Could This Be YOUR Yord?

What women think of retail lumberyards is becorning increasingly important in this merchandising day and age. The subject has been discussed at various dealer conventions this past spring season. Generally, the ladies' thoughts have not been too complimentary. One of the best reports of a shopping tour made by a handywoman was given to the recent Middle Atlantic Lumbermen's Association convention by Mrs. Jean Schloss, and it might be well to pass along to the retailers of every area in the country, states The Mississippi Valley Lumberman, from which it is reprinted here: the new department, and Johnson will travel the mill country in Montana, Idaho and Canada securing material for the retail lumber dealers in the Southern California area, it was stated.

"I approached this shopping tour as a retailer and as a woman. I found that a woman isn't wanted in the retail lumberyard. You are not interested in me, my problems, or my business. You don't want anything to do with me, and I felt it very strongly in practically every case.

"I have yet to find anybody who opened their arms to me and said, 'Come on in, I would like to help you,' and that was what I was looking for.

"Under the new set-up we lvill be able to combine our facilities and devote all of our time to servicing the dealer trade," Rudbach declared.

"In 27 out of 28 visits, after a half to three-quarters of an hour discussion of my building project, I was allowed to leave without giving my name, without any follow-up. Don't you know the value of a mailing list? Don't you know what you can do with names and addresses ?

"You lost me as a customer so many times during each transaction that my heart bled for you.

"I bought a roller brush, bought it in two different stores. Nobody asked if I wanted paint.

"In so many cases you have beautiful windows. In most of them you don't use the windows. Your window space is wasted, if it is not used as selling space.

"Customers like people who look attractive and businesslike. Twenty-three out of the 28 stores visited had clerks in various stages of tielessness, hats on or off or on the backs of their heads.

"Not one person asked me to come back or thanked me. Not one said, 'Thanks for your inquiry'."

New Moulding Cotclog

The Southern California Retail Lumber Association is publishing a new, 3S-page Moulding catalog with a new easier-to-find index system. The book will include Index, Stock Patterns and Detailed Patterns sections. Dealer name, address and phone will be reasonably imprinted and SCRLA members will receive a 5/o discount.

O DOUGTAS FIR

. IEDWOOD

O WESTERN RED CEDAR

O PORT ORFORD CEDAR

O PONDEROSA PINE

. CEDAR SHINGIES

O DOUGIAS FIR PTYWOOD

8AY'HARDBOARD

. FIR.TEX TITE.PTANK-BOARD

. FIR.TEX ACOUSTICAT TILE

. FIR.TEX HARDBOARD

. FIR-TEX ROOFDEK

. FIR.TEX SHEATHING

DOUGTAS FIR PTYWOOD

. CORALITE

Auto Industry Thinks Present High Tide Wili Last For Years

The question every thinking man, and particularly those who make their living out of business of any sort, is asking these days is, how long can or will this present high tide of economy and finance last?

Are we in danger of a relapse at any time? What has business got to look forward to under present conditions?

Well, if we will look at the situation through the eyes of the automotive industry (and there is probably no better sign-post or measuring stick available) we must believe that this era of high wages, high costs, high selling prices, is going on indefinitely. For that is exactly what the top men in the auto industry undoubtedly believe, and they are acting accordingly.

That fact was given solid substance recently when the biggest of the auto manufacturers agreed to higher and still higher wages for the auto workers.

Besides that, men high in the lumber industry who have done recent researching into the auto industry and its plans, declare that the top auto men think this present economic and financial situation will continue on and on, and that we have nothing to fear otherwise.

The other day the newspapers published an interview with one of the topmost leaders of the automobile industry, and his predictions were along that same line. He said that in the next ten or fifteen years the national economy will grow much bigger than it is today, that while there will naturally be some ups and downs, the general trend will be upward.

He thought that technological progress backed by scientific research will bring about nothing but prosperity, and that there is still no ceiling on opportunity in the business of this nation.

Such opinions from sound sources are certain to be a pick-up for the average business man, who naturally wonders if he could be sitting on a powder barrel.

Looks good, doesn't it?

USPlywood Soles $l50 Million in yeqr

New York-United States Plywood Corporation reports that its consolidated net profit {or the fiscal year ended April 30 amounted to $7,638,1@, including the profit of U. S.-Mengel Plylr,'oods, fnc., and Associated Plywood Mills,Inc., from Nov. 1,1954 and Jan. 17,1955, respectively.

The corporation's consolidated sales for the fiscal year ended April 30 were $150,565,500, compared with 9124,M7,3OO the previous year.

Net profit for the three months ended April 30, 1955, was $2,541,000 after estimated income taxes of $2,255,200. Consolidated sales for the three months ended April 30 were $48,153,000, compared with $30,997,300 in the same quarter of the previous year.