Story at a Glance

Outlets selling used building materials multiPlY, reflecting new consumer attitudes how to acquire, resell goods.

Hippo Hardware & Trading Co., Portland' Or.. was founded 19 years ago buying, selling and trading onlY used merchandise, but has gradually exPanded into selling new items, as well as restoring, repalrins and even manufactuiing its own Products. Their 30,000-sq. ft' facility is packed to the rafters with hardware, lighting' plumbing and every house part that's not structural their salvage crews can grab ("everything but the plaster and lath").

The companY's success lies in its constant search for new marketing ploys. Their Internet address

Co',

(http://www.teleport.com: 8O/-hippo. I /) receives up to 1,000 hits a day, with orders received from throughout the U.S. and Japan.

"We're in the Yellow Pages listed under museums. It was the most bizarre thing we could think of," Steve Oppenheim said. "We have a lot of people who like to come in and look around tell us we're like a museum, and there's no charge for a standard phone listing. So we get a lot of tourists who come in looking for the museum, and we usuallY sell them something."

Among the hundreds of Used Building Material Stores.'.

* Architectural Artifacts, Chicago, ll'

* Gonstruction Closet, Tucson, Az.

* Dead Building MaterialCemetery, Anchorage, Ak,

* Garbage Reincarnation, Santa Rosa, Ca'

* Habitat Warehouse, Raleigh, N.C'

* l'lobo Hardware, Guelph, Ontario

* MetroPolitan Anffacts, Atlanta, Ga,

* Old Bright Used Lumber & Brick, AsPera, Pa.

* Restoration Treasures, CooPerstown, N.Y.

* ReStruction Store, : Kitchener,Ontario

* Second Ohance, Macon, Ga'

* Urban ArchaeologY, N.Y., N.Y.

* ValleY Materials Exchange, Wasilla, Ak.

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