3 minute read
FLASHBACK
49 Years Ago This Month
Forty-nine years ago this month, in July of 1972, we celebrated our 50th anniversary with an array of historyminded and forward-looking features. (And, if you can do the quick math, you’ll realize we will be celebrating another major milestone in 2022.)
The lead story was a forecast by Pete Niebling, western manager for the North American Wholesale Lumber Association, who peered ahead into the thendistant decades, attempting to predict what the industry’s distribution chain would look like in the next decade. You judge how prescient he was: • Fewer geographic separations. Niebling anticipated “a further decline in provincialism in the U.S. Mass communications and mobility will continue to dilute environmental infl uences that are local in nature.” The ability to look beyond the barriers of local borders would provide lumber companies with access not just to larger markets, but also to more sources and a wider base of knowledge. One consequence, he thought, would be greater conformity among marketing and operations, as industry best practices became better known.
MY, HOW INDUSTRY training materials have changed. Back in 1972, training materials have changed. Back in 1972, APA offered its state-of-the-art plywood sales training program on cassette tapes and 35mm slides. THE JULY 1972 issue, sponsored by Rounds Lumber Co., issue, sponsored by Rounds Lumber Co., celebrated the publication’s 50th anniversary.
• A transformed retailing structure. Niebling explained that traditionally retailing depends on “derived demand” (in other words, the consumer’s desires). Consequently, the pace of change among retailers is often dictated by the wants of the customer. Change, he admitted, was not one of the lumber industry’s strong points—perhaps, he reasoned, because its raw resource (the tree) was slow in growing and little in changing. Yet Niebling was confi dent greater change was coming. “We should not underestimate consumerism and its growing infl uence,” he wrote. • Far fewer unaligned and wholly independent dealers. Niebling noted the “increasing concentration of retailers,” notably the fast expansion of home improvement chains and the rush for independents to join franchises and purchasing groups. As a representative of wholesalers, he did fear that as retailers grew larger and more affi liated, they were more likely to seek to buy direct from manufacturers. • New technology would come—with limits. Niebling predicted that while more automation was inevitable, customers might push back. “As technology increases, machines and sophisticated computers can help the large companies in these costs,” Niebling wrote. “However, today we see the consumer asking for more personal attention than machines can give. The quality of life along with the quality of bigness is seriously being questioned by much of society today. It remains to be seen whether our society will opt for dull, highlyorganized conformity or will demand higher quality, better service, and the ‘pleasures of diff erence.’”
He noted that wholesalers remained optimistic for the future, evidenced by the massive upsurge in the formation of new forest products wholesale fi rms over the preceding 18 months.
REDWOOD
Composite can’t compare.
Like the foods we buy, when it comes to decking, we want natural and real. Redwood is always available in abundance of options. So stock the shelves! Unlike mass-produced and inferior products, Redwood is strong, reliable and possesses many qualities not found in artificial products. They maintain temperatures that are comfortable in all climates.
Redwood Empire stocks several grades and sizing options of Redwood.
