Prescription for sales stimulation

IIF YOUR store and your sales are f suffering from summer doldrums, try these ideas for stimulation.

o Think about a freebie; most popular are gift certificates (a super idea because they bring people back into the store), trips, gardening books, handyman guides and howto-books, color books and balloons for the kids, and yardsticks.

o Make self-service easier for nuts, bolts, nails and other bulk goods by installing a bag sleeve; ap- point someone to keep it filled.

o Schedule a calendar of pro- duct knowledge classes for all employees with a cram class when you plan to introduce a new product.

o Investigate the possibility of a seminar on home improvement and remodeling sponsored in cooperation with a local savings and loan.

o Display locksets with doors. A new door usually calls for new hardware.

o Set up display platforms in high traffic areas to invite impulse buying.

Story at a Glance

Peppy ideas for summer doldrums ways to encour. age sales . . introduce mer. chandise creatively . . spark displays.

a Locate an information booth at the front of the store with a person to answer questions, direct customers, approve checks, etc.

a Apply some color psychology: red to stimulate; orange to activate.

O Post the product sheets provided by the manufacturer near the items so that customers can compare and evaluate products.

o Clarify similar products for your customers by having signs made to describe each with its uses and advantages.

o Start looking up with mobiles plugging products hung from the ceiling.

o Try related item merchandising on the end caps in some sections.

O Sponsor a youth sports team for publicity and good will.

o Keep the checkout counter uncluttered and attractive; decorate with a plant from the garden section.

o Stage a mini-home show with booths and demonstrations; utilize sales reps for "quick pitches."

O Encourage sales of storage sheds by erecting one and using it on the sales floor to display garden equipment.

o Help the customer to visualize kitchen or bath remodeling by building. a mock-up complete with accessones.

o Use a theme for endcaps; for example, painting: pulling together all the various types of paint brushes, sponges, pads, and rollers, along with needed sundries such as buckets, trays, liners, drop cloths, ladders, masking tape, and, of course, paint.

O Redecorate the gift section, using table cloths, book shelves, and furniture settings for display.

o Put glassware where sunlight or overhead lights will bring out the sparkle.

o Bring people into the store for a special event such as a bridal show, a cooking class, a gardening demonstration, a back-to-school room spruce up.

_ o Build a display board showing all the vents and ventilators vou stock. o Work up posters as "silent salesmen" for merchandise displayed on endcaps. o Get rid of out-of-date stock and slow moving items at a sidewalk or parking lot sale. o Put life into your displays with mannequins demonstrating the product. o Become involved with the community; publicize the blood bank; Community Chest, other charity and service organizations. o Evaluate the advantages of instituting services such as machinery repair, scissor sharpening, delivery and customer charge systems.

O Accent housekeeping throughout the store with the entire staff involved in dressing up displays and keeping them neat and clean.

(Please turn to page 60) hwnward movements in the, money mark€ts recently have led $oms to prdict (hope) that intef,est rates are finally declining . . . meanwhile, housing is stumbling through another summer of slow construction and falling building permits .

Housrng starts fell llfto in June, to a seasonally adjusted pace of 1,032,(X)0 units, not far from the May '80 rate of 938,0fl); the decline is attributed mainly to high interest rates . . building permits plunged 16.4s/o to an adjusted rate of 976,W, leaving forecasters saying that home construction has yet to hit bottom. .

American Forest Products Co., San Francisco, owned by Kohlberg, Kravis & Roberts & Co., New York, plans to sell all of its non-California yards, except Phoenix, though retaining its production facilities; their Van Nuys, Ca., yard has been closed . reports indicate an AFPC.management group is trying to buy the Ca. yards from KKR&Co....

Western lumber production was 75.690 of capacity in May, according to WWPA, as belttightening continued, with Simpson Timber closing its Arcata, Ca;, plywood plant as Hubbard & Johnson mothballed its Napa, Ca., @ntractor yard "for a couple of mos.;" the sales office remains opoll, as do their other contractoryards...

Southsrn Paciftc Co. is selling its 115,0fl) acre timberland and mountain'properties it owns in the central Sierra Nevada region of Ca. UGI Corp.'sAmeriGas unit is buyrng the operating assets of the Victor California div. of Pacific Lumber Co.'s San Francisco-based Victory Equip' ment Co.; retail industrial gases and welding supply stors are involved. .

Masonite Corp.'s Western Hardboard Div. has reorganized its sales and marketing group into a Building Products Business Unit and Manufactured HouseIndustrial Business OEM unit to align more closely with end rnarkets

Dee Lumber, .lnc., Redding, Ca., has been sold to Joe Derratr Jr. and Ben Leany, who will head the formationof awholesalediv. Hoff Componies, /nc., is reopening the re-built Ronde Valley Lumber Co. mill, Union, Or., which was destroyed by fire in ln9 Wood Fiber Products, Inc., Lodi, Ca., is a new co. custom cutting particleboard and plywood, specializing in small parts. .

Arcata Corp., Menlo Park, Ca., has collected a third partial payment of $6.1 million from the feds for timberlands taken in 1978 as part of Redwood National Park. SimpsonTimberCo.has sold its Alberta, Canada, operation to Alberta Energy Co. Ltd., retaining the Simpson Timber Co. (Saskatchewan) Ltd. stud mill at Hudson Bay. .

North Side Lumber Co., Philomath, 0r., has bought Gem Lumber, Inc., Springfield, Or. Swthwest Forcst Industries is in ncw corporate headquarters in Phoenix, Az. . . An&'rson Lumber is opening new retail building material centers in St. George, Ut., and Evanston, Wy....

Cedarwood Forest Products, Eugene, Or., has rnerged with DR2 Enterprises, Eugene, to form Cedarwood Products; Donald Johnson, chairman of the hgd; Joln Beardsley, pres., and Richard Farris, s(ec. v.p. Greensprings Forest Producls is a new co. formed in Medford, Or., by Ron Larson and Kristi Driskill .

Pacific Wood Preserving of Bakercfield (Ca.), plans to build a new trCating plant in,tz. Tom Philips has reactivated :Saywaod Forest Prodacts, Eugene, Or., moving it to neru offices at Huntington Beach, Ca. ., GreggAnderson has closed its Santa Rosa, Ca., office with Paul Anderson joining partner Doug Gregg at the Eugene office.

Tali-Pak, Santa Rosa, Ca., has installed a resaw to offer custom resawing in addition to packaging, grading, and inventory services . .Alpine Veneers, Inc.,has sold to Rimrock Lake Timber Co., Beaverton, Or., the right to about 99 mil. bd. ft. of timber in Or. and Wa., retaining approximately 300 million bd. ft.

Santa Cruz Lumber Co. has purchased the Westwood Shopping Center, Gilroy, Ca. as an investment . ., CIrchsrd Supply Hardware, in the same,cityi plans to build new quarters b,y 1983 Lumberjack has opened a new store in Auburn, Ca. Auburn Lumber Co., Auburn, Ca., after 125 years in the same site, is closing with the corporate entity being maintained by Heart:Fbdsral Savings & Loan, the parent co. .

A Handymon storcis projected Or... - for the Oaks S been opened in tli Keith Hislop .