Kight Treatment by the Kight Plant

Western Wood Treating . . . Your lleadquarters For T.S.O.

Now you can use the quick turn-around treating seruices at Western Wood Treating. When we saA quick, we mean speedy (5 to 5 dags treating on dry stock) by the truckload. Our storage yard allows Aou to pick up at your discretion.

Our Osmose treating facilities are designed using the latest in treating technology. All processes are automated to assure the finest quality control auailable. We also operate under the rigid quality control procedures required bg both Osmose and the American Wood Preseruers Bureau.

Osmose pressure treated lumber, plywood and timbers from Westem Wood Treating prouide manA aduantages builders, contractors, and retail customers require. The ability of Osmose pressure treated lumber to preuent attack by termites, rot and decay and the enuironmentallg clean nature of the product makes it adaptable for a wideuariety of decoratiue and structural applications.

Give Tong Cline or Terry Galbraith a call at 976 / 666-7267 or 976/924-7775 (direct Sacramento line). Our prices are competitive . , , and we wiII show youthat we are tops in seruice, too!

BUSINESS FORECAST ISSUE

A BETTER YEAR COMING FOR HOME CENTERS

TIME FOR THINGS TO START TURN AROUND

PAC.MAN MACHINE IS INDICATOR OF FUTURE

SLOW ROAD AHEAD FOR STRUCTURAL PANELS

TRANSITION IS TREND FOR YEAR TO COME

CHANGES COMING IN HARDWARE BUSINESSES

FED POLICY MOVES TO STIMULATE ECONOMY

RECOVERY WITH STRENGTH, VIGOR EMERGING

INGREDIENTS AVAILABLE FOR 1983 REBOUND

WORST BEHIND BUILDING PRODUCTS INDUSTRY

SLIGHT IMPROVEMENT FOR WESTERN LUMBER

HARDWOOD INDUSTRY LOOKS AHEAD TO SPRING

THINGS LOOKING UP FOR FOREST PRODUCTS

GROWTH PATTERNS CHANGE HOUSING PICTURE

TO RISE

The Merchant

Publisher Emeritus A.D. Bell. Jr.

Editor-Publisher David Cutler

Associate Editor

Juanita Lovret

Contributing Editors

Dwight Curran

Gage McKinney

William Lobdell

Al Kerper

Art Director Martha Emery

Staff Artist Nicola O'Fallon

Circulation

Kelly Kendziorski

The Merchant Magazine (USPS 796-56000) is published monthly at 4500 Campus Dr., Suite 4E0, Newport Beach, Ca. 92660, phone (714) 549-E393, by The Merchant magazine, Inc. Second-class postage rates paid at Newport Beach, Ca., and additional offices. Advertising rates upon request.

ADVERTISING OFFICES

FROM WASHINGTON STATE, IDAHO,NORTHER,N CALIFORNIA & OREGON: contact Drvid Cutler, 4500 Campus Dr.. Suite 480. Newport Beach. Ca. 92660. Phone (714) 5498393.

FROM SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: contact Carl Vann, 205 Oceano Dr., Los Anseles. Ca. 90049. Phone (213) 4723llJ or (714) 549-8393.

FROM THE MIDWEST: CONtACt Charles L. Lemoerlv. 1230 Brassie Ave.. Flossmoor. It. 60422. Phone Qt2t 799-2166.

Subscriptions

Change of Address-Send subscription orders and address changes to Circulation Dept., The Merchant Magazine, 4500 Campus Dr., Suite 480, Newport Beach. Ca. 92660. Include address label from recent issue il possible, plus new address and zip code.

Subscription RatesU.S. and Canada: $6-one year; $9-two yearsl $12-three years. Foreign: $14-one yearl $20-two years.Single copies $1.25. Back copies $2.50 when available.

THE MERCHANT MAGAZINE is an intlependently-on'ned publication lbr the retail, v''holesale and distribution levels o/ the lumber, building materials and hone intprovernenl business in the l3 Western states.

DAVID CUTLER editor- publ sher EDITORIAL

Unfurn. single over garage, no pets

t\NE OF the results of the housing depresusion of the early 1980s was the extensive reappraisal of how and why America lives as it does. Every facet of the industry and its products and their effects upon society was looked at with a new eye.

The shift from traditional patterns in family units, life styles, financing and investment aspects is producing a very different market that is already having an impact on suppliers to home builders and those who furnish the repair, remodeling and renovation of existing shelter units. The real changes are only just beginning.

The shortage of housing is also producing novel approaches to the utilization of existing homes. New studies claim that as much as l59o of the nation's housing stock is under utilized and that building codes should be relaxed to allow apartments to be carved out of those single family homes that have unused rooms. Proponents say that garages could also be remodeled to create new housing units.

The idea is sure to be controversial. There is nothing like wide spread relaxation of housing codes to fire up a neighborhood. Qf course, for years older homes in decaying areas have been divided into apartments and rooms for let. But to propose such a concept on a mass basis is sure to produce some heat.

In all these ideas there are vast implications for material suppliers that go beyond the usual confines of d-i-y. These new markets involving housing and extensive renovations could well hold the potential to be larger markets than even housing was in the halcyon days of the 1970s.

Whatever else the decade of the 1980s brings us, it appears safe to predict that it won't be more of the same.