Lookirs for one VERSATILE

market where True Value exists," said executive vice president of business development Brian Schnabel.

"We would not be able to do the things necessary to promote our stores and to be competitive if we remained three brands," agreed Barbara Wilkerson, a TruServ board member and proprietor of Blackhawk Hardware ServiStar, Charlotte, N.C. "Unified under True Value, we will have brand recognition, supported by more advertising dollars, to promote a single brand. There really is strength in numbers."

Lott Home & Hardware True Value, Childress, Tx., already made the switch, after recently moving to a higher visibility location. "We've been in business for 22 years and have done well with the Coast to Coast brand," said owner John Lott I[. "But with more traffic driving by the new store, we believe thatTrue Value will bring in some of those people who didn't come to our other location."

Increased stores should benefit every TruServ member, he added. "Just like when a consumer sees a McDonald's, they know what to expect because it means the same in nearly every town. If we all portray ourselves the way we should be as True Value, then consumers will look for True Value because they know what to expect."

The move, though, also is benefitting the competition, since some ServiStar and Coast to Coast stores don't want to switch to True Value and are joining other co-ops. Elliott's Hardware, Dallas and Grapevine, Tx., for instance, is dropping its True Value affiliation to align itself with Do-it Best.

In the first eight months of 1999, competing co-op Ace Hardware enlisted 25Vo more new members than it did the previous year. And of the 190 new Ace locations, 131 defected from other co-ops.

Discrimination Suit Settled

A former Home Depot employee who filed suit claiming religious harassment has received a $92.000 settlement from the chain.

Louis Gorchoff, a one-time emploYee at Depot's Bothell, Wa., store, filed suit in September 1998, claiming he was harassed because he is Jewish. While denying any wrongdoing, Depot agreed to improve efforts to comply with anti-discrimination laws.