Aggressive, textbook approach emphasizes profii

ALK INTO Four Star Building Supply in San Lorenzo, about fifteen miles south of Oakland, Calif., and you're in for a real surprise. Four Star isn't anything at all like a 'oregular lum' ber yard." For them, emphasis is no, on volume, but on profit.

What sets Four Star aside is the operating philosophy of its young owners. Murray Gelleri and Bud Brody, both in their mid-thirties, are aggressive merchandising men who are operating in almost true textbook style. And it's paying ofi.

They'll tell you that the secret of their success is "diversity of product line." A walk throueh the store bears this out. You'll notiJe that there are very few "cats and dogs" on the floor.

whv?

They think it's a combination of two things. Some of it instinct, and some of it reliance upon suppliers.

For one thing, the salesman they buy from bring them a lot of new ideas. It's these men who can give them the "feel" of a product, who can tell them how a product is moving.

Four Star's suppliers run tJle gamut of wholesalers in the Bay Area, all fine, highly respected firms. They also include large, national firms such as GeorgiaPacific. Four Star buys from many independents as well, including B.M.D., Garehime Corp. (who set up their fine hardware display, incidentally), and Western Pine Supply. These latter carry many specialty items which give them a good profit margin.

Four Star thinks advertising is so important to their business that they employ an independent advertising agency to help them write their ads. Should you ever walk through Four Star on a Saturday, you'll see how those ads pull. People are often six and eight deep at the counters.

They advertise each week in both a regional paper, the Oaklnnil Tribune, and a local paper, the Hayward Daily Reuiew. Ads appear every Friday throughout the year, with the exception of Fridays preceding big holidays, such as Christmas, Easter or New Year's, when business is normally slow, anyway.

Moreover, each Spring the firm puts out a mailer at one week intervals to surrounding communities such as Castro Valley, San Lorenzo, and Hayward. The

Story sI s Gfonce

Diverse product line. .. reliance on suppliers for new merchandising ideas strong, consistent advertising program various qualities, prices of merchandise add up to rapidly expanding, efficient, modern operation.

mailer will feature a few loss leaders to pull people in and acquaint them with tl-re many products handled there. In addi. tion, the mailer will advertise a wide cross-section of all the products in the store. Many of these items have a good profit built into them.

Business hours cater to the consumer, too. The store remains open until 7 p.m. weekdays, 5 p.-. Saturdays, and 4 p.m. on Sunday.

The main thrust of Four Star's business is to the retail customcr. These people are brought in mainly tlrough advertising. In addition, the yard also serves the small remodeling contractor and industrial accounts. The accent here, of course, must be on service, and, as long as tley can provide it, it's their feeling these accounts will stay with them.

Store personnel try to keep every item clearlv marked so that the customer can measure value. A strong believer in displaying goods well, the two owners try to ofier several qualities and to price-mark everything. The end result is that products tend to sell themselves which gives floor salespeople more time to devote to other questions.

Four Star finds it hard to put people into neat little brackets. Some like to buy the $8 screen door or the $3.49 gallon of paint. Others prefer something a little fancier or more durable. So the store features products on a good, better, or best basis. The paint department carries tllree qualities of latex paint, priced from $3.49 to $6.49. Customers can buy screen doors priced from $8 to g2B.

"In this way, we don't lose customers because we carry only the inexpensive line or we have only the high-priced line," Bud observes.

Four Star has low labor turn-over, too. Murray and Bud attempt to hire men with a wide range of knowledge or many capabilities, and who doesn't. Ultimately, though, they must train the people by starting them out in tl-re yard.

Both men are strong believers in delegation of authority, too. They feel that their job is overseeing the entire operation rather than getting bogged down in day-to-day operations. As such, they en. courage each employee to think for himself and to make decisions.

"We know our people are going to make mistakes I after all, they're only human. But we find that if we don't call them out for it, it builds up each man's confidence in his ability to make decisions. Moreover, when such mistakes do occur, it's usually of such small conse. quence that it can't really hurt the operation, anywayr" Murray says.

"After all," Rud joins in, "we've got to have at least one man out there who can make a decision to give a customer a l2t stick of moulding if we're all out of ten foot. We try to train our people so that

Of Volume

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AMIABIE Roy Carriere (1) writing up orders. Roy is manager of the San Lorenzo operation. (2) Co-owners lVlurray Gelleri and Bud Brody review up coming sales promotion. (3) Sign, inside store, directs customers to bargains. lt also gets people walking ar0und and looking. (4) Gene Szymborski puts lumber into bin. Four Star keeps each length separate to expedite customer's loading own orders. (5) Joe Novotny, yard superintendent, brings in a load of Mix-Kwik Concrete. (6) Ned Seamons is mgr. of new 0akland operation, recently opened on 29th Ave. (7) Geoff Berryman looks over a shipping manifest prior to unloading lumber. (8) Plainly marked screen doors show both size and price. Display is outside main door, (9) Bob Wallett promotes features of pre.finished plywood to customer. Four Star will sell well 0ver 7,000 pre-finished panels this year. (10) Customer looking at huge display o1 vanities. (ll) Clean, well-lit hardware display. Hardwaie sales went up rapidly after display was moved nearer to check-oLrt counter.