Notfust plywood tlmbers too

You know you can get the plywood you want at Crown Plywood. But did you know thatwe also carry complete inventories on rolled roofing, redwood and cedarfencing, masonite products, Doug Fir timbers, I pine commons, redwood bender and lath, and plywood sidings?

You can get it all with one call from Crown Plywood. The lumber you need, ?hd the service you expect.

So give us a call at 714-530-39^

Crown Plywood 7705 Garden Grove Blvd. Garden Grove,CA.92641

The Merlts of Sticking To Your Knitting

T HE recent collapse into Chapter I I bank' I ruptcy of the W.T. Grant Co., the largest failure in retailing history, holds a number of lessons for other businesses, big and small. Not the least of which is that whether you're breathing down General Motors' neck or barely staying even with the kid down the block with a lemonade stand, you had better have more coming in than going out. Whether you call it "operating with a negative net worth" (more liabilities than assets) or just plain going broke, the result is, painfully, the same.

A major contributor to those more than $l billion in liabilities Grant accumulated was their failure to observe that basic tenent of business: sticking to your own knitting. Back in the mid1960s, Grant decided they would get away from the variety store business at which they had grown and prospered and expand into the depart' ment store area. It didn't work: the store's image with the customer blurred, the economy turned down, earlier management mistakes reflected in declining earnings and bang, the end was at hand.

Grant's incursion into areas for which they were ill-prepared, un-schooled and under-managed is not without parallels in this industry. We have all seen the mass merchandiser/home center operator jump enthusiastically into lumber, thinking it to be no different to sell than toothpaste and gym socks. Conversely, the socalled traditional lumber and building materials dealer has sometimes "gone the home center route" simply because everyone else was doing it.

None of these moves into new areas are intrinsically bad. Where problems result, they seem to be caused by a lack of preparation and the failure to realize what is involved in making a success in a new field. In W.T. Grant's case, these included store leases and locations that "proved unfavorable, inadequate inventory control, and an overly liberal credit policy," according to company spokesmen.

The bankruptcy demonstrates once again that size is no escape from the basics of business. It also clearly illustrates that any firm, in any field, had best do its homework and be well prepared before invading new business battlefields.