Retail Dealers Defended, Challenged

The neighborhood retail building materials dealer isnot "dying on the vine" as a group despite the fact that manv manufacturers and wholesalers already have written him ofi, along with the buggy whip and cracker barrel, a Portland, Ore., forest products executive told the 69th annual Mountain States Lumber Dealers convention held in Las Vegas, Nevada on February 7.

Speaking as part of a special marketing panel at the Hotel Riviera, W. H. llunt, a vice president of Georgia-Pacific Corp., told the group that "a grou'ing number of merchandising building materials supermarkets is proving the retailer still is an important member of the selling teamand will play an expanding role.

"Some retailers, because of sharp buying, have forced wholesalers into the retail field. This is a place rvhere wholesalers do not belong," he declared.

Hunt had been asked by the Mountain States group to speak on "the responsibilities of retailers."

These responsibilities, he said, in- clude accepting the challenge to pass along better productand merchandising ideas to manufacturers, based on grassroots experience, and taking full advantage of sales aids now offered by some manufacturers and rvholesalers.

These aids, the G-P executive explained, include intensive sales training for retail salesmen, national advertising and point-of-purchase tie-ins, learning to use financing as a sales tool, elimination of "penny discounting"in buying, and carrying adequate inventories to satisfy customer needs.