narket need and fi lling it

The consumer is their business and their entire business. As one store official put it, "as for the contractor trade, we'd just as soon they'd stay out of here."

Sfory dI d Glqnce

Rapidly growing chain of stores is based on the idea of constant growth. Store jealously guards its image as the one and only place a do-it-your-selfer can get anYthing he wants.

Much of their merchandising strength is in the width rather than the depth of their inventory. A good part of their lumber busint'ss is in fences, so they carry nine kinds of pre-cut fence packages. The same is true o{ as much of their inventory as lends itself to that kind o{ management. Their nursery department, situated outside with the lumber, carries one of the largest insecticide and pesticide stocks in the state. The variety of selection in baskets and fireplace equipment, for example, is also remarkable.

Management

The top management of the six stores is small, consisting o{ only Haimsohn, four buyers, a controller, an advertising manager and an operations manager. Each store has a manager and assistant manager who hire the help they need. Handyman tries to promote from within, even if it means considerable retraining, on the theory that if one of their men really wants to learn, he will.

Projected volume and turnover is figured by department. Lumber, lumped in for accounting purposes with all building materials, accounts {or about one-third the store's gross.

Profitability

If an item, or group of items do not tie-in with the image they are trying to create they drop it, even if profitable, as was the case with candy bar sales. They say they want to run a Handyman store, not a food store.

They tried a sporting goods department, but dropped it when it delivered too little pro{it for the space involved. It also needed specially trained people to staff it. A tropical fish department was also elimi- natcd despite the potentially high profit. Seems that beside handling losses, too many customers indulged in the hanky pank.l of putting the seven dollar fish in with the four-bit variety.

The six handyman stores are open weekdays from ten a.m. until nine p.m. On weekends, the stores are open from nine in the morning until six in the evening. The number of employees varies with the day and hour the slore is open.