GENTTR MTRGHANT BILL

FISHMAN

Bill Fishman & Affiliates

11650 lberia Place San Diego, Ca.92128

lesigns & estimating and contract instalration companies.

l-,lOME CENTERS have rekindled fl their love affair with kitchen and bath remodeling. It's big ticket business. Yesterday, while snooping around the unmanned desk in the kitchen display area of a national warehouse chain, I spotted, in open view, two signed contracts for kitchens, each in excess ol $4,000. That's a nice morning's sales job.

Kitchen and bath remodeling has become an important segment of the home improvement products business. There are many independent retailers, as well as national chains, reporting great profits lrom these sales. lt hasn't always been this way. The past has had its share of horror stories co-mingled with the successes. But that's changed with the availability of educational programs, material handling systems, computer aided

Early merchandisers believed that the retailer had to stock an inventory olcabinets in order to "buy right" and service the customer for immediate delivery. Today, cabinetry is available through distributors lbr just-in-time delivery and the pitfalls of handling (and damaging) cabinets has been curtailed. Getting caught with aging inventory because of changing style trends is no longer a problem. Mis-measuring, once the prime reason lor "eating" kitchen inventory, has been virtually eliminated through educational programs. And, the ability to sell kitchens is no longer limited to "thegal-in-the-floppy-hat" who performed as the store's kitchen designer/expert. Today, it is the well trained, businesslike counterman who can make the customer feel comfortable with the design, material and contractual arrangements lor a new kitchen

The National Kitchen and Bath Asso- ciation has been responsible for the improvements in merchandising this product segment. They have created programs that teach those who come in contact with remodeling customers about the mechanical and construction aspect of remodeling so that even homeowners who plan to do their own installations can be accurately guided.

The NKBA also takes the studenr through contracts, specifications, expediting, sales presentation and the profitability of merchandising kitchens and baths. Some of the national and regional retailers have contracted with the NKBA to bring the school on location at the store site and tailor the program to their own brand names and models.

Kichens and baths have become such an important product category that almost one whole floor of McCormick Place North will be devoted to exhibits by kitchen & bath product suppliers. Its time has come.

Check out our Calendar on page 20 for information on upcoming conventions, meetings and trade shows in your region.

CHUCK L]NK executive director

HOLESALER-distributors from Augusta to Anchorage to Anaheim will have to change their way of doing business if a recent decision of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is allowed to stand. Due to the case Hasbrouck v. Texaco, wholesalers may have to give up their wholesale discount.

"Wholesale distribution as we know it today wilt be significantly changed if the U.S. Supreme Court does not overturn the Appellate Court decision," says Louis R. Marchese. National Association ol Wholesaler-Distributors associate general counsel.

For now, the Appellate Court has turned on its side certain legal traditions that underpin the entire system ofproduct sales lrom manufacturer through wholesaler-distributor to retailer.

The ruling results from a case first filed in 1976 and living in the court system for I 2 years - through two trials and two appeals. The issue is whether or not 1935's Robison-Patman Act guaranteeing lair competition is violated by a manulacturer who sells goods to wholesalers at lower prices than to retailers.

Until llasbrouck. wholesaler-distributors could receive discounts from manulacturers based upon the competitive level at which they operate. The court has now ruled that the legality of the discount will be based upon cost justification - specifically, if all or part of a discount is passed on to customers of a wholesaler-distributor who competes with retailers who do not receive the same discount.

The ruling currently applies only in the Ninth Circuit but could be extended nationwide if adopted by the Supreme Court.

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