The Thre:e-Man Lumber Yard

(Reprinted trom "Arch Perry's Corney''-The Signode Seal)

Three men can work a small lumber business and earn incomes well above the national average doing it. But they can't do it without packaged lumber.

Even though it may be closer to reality than we suspect, let's assume the three-man lumber yard is nothing more than a dream. Let's see how the dream shapes up:

You and I and a truck driver are going to run a lumber yard and we are going to gross $300,000 a year and we are going to show some profit on just about everything we sell. No more of this business of handling lumber just as a comeon to sell hardware or appliances.

Lumber and building supplies are going to be the heart of this business. How much lumber do we have to sell ?

The minimum is a carload a month and we should average more than that. But that minimum means about 250 pieces a day. And that's where we can go broke.

Each of those pieces must be handled at least four times, five times for each piece that must be delivered. And that's where we can start making money.

We have between 1,000 and 1,250 lumber-handling operations each dav and there are onlv 480 minutes in each day and some of-those must be dei,oted to making up tally tickets, pricing, handling bags of cement, sheets of plywood, bundles of dry wall and sheathing.

You go ahead and run the office, what with hardware, nails, perhaps a few tools, some KD millwork, answering the phone and getting out the billing, you'll have plenty to do.

With an occasional assist from the truck driver, I'll run the yard myself and still find time to give you some help inside. But I need a 6,000-pound lift truck. I need a boom loader to go on that truck and we need another boom on the delivery truck, a KD loader and a stacking jig would help.

I need two seal feed strapping tools, a cobra dispenser f.or /4" x .035 HD strap and if we're going to strap brick we'll need some 5f,, x .023 Magnus strap.

But I must have lumber in packages. I don't want them too big. For our operation a 24' x 24" package would be fine. We'lI sell three or four packages a day and, until I have to cut the package straps, I can save 98/o of my handling operations.

The Hidden Profit

Let's see where we'd make the money. Let's see if it is worth $10 a day to keep all that equipment on the premises:

First, I've got a boxcar of lumber to unload. This is about 35,000 BF which will sell for more than $5,000. Cargo loaded, it would take two men about 12-16 hours to unload and stack that lumber.

I'll do it in 6 hours with the help of my 6,000-pound lift truck and a 10-ft. boom and I'm assuming 24'x24' packages and allowing myself close to 8 minutes to take out each package and place it in the yard.

If the truck driver comes in and helps me, we can do the job in less than 3 hours. That's a saving of at least 18 manhours. How much does a man-hour of work cost in the town where we operate this yard?

We're not going to sell a house order every day. But let's say we sell an order for a 2O'x2U garage. With all the material in packages, I can load the whole order of dimensions with three passes of the lift truck. The sheathing will take one or more pass, the shingles another pass. If he uses board siding that will take one pass-if he uses brick I can load 300 at a time.

I can save an hour or more assembling his order. But

WE'RE INDEPENDENT... AND WE LIKE IT THAT WAY!

We iuggle eoch iob seporofely qnd skillfu,lly becquse we don't keep o b,ocklog of brqnd ob,ligotions! This ollows us complele ond obsolute independence fo recommend the right mqteriql for eqch cuslomer's individuol needs. Noturolly, ofter 40 yeors of deoling wilh lhe yords ond fqbricotors of Southern Cqlifornio, we've developed top suppliers, good m'ill sources, qnd o lot of friends . . ond we don't forget them. But il's our speciolized experience, combined wilh our consistent independence thot poys oft in double ossets on your cosl sheels.

only if it is packaged.

On larger orders I'll save more time. On smaller orders the time saving per BF will be smaller.

But I ca'h run that yard by myself and that's where we all can rnake a lot more money. There's a lot of profit hidden in,packages of lumber.

Coloveros Offers Cemenl 'Tour' on Film

A new 16-page brochure describing the cement manufacturing process in detail has been published by Calaveras Cement Company. Thirty photographs and a flow chart accompany a simple explanatory text which in effect gives the reader a "tour" of the company's San Andreas plant. The brochure will be distributed to plant visitors and at showings of a new Calaveras film, "Penny A Pound." It also may be obtained on request from Calaveras Cement Company, 315 Montgomery Street, San Francisco 4, Calif.

