Hoo-Hoo Con Do the Wood Promotion Job

Gollqgher,

By Robeil E. "Bob" Gollcgher President, Thunderbird Lumber Co., Albuquerque, New Mexico

42nd Annual Meeting, S.C.R.L.A.-April 9, 1959

For the past two years, the clamor created for wood promotion has almost been deafening. It has all but drowned out the Babel of noise we were accustomed to hearing about what was wrong with the lumber business and who the villains of the industry were. Wood promotion has progressed from an idea explored by a handful of men who called themselves "The Committee of Inquiring Minds" to a full-fledged campaign culminated last Februrary by the formation of the National Wood Council.

The wonderful thing about this campaign .is that it actually is working. America is becoming more and more wood conscious; the public is unquestionably swinging back to wooden floors, wooden windows, frame construction, shingle roofs, and wood siding. Even more wonderful, but greatly more subtle, is the undeniable fact that this prombtion of wood, this cognizance of a mutual problem, this first-time-ever unity of action is not the impossible task the industry thought it might be. Though perhaps widely divergent in their individual objectives, the industry is surprising itself on how well it can work together towards a common goal.

This aura of unity is heady stuff; it's much like the child who knows he won't like a new vegetable, finally tastes a tiny bit of it, and now wants a second helping. Just as there are many kinds of vegetables, there are many kinds of lumbermen-you are retailers; let's see if unity will tempt your palate.

You, as a group within the lumber industry, have been called "reluctant allies." You have been described as caring little whether the lumber industry prospers and grows since so many of you have diverted your interests and investments far afield from the lumber business. fn recent years you have become wonderful merchandisers of hardware lines, you have become real-estate developers and building contractors without equal, you have become bankers and money lenders to the general public. Certainly, you always have and always will, sell the products of the forest, but these products have assumed lesser importance in your minds and on your balance sheets than have your other interests.

I would be less than honest with you if I didn't admit that I feel that you have some justification for this attitude, for your being the "reluctant allies" of the lumber industry. It is my personal belief that, as a group, you retailers have been much maligned by the rest of us in the industry; that you've been pushed around, that you have been neglected, that we have actually nudged you into these other interests that now conflict with our desire to unite the industry. My contemporaries and competitors may not agree with me, but I feel as entitled to my opinion as they to theirs.

Regardless of whether my beliefs are right or wrong:, today we are beginning to harvest this new crop called "Unity."

Every phase, every facet of the lumber industry is striving toward a common goal whether they so state it publicly or not. Foresters are creating tree farms for America's future use, loggers are genuinely interested in conservation, manufacturers are vigorously striving for new and improved products, wholesalers and jobbers are conscientiously improving their services. These groups may not have announced it publicly, they may not be aware of it themselves, but undeniably this weary old lumber business is taking on a new look--a UNITEb look.

But how about our "reluctant allies," the retail lumbermen; how do they fit into this picture of unity? Unfortuantely, almost not at all; unfortunately, because it would require such little effort on their part, such little change in their thinking. Let me explain.

Last January I met Herb Blackstock's son, Bob, in Kansas City. Bob gave a terrific speech before the Southwestern Lumbermen's Association entitled "Control of the Sale With Components." While he talked about his experiences in selling fabricated panels to both project builders and individuals, thereby obligating those customers to his panel and his yard to the exclusion of his competitors, ethical and otherwise, I could not help but think what a wonderful title "Control the Sale With Lumber" would be. "Control the Sale With Lumber"-provocative, isn't it?

If you were to walk through your retail yard tomorrow and write down on a piece of paper every item that you stock that could not be bought elsewhere, that could not be bought in a drug store, dime store, paint tlnufocrurorr of:

Door Fnmc

Wlndcw Fromoe

Dcubb-Hong Windowr

Sllding Windowr

Acmr Sliding Door Fromrs

All Aluminurn Scronr

"lsbor5ovrr Unitr"

Dcpendoblc tlcrwlcc - fow Gompctltlvc Prlc.s

Speciclizing in lumber Yord Orderr

Anywherc in Southern Ccliforniq

- rNrRoDt GtNo-

The IABOR.SAVER Window Unit

Completely Aramblcd---Rcody to Operote

-lnclude:-

Window FrqmeWindowrSorh BqlqncesSorh Lock

Window StopFull Bound Aluminum Screen

Double-Hung UnitsSliding Units (Sliding So:h Rcmovqble)

BIG BtN $ash & Door h.

Monufoctured in All Sizes

Owner: tr. Slater store, hardware store, even a department store; that could be bought only in a lumber yard' you wouldn't need a very big piece of paper.

Conspicuous among the items you would have listed would be.the products of the forest. No drug store is going to stock plywood sheathing, no dime store is going to offer precision-trimmed studs, no department store is planning on selling bundles of shakes. WLo/noo/n

Cleqr

Foreign

Jobbm cf: hl-Air Dccn

Fir Door

Glido-All Unirr

Woiror lockr

Gclumbiomotic Scrroor llircrllonrour Hqrdwcrr

Wholcsale 0nly ll4{10 E. Garvey, El llonte, Calif. Sllbert 3-3237 o Gunborland 3-3505

You, gentlemen, as retail lumbermen, have available to you a product exclusive unto yourselves*lumber. You have a legal monopoly. If John Q. Public wants to buy a piece of plywood, a board, a bundle of shakes, he must buy it from you-HE CAN'T GET IT ANY PLACE ELSEYOU CAN CONTROL THE SALE WITH LUMBER.

If you have let yourself become a "reluctant ally," if you have diverted vour interests and investments into other ventures, then you've not only turned your back upon a traditional franchise you held but you have gone out of your way to seek competition. If you are not capitalizing upon your wood products, if you are not controlling the sale with lumber, then you are directly and deliberately competing with every corner drug store, every real-estate developer, every bank and finance company in your area. You retailers are good, but are you that good?

So, as the first nibble on this morsel called "unity," start thinking about controlling the sale with lumber. No one in the world wants a posthole digger; he wants a fence-sell him the fence and give him the posthole digger. No one wants to own a saw; he wants to cut a board in two-sell him the board and make him a present of the saw. Think wood and you'Il sell wood.

Think wood and you'll buy wood; you'll find that those exotic hardwoods you've been thinking about stocking will sell easily; try that new specie the wholesaler has been pushing; experiment with those fabricated panels Bob Blackstock is so pleased with. Think wood and you'll have tasted the first morsel of this lumber unity which is becoming so popular today.

If, however, you still think this vegetable is unpalatable, perhaps I can offer you a little sugar-coating to ease the swallowing. As long as there are trees and men to cut them down, there will be a lumber industry. I spoke about the traditional franchise you hold-it is just that and nothing more, a franchise. It is not an inalienable, God-given right.

The efforts of lumbermen, to perpetuate, to conserve, to develop, to improve their products are not wholly altruistic. One way or another, through one system or another, lumber is going to be sold to the American public. God forbid that you must someday add lumber men to your list of competitors along with the drug stores, real-estate developers and bankers.

You invited me here today to speak to you about HooHoo, and until now I have not even mentioned the word, but deliberately so.