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Lulruer tvtetulalls Association of Northern California

URING

The Past

several months, I have been traveling through our LMA area visiting with members and potential members.

This is most enjoyable, as well as informative, because I am able to observe many different types of lumber, building material, and home rmprovement center operatlons.

The majority ol the yards I have visited have contractor-builder customers as well as the do-it-vourself retail consumer.The sales mix r'u;;'ft;;8b1,i; d contractor/200/tr retail to the reverse. and in between. Some of the operations I visited were strictly consumer oriented and some were supplying only new construction. Even though there was wide diversity in the customer mix, most of the operations had much in common.

One common area was the lumber yard. Yard space is larger today and mostly paved, if not completely so. The layout and organization of stock is done well, obviously with the idea of having a place for almost everything, and having almost everything in the proper place. Many dealers have new storage sheds, or have remodeled and updated existing sheds. I saw more customer parking areas and more area for loading and unloading trucks away from congested areas. Most trucks, forklifts, and other equipment were either new or relatively new. Older equipment was in good condition and well maintained.

Another thing common to most of the facilities was the sales area. Compared with the sizes only five years ago, finished sales space has doubled, tripled and more. Dealers have had professional store layout help from Ace Hardware, Cotter, Sentry and others. Almost without exception, these clean, well lighted, well fixtured, and well stocked stores have the customer traffic and are successlul.

Several dealers I visited have new stores. Many have remodeled and enlarged existing stores. Three have entirely new facilities of four acres and larger, 15,000 sq. ft. stores and larger, with sales-warehouse space and shed of 24,000 sq. ft. and more. These new facilities cost more than $1,000,000 each for land, building, and improvements. Add to that inventory, fixtures and equipment and you can see how easy it is to have a $2,000,000 investment in all.

In addition I saw new computer systems, two with direct point of sale unitsl new departments such as nursery, picture lraming, carpet and interior decoratingl new truss plantsl new prehung door plants; and much more.

What does all this point out?

All this points out that lumber dealers have decided that they want to be ready for, and to be a part ofthe boom ofthe 80's. Lumber dealers have decided that chanses in the economy affect other industries in more adverse riays than in our industry. Especially in California, and most of the West, they have decided the economy will continue strong because of the strong base given it by agriculture, electronics, and other industries. Dealers know that we live in the best part of the country and they know that many, many people across the country want to live in the West.

Lumber dealers know too that the do-it-yourselfer is not only here to stay, but is each year becoming a larger portion of our entire market. Lumber dealers are investing all this time, money, and effort, because they know they are in the best industry of all,and it may very well be the best industry Iorever.

Lumber dealers know they want to be ready for the boom of the 80's, if they are not ready now.