Wolfe Lumber Co., Tustin, Ca., and his wife, Loraine, are back from a summer vacation in Hawaii.

Lyle Radcliffe has been named director of marketing at Charlton Industries, Inc., Redmond, Wa.

Al Ryan is now sales mgr. for LouisianaPacific in Red Bluff and Chico. Ca. Chet Conczeruk is new in sales.

Eric Schwartz and Byron Preul are new in sales at Woodco Sales Inc.. Lake Oswego, Or.

Trish Williams, dump truck driver at the Boise Cascade Building Materials Center, Ogden, Ut., won a Woman of the Year award from the YWCA in the non-traditional vocation category.

John Tl Charles is the new general sales mgr. and Robert C. Freitag new industrial sales mgr. at Millers Falls Tool Co., according to Ray Sponsler, pres.

Jerry Hahn is now lumber sales supervisor and Don Wilson is a lumber sales rep at the Pacific Northwest Div. of Southwest Forest Industries, according to l)on Graves, exec. v.p. for building products, at Phoenix, Az., Hq.

Scott Walker has been named co-mgr. of 84 Lumber in Dublin, Ca.

Don Molnar is now mgr. of Pete's Lumber and Home Center, Seaview, Wa.

J. Ward Allen, Vancouver, B,C,, is writing a book about the North American Wholesale Lumber Association.

Dave Bufe is new to sales at the Croman Forest Products office in Costa Mesa, Ca. Mike Hodges is a new-sales trainee at Phoenix, Or., Hq. Mike Householder is now business mgr.; Dennis Rogers, mgr. of the remanufacturing plant; Carey Paxson, mgr. of the Phoenix, Or., retail outlet, according to Rick Kellso who was recently in Vancouver, 8.C., on co. business.

Bob Brown is now gen. mgr. at B. W. Randall Lumber Co., Huntington Beach, Ca.

Mffvin Coats, v.p. of Willamette Industries, has been re-elected pres. of the Industrial Forestry Association.

Glen lllig, Prestige, Inc., has been reelected pres. of the National Kitchen Cabinet Association; Walt Gahm, Kitchen Kompact, Inc., is v.p. and Gilbert Verkamp, Aristokraft, treas.

Kerry Andenon is new in sales at Snavely Forest Products, Tempe, Az.

Bob Dickinson is now plywood sales mgr. at Bohemia, Inc., Eugene, Or.

Thomas Armstrong is now gen. rryr. at the Edward Hines Lumber Co. DC in Albuquerque, N.M.

Dave Chimienti and Steve Hall are new traders at Hearin Forest Industries, Portland, Or.

Jeff Lundegard is a new plywood salesman for Willamette Industries in Albany, Or., according to Gene Walters, gen. sales mgr., lumber and plywood sales div.

Marc Roberts is mgr. of the new Pay 'N Pak unit in Honolulu, Hi., with Roger Petenon as asst. mgr, Judy Sennett, v.p., R & R Truck Brokers, Medford, Or., is back from a two week vacation,

Syma Gapski, Rygel Lumber Sales, Newport Beach, Ca., is the new pres. of the National Hoo-Hoo-Ette Club; Anna Dale Williamson, Boise Cascade, Medford, Or., lst v.p.; Rita Jedzynski, Higgins Lumber Co., Sacramento, Ca,, 2nd v.p.; Linda Reed, Miller Family Partnership, Eugene, Or., treas.; Susan Morgan, M & M Hardwoods Co., Mytle Creek, Or., sec.; Brcnda Carlson. Western States Insurance, Eureka, Ca. stat. sec.; Porfie Gross, Mullin Lumber Co., Burbank, Ca.; Avis Brazil, Gypsum Drywall Supply, Fremont, Ca., and Norma Delegardelle, Mullin Lumber Co., Burbank, Ca., directors.

Jim Golding, Golding Sullivan Lumber Co., Westrninster, Ca., was a recent business visitor in Arizona.

Mike Taylor is now sales mgr., builder sales, at Window-Visions, Kirkland, Wa., according to Wayne McCann, pres. of the Timberland Industries subsidiary.

Rayrnond R. Masce is now field sales mgr. at Evans Rule Co., according to Jeffrey Epstein, v.p. sales and marketing.

John N. Andenon, pres. SeaPac Sales Co., a subsidiary of Palmer G. Lewis Co., Inc., Auburn, Wa., has been elected a director of PGL, succeeding Palmer G. L€wis, 80, who has retired.

Don Weber, Weber Plywood, Santa Ana, Ca., is recovering nicely after recent surgery.

Bryce Seidl has been promotd to business development mgr. at the Simpson Door Co., Seattle, Wa., according to Bill Ruddick, gen. mg. His former position of mgr. of the Columbia River Div. of Simpson Door is being filled by Buck Westfall, former controller at Simpson Extruded Plastics Co., Eugene, or.

James R. Ellis is the new works mgr. at Adhesives and Chemicals Dv. of Borden Chemical plants in Kent, Wa., LaGrande, Or., and Missoula, Mt., according to Robert G. Jenkins, div. gen. mgr.

Dwight Curran, DMK-Pacific Corp., Fremont, Ca., is back from an Oregon .business trip.

Norm Ottoman is new in sales at Northwest Hardwoods, Inc., Portland, Or. Robert F. Reid, Robert B. Reid and Ken Laudenschlager, Reid and Wright, Inc., Arcata, Ca., recently returned from a sales trip to Europe, visiting England, Norway, Denmark, Germany and Holland. Richard Reid of the Colorado office filled in at Arcata Hq. for them.

Skip Farmer is new at MSG Forest Products, Inc., Portland, Or.

Neil C. Riley is new as director of marketing and sales at Simpson Dura-Vent, Vacaville, Ca. Judy Berk is the new product mgr., according to Don Townsend, v.p. and gen. mgr. who recently transferred from Simpson's Strong-Tie div.

Walt Ralston has retired as hardwood lumber mgr. at Georgia-Pacific, City of Industry (Los Angeles), Ca., after 33 years with G-P and its predecessor companies. His successor is Steve Hubbard. Walt has since been named mgr. of Coastal Wholesale's City of Industry operation.

Dick LcClair is now branch mgr. of Western American Forest Products, Inc.'s branch in Benicia, Ca., according to Jim Edens, pres.

Pete Bower, Mariners Forest Products. Santa Ana, Ca., is back after an extended European vacation that included the famed Z hour LeMans auto race and a visit to the Ferrari factory in ltaly.

Thomas J. Donohue is now exec. v.p. and ceo of the American Trucking Associations, Inc., Washington, D.C., according to Ernest S. Cox, chairman of the board.

William J. Marcil is the new senior v.p./ marketing at Charmglow Products, according to William H. Rentschler, chairman, and Gene L. McGuire, pres. Richard "Dick" Nolan is now region mgr. in the southeastem U.S. plus Az., Nv. and No. Ca. for Water Jet Corp., Canoga Park, Ca., according to Dennis D. D'Amorc, exec. v.p. Sandy McKenzie is now So. Ca. sales rep.

Dennis Miller has been elected v.p. and gen. mgr. of Hampton Industrial Forest Products, Woodbum, Or., according to Gordon J. King, pres., Hampton Lumber Sales Co.

Greg Perry, mgr. of the Bellewe, Wa., warehouse unit, has been named Mgr. of the Year at Pay 'N Pak, Kent, Wa.

(Continued from page 50)