Solid gold hardware merchandising

Golo cI.ows richly next to Sthe aggressive sparkle of silver plated products. Adjacent is a display where the turning of the cut crystal handles flashes light into the room. Wait a minute! Is this a jewelry store or a home center?

Actually it is a home center, or more accurately, a part of one. It's the newest division of the Dixieline Lumber Co., called Classic Collections, located on the top floor of their Miramar Road store in San Diego, Ca.

Dixieline president Bill Cowling confesses that he has always had a dream of having a showroom that would feature the very best available in bath hardware, hardwood doors, fireplaces, beveled glass and the like. In short, all the high quality home and bath items that can make a home truly luxurious.

Classic Collections was started with an investment of $500,000 for inventorv and showroom. "That's mostlv inventory," notes Cowling, who observes that a potential competitor would have to spend three times that amount if they started without a building, parking and related systems.

Story at a Glance

Upmarket hardware, home and bath products division on the second floor of established home center eams immediate trade acceptance. . .inventory is an in-depth selection of the very best.

What Dixieline got for its investment is a showroom well designed to dazzle the most jaded observer. No mere upscale plumbing showroom here. Classic Collections is by far the largest and most complete such home and bath operation in the West and perhaps, the U.S. While other firms carry one or two of a certain item, the Dixieline customer can be fairly assured that "if they don't have it, I don't want it."

Already drawing buyers from far beyond their normal San Diego trade area, the showroom is demonstrating that architects, designers, builders and others have a need for a truly complete selection.

While basically an invitation-only showroom its existence is no secret. Signs inside and out carry the name, and any customer in any of their five home centers is more than welcome to have a look and buy the merchandise.

While some of the products are off in dreamland except for the fortunate few, sales, credit and pricing policy

Hardwarel Housewares: I 985

are very much down to earth. Normal credit procedures apply, but a $4,000 order will require a $2,000 deposit. Architects. builders and contractors enjoy a fixed discount. Volume affects the final pricing though and even Joe Average Homeowner can expect a good price break depending

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