$t Million Merchandisin

Their beautiful new showroom is 11,200 sq. ft., with 15,000 more sq. ft. in the attached warehouse; in front there is parking for 100 cars.

The old yard in the center o{ town had Il employees, this one has 28, about 70o/o of whom work on the floor and in the warehouse. They had more than 250 applications to choose from when they expanded their work force, a happy situation, to say the least.

Their trade area encompasses about I5 miles, includes several growing small towns and presently has a pouulation of about 100,000. With the new operation they expect the present mix oI 30/o retail/7o/o builder to change to 40/o/60/o in about two years. Eventually, a 5o/o/50/o mix should result.

Present forecasts of gross business for 1971 are necessarily hedged 'because of all the new factors present in the business, but a rough guess puts it at about $1.5 million.

Accounting is rbroken down into lumber, paint, hardware, cartage and miscellaneous. Later they plan to divide it into at least eight categories. Thirty day accounts are the rule and establishment of a house credit card is planned for futures use. Bankamericard and Mastercharge are now used.

Competition on the contractor side is mostly from yards in San Diego, 35 miles to the south. Other yards in the immediate vicinity provide the competition for the retail dollar.

While they presently do a majority of their business with contractors, tracts have no real attraction. "l wouldn't walk across the street lor a job with 200 homes at $50 each; what we want is the business of the 200 families that live in the houses, we want the people," emphasizes Meredith.

To keep customers coming back, Builders Block places great stress on