Deolers Descend on 1958 Exposition of Chicqgo ln Record Throngs; See Outstonding New Products

Soaring handily past the most optimistic predictions, the fifth annual Building Products Exposition closed its fourday run at Chicago's big International Amphitheatre, Nov. 25, with a record-breaking registered attendance of 9304. Giving the NRLDA Exposition a truly international flavor, visitors were registered from such globe-circling points as Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, the Soviet lJnion, Australia and Brazil, with several in attendance from nearby Canada and other North and South American countries.

Sixty-three new names were among the 210 exhibitors who filled 226 exhibit booths with the latest products, equipment and services of the building materials industry. Hundreds of new products were shown to lumber dealers for the first time, many of them in brand new displays prepared especially for the NRLDA show.

There was an almost tangible feeling expressed by dealers and exhibitors alike that the Building Products Exposition had "come of age" with the 1958 show. Numerous comments by dealers who had attended previous NRLDA Expositions reflected the sentiments of one small-town, northern Ohio dealer who said, "I've been to all of them-and this is the best I've ever seen.'f

Another dealer felt that the Exposition has become a 'powerful force for good industry relations and is a strong factor in awakening manufacturers to recognition of the dealer's important position in the distribution of building materials.

A significant comment came frofn one young dealer, with only a few years behind him in the building materials business, who remarked, "This is exactly what we young dealers need. I came here to get information and assistance from the experts in this business and I've found it at every turn."

Keynoter Melvin H. Baker, chairman of National Gypsum Company, addressing the Exposition's Kickoff Breakfast, sounded a note of optimism which rang through the entire program and was echoed in the closing-day session at which Armstrong Cork Company's Treasurer and Chief Economist Walter E. Hoadley summarized the outlook for building materials business in 1959.

Outstanding hit of the Exposition was the "Case of the Employer's Dilemma, or Who's Strangling Your Business," presented in a "Court of Personnel Relations" under the nianagement of Robert L. Craft, executive secretary of the

NoGalDeolers ol Exposition

The following Northern California dealers, LMANC officers and industry associates attended the National Retail Lumber Dealers Assn. Exposition at Chicago, Nov.22-25:

Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton Knott, LMA president, Yosemite Lumber Co., Fresno;

Mr. and Mrs. Paul Merner, Merner Lumber Co., Palo Alto;

Mr. and Mrs. Joe Kirk, Kirk Lumber & Building Materials Co., Santa Maria;

Mr. and Mrs. Vince Wilson. Central Lumber Co.. Stockton ; Edwards Metcalf, King Lumber Co., Bakersfield; Bob King, King Lumber Co., Bakersfield; tr{ajor business meetings-all heavily attended-were held as breakfast programs in the headquarters Conrad Hilton hotel. Five sessions dealt with merchandising home improvements, selling to the farmer, promoting kitchen busilesl, competing with prefabricators, and prospects for business in the building material industry in 1959.

Tom Handley, Carmel Builders Supply, Carmel; Jack Pomeroy, executive vice-president, Lumber Merchants Assn. of Northern California, San Francisco, and Bud Barber, Bernie Barber & Associates, Fresno.

Indiana Lumber and Builders' Supply Association. The simulated courtroom scene was playeil to an appreciative over- flow audience.

So many were turned away from the first performance that the program was repeated the following day, and again standees peeped through an improvised fenie oi climbeil on ladders to view the "trial." DesCribing with humorous twists many human relations situations which exist in the average retail lumber yard, "witnesses" pointed up weak links at both ends of the employer-employee relations chain.

Indoor Materials Handling Demonstrations played each afternoon to capacity audiences of about 800, and every program found numerous standees at the entrance to the demonstration area.

Nlaterials Handling Director Robert B. Brown controlled the demonstrations with directions to drivers through "Handie Talkie" two-way Motorola radios which the equipment operators carried over their shoulders. Boxcars standing by for unloading demonstrations contained the first actual shipment of lumber using New York Rubber Company's "Bracefast" inflatable dunnage. Beginning with the unloading of unitized plywood and studs from a single-door boxcar, the demonstrations then moved to unloading of unitized lumber from double-door cars. So that the audience could see how unloading operations were conducted inside the car, all activities in the interior of the car were repeated on the outside. All fork-truck capacities commonly used in building materials handling were employed in the demonstrations.

Several new devices and attachments were demonstrated, among which was a conveyor-loading platform for loading lumber onto over-the-road trucks. Swing-shift and side-shift attachments were shown in use, as were fork extensions for end-handling of short lengths.

The Verti-Roll, a wheeled clamping device for upright handling of gypsum board and other sheet materials, was shown for the first time at the lumber dealers'national show in a simulated on-the-job unloading demonstration.

Among M-H Clinics, the "Fundamentals" session for beginners and unmechanized dealers was especially well received. Dealers asked numerous questions and most were observed taking notes. Copies of the material presented were 'made available to all following the session. 11 was the consensus of those who participated that such a program on the basics of mechanical handling should be a standard part of the M-H program at every NRLDA Exposition.

"Improving Your Materials Handling" was the subject of a fast-moving program in which 14 dealers used color-slides to illustrate unusual handling methods and helpful "tricks" which they had developed in their own yards.

Another clinic conducted by dealers who have made careful studies of their handling costs was designed to help mechanized dealers develop standards by which to measure the efficiency of their M-H operations and to give unmechanized dealers some of the important facts they should have before investing in equipment.

The M-H Information Center, presented this year for the first time, was kept busy throughout the four days by dealers who wanted to discuss their individual handling p_roblems. Over 500 questions were handled each day at the Center and by M-H Committee members and speakers who reported they were frequently stopped on the exhibit floor and questioned by dealers with special problems.

