HOME GENTER MERGHANT

BILL FISHMAN

Bill Fishman & Affiliates

11650 lberia Place

San Diego, Ca.92128

THE HOME center as it is known

I in the United States today had its beginning very early in the 1960s. Prior to that time the do-it-yourselfer, the homeowner, shopped at the one "contract" lumbervard within his communitv.

These lirmber dealers condescended to allow the do-it-yourselfer to shop in their stores. Actually, the lumberman behind the counter considered anyone less than a professional (builder or skilled carpenter) as an annoyance and as a deterent to waiting on the "real customer. "

The store was called "the showroom" and consisted of a lons counter behind which sat the lumber-counterman. A small area of the showroom held manufacturer's displays of tools, builder's hardware and the latest fastening devices.

Lumberyard hours catered to the contactor's needs. Weekdays - 7:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. On Saturdays some of the lumberyards stayed open till noon, and closed on Sundays, but changes were starting to occur. Aggressive lumberyard operators began to recognize the potential of this new do-it-yourself market. A few of the early innovators were Forest City of Cleveland, Gee Lumber in Chicago,

Grossman's in New England, Hechinger's in Washington D.C., Lindsley in Florida, Central Hardware in St. Louis, Ernst in Seattle. They began by altering their floor layoutitheir store hours and by promoting to the public. They spirited away management teams from other retail industries, bringing in merchandisers and operators, many from the mass merchandising industry.

Where prior to the 1960s the merchandising and attitudes catered only to the professional, suddenly the homeowners were able to find:

(l) Lumber priced by the piece rather than the board foot.

(2) Paneling priced by the panel rather than the square foot.

(3) Easier shopping because the customers could now roll dimension lumber, boards, paneling, insulation, etc. right out the front door instead of waiting for a ticket to be written and the merchandise tallied from the yard.

(4) New store hours that enabled the consumer to shop both after work and on his days off.

Lumber was now being purchased by buyers who recognized the home fashion value of building materials decorator items. Some of these larger home centers retained two groups of lumber and building material buyers. One group to supply the contractor their needs and the other group to merchandise the lumber materials in those configurations most required bv the do-irvourselfer.

- New depal"tments were added. The lumber stores started to include all the merchandise categories to be found in the home. Heavy concentration of visual merchandising was made in paint and wallpaper, floor coverings and plumbing and electrical items. These retail merchants featured big ticket items such as those elements needed for d.i.y. bathroom and kitchen remodeling. Attic, dormer, garage and room addition packages promoted and sold with step-by-step how-to-do-it instructions encouraged more homeowners to attempt remodeling tasks.

As the store sizes grew larger, many of these retailers added seasonal departments that catered to the lawn and garden needs in the summer time and some switched to snow blowers, gift ware, toys and trim-a-home for winter and Christmas seasons.

Whereas prior to 1960 the growth pattern was dictated by new home starts, the home centers of the late '60s and '70s developed aggressive five year plans to build their consumer business. The advertising formats changed. Large home centers began to make innovations in their retail advertising. It was Forest City in Cleveland who developed the first home center tabloid size mini-page section in the daily newspaper.

At the same time lumber companies were making the hansition. Some men of vision such as Herb Haimsohn, the founder of Handyman, opened what was then considered an extremely large hardware store that also merchandised lumber. Somewhere in midroad those who originated as lumber dealers carrying hardware and those (Please turn to page 56)