Wolf Forms lif6sfern Forest Products

Victor Wolf and Kurt Grunwald have dissolved their Western Lumber Company partnership, with Grunwald retaining the Western Lumber Co. name and continuing on alone, ahd Wolf establishing his own wholesale lumber organization under the name of Western Forest Products at 2358 36th Avenue, San Francisco. For Wolf, the move marked his return to wholesaling on his own, having operated Victor Wolf Lumber Salesln San Francisco for many years prior to joining forces with Grunwald in 1954. .'

Originally, Wolf entered the lumber business 1n 1924 in Austria. He continued a lumber export business based there until 1938, when WWII became imminent. He then moved to the U.S. and went to work for Sloane Lumber Co. at Fort Worth, Texas. After several years at that point, Wolf went to San Francisco and operated as a mill agent for several Q1_egon rnills until starting his own wholesale business during 1948.

Heloise to Abelnrd:

"Prosperity seldom chooses the side of the virtuous, and fortune is so blind that in a crowd in which there is one brave and wise man, it is not to be expected that she should single him out."

She Knew the Answer

The elderly wolf was trying to get fresh with the pretty young waitress who was serving his food.

"Where have you been all my life?" he asked.

She said: "Well, for the first fifty years of it, at least, I wasn't even born."

liille Things

"Half of the joy of life," said Victor Cherbuliez, "is in the little things taken on the run: Let us run if we musteven the sands do that-but let us keep our hearts young and our eyes open so that nothing \porth while shall escape us. And everything is worth while, if we only grasp its significance."

A Follow-Up

The teacher said to one of her pupils: "Jimmy, give me a definition of the word apple." Jimmy said: "An apple is what, if my mother did not make me bring one to school for you, I would have to study harder to pass."

Embarrassed, the teacher passed Jimmy, and said to Willie: "\iVillie, give me the definition of the word lemon.'l And Willie said: "Lemon is the favor I'm going to ask for when you treat me to an ice cream coni for not telling the principal what apple means."

Childish Loughrer

. Vl/rote R. G. Ingersoll: "The laugh of a child shall make the holiest day more sacred still. Strike with the hand of fire, O wierd musician, thy harp strung with Apollo's golden hair;' fill the vast cathedial aisles with your symphonies, sweet and dim, deft toucher of the organ keys; blow, bugler, blow, until thy silver notes do touch and kiss the moonlit waves and charm the lovers wandering in the vineclad hills. But know your sweetest strains are discords all, compared with childhood's happy laugh-the laugh that fills the eyes with light and every heart with joy. O rippling river of laughter, thou art the blessed boundary line be. tween the beasts and men; and every wayward wave of thine doth drown some fretful fiend of care. O laughter, roselipped daughter of joy, there are dimples enough in thy cheeks to catch and hold and glorify all the tears of grief."

It's Rqining Violets

It is not raining rain for me, It's raining. daffodils ; In every dimpled drop I see, Wild fowers on the hills.

The clouds of grey engulf the day And overwhelm the town; It is not raining rain for me, It's raining roses down.

It is not raining rain for me, But fields of clover bloom. Where any buccaneering bee Can find a bed and room.

A health unto the happy, A fig for him who frets; It is not raining rain for me, It's raining violets.

-Robert Loveman Frqnklln's Recommendotion

One of the most famous and masterful letters of recommendation ever written by one man for another was written by Benjamin Franklin, when he was United States Minister to France, as follows:

"Sir:-The bearer of this, who is going to America, prFsses me to give him a letter of recommendation, though I know nothing of him, not even his name. This may seem extraordinary, but I assure you it is not uncommon here. Sometimes, indeed, one unknown person brings another, equally unknown, to recommend him. And sometimes they recommend one another. As to this gentleman, I must refer you to himself for his character and merits, with which he is certainly better acquainted than I can possibly be. I recommend him, however, to those civilities which every stranger, of one who knows no harm, has a right to; and I request you will do him all the favor that, on further acquaintance, you will find him to deserve. I have the honor to be, Benjamin Franklin; April 2, 1777."

Home ot lost

The visitor dropped into a small and unpretentious church one Sunday morning, just as the preacher was announcing his text, and stood in the rear until the text was finished. The text was:

"We have left undone the things we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done." The stranger smiled, found a seat, and sat down. "Thank the Lord," he said, "I've found my crowd at last."