The Component Construction Program under the chairmanship of Clarence A. Thompson of Champaign, Ill., presi- dent of Lumber Dealers Research Council, featured an attractive, full-scale and fully equipped family vacation cabin designed by Lu-Re-Co architect Larry S. Higgins and built especially for display in the NRLDA Exposition.

The Exposition's comprehensive Store Planning and Merchandising program was under the direction of Joseph Guillozet of Cleveland, nationally known marketing and management consultant in building materials retailing. Guillozet reported that dealers were quick to take advantage of the counseling service which had been announced well in ' advalrce of the show.

Staff members of the Guillozet firm who were available for free private counseling by appointment reported that their consultation time was filled to capacity with dealers who brought complete plans and records including inventory lists, profit and loss statements and other operating data as suggested in advance announcements of the service.

Merchandising "huddles" each day were opened by Mr. Guillozet himself with a capsule course on store plauning, how to evaluate your market, what size and kind of store to build and where, and the actual economics of building the store. Guillozet architect Robert Douglass discussed store layout and fixtures for most effective selling. Merchandising Manager Richard A. Siegel followed with a discussion on "Men, Money, and Merchandise" which he describes as the three keys to successful store operation, pointing out the

SoGol Deolers ot Exposition

The following Southern California dealers, SCRLA officers and industry associates attended the National Retail Lumber Dealers Assn. Exposition at Chicago, Nov.22-25:

Mr. and lVlrs. Thomas J. Fox, John W. Fisher Lumber Co., Santa Monica;

Bob Sievers, John W. Fisher Lumber Co., Santa Monica:

Wilbur Barr, Barr Lumber Co., Santa Ana; George Barr, Barr Lumber Co., Santa Ana; Frode B. Kilstofte, Rossman Mill & Lumber Co., Wilmington; Francis O'Sullivan, Rossman Mill & Lumber Co., Long Beach, and need for intelligent buying policy and practice, adequate inventory controls, and well-informed and interested sales personnel ,

Mr. and Mrs. Orrie W. Hamilton, Southern California Retail Lumber Assn., Los Angeles.

Packaged Remodeling Sales were covered by F. B. Fitzgibbon of the Guillozet firm and formerly l-read of Sears' Plumbing and Home Heating Division. Mr. Fitzgibbon emphasized the importance of package selling to the lumber dealer's volume and profit, and pointed out the many types of merchandise that ian be handled in "package" sa[es.'Planning, economics and mechanics of sales promotion and store advertising were outlined by Guillozet Advertising Director James M. Newman in a "how-to" session which many dealers described as of great practical value in their daily operations. John C. Nichols, Guillozet specialist in consumer sales promotion, discussed point-of-sale merchandising, stressing use of visual and physical helps in impulse sales and making maximum effective use of manufacturers' point-of-sale aids to pre-sell the store customer.

One unusual by-product of the NRLDA show's outstanding overall success was high praise by the Convention Bureau of the city which is host to more annual and national conventions than any other in the United States. An official of the Chicago Convention Bureau congratulated General Chairman Phil Creden for successfully pointing the way for weekend opening of their trade shows by other dealer associations. "It is significant that as a major national Exposition for dealers, the NRLDA show has recognized that the small businessman can not easily leave his business during the week to attend such a meeting," the Convention Bureau official commented. "By opening the NRLDA Exposition on Saturday you have made it possible for the min who owns a family operated store and yard to reap relatively the same benefits from attendance that the larger dealer enjoys."

1958 NRLDA President J. C. O'Malley urged dealers to analyze their operations more closely to pick out the weak spots and overcome them, and said the National association should assist its members in studying their operations so as to reduce expenses and obtain a more adequate gross profit.

He also emphasized the need for stepping up NRLDA's effective legislative program and expressed the hope that more dealers would become active in national affairs.

Mr. Northup told the Board that in tl-re coming year it would seem that the major problem of onr industry will not be the size and scope of the market and need for construction, either in the field of new homes, modernization and repair or commercial construction, nor does it seem that the question of mortgage money and credit will be a major problem in the coming year. The recent elections would seem to indicate that there will be a determination on the part of the new Congress, with its many new faces, to make it easier to build, to buy and to finance all types of conStruction.

"The retail lumber and building material dealer and his organized representation at the State and National level, is confronted principally not with the problem of markets for the products he sells, but with the problem of how best to analyze those markets and to sell against today's competition. There is without a doubt a growing pressure upon the businessman who attempts to do business as usual."

With regard to housing legislation, Mr. Northup said: "Present indications are that this issue will be extremely controversial in the coming year, with the liberals urging a broad expansion of government housing and slum clearance programs, arrd vvitl-r the Administration and conservatives in Congress endeavoring to hold the legislation down to a moderate bill.

"The leaders of housing legislation in both houses have announced that they expect to give priority to housing legislation immediately after the opening of the S6th Congress."

X{r. Northup predicted that there will be a renewed drive in Congress to extend tl-re Wage-Hour Larv to cover retail establishments and saicl the Association would work vigorously to retain the present exemption. He expressed the hope tl-rat progress would be made toward endirrg Secondary Boycotts and in eliminating weaknesses in existing labor legislation, including the no-man's land betrveen Federal and State jurisdiction in labor matters.

NIr. Everitt, the association's 1958 treasurer, reported that the funds of tl-re organization are in sound condition and that it has lived within its budget during the current

The Survey Report prepared by Cresap, X,IcCormick, and Paget, management consultants, was discussed at length, and the Board then voted to approve tl-re Report in principle, implement certain of the recommendations and place others under study.

Norman P. Nlason, commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration and past President of the NRLDA, stated that, whereas mortfJage funds had showed a tendency to dry up in recent months owing to developments in the overall money market, lenders are starting to look for good loans again. He expressed the belief that this trend will spread