The Price Complex

This business of putting all the emphasis ,on PRICE has become absolutely a complex in the retail lumber business.

When a man comes in to buy lumber, the first thing the dealer wants to assure him is that his prices are "right".

When the prospect shows his list of needs or wants, the pencil sharpening starts.

The dealer may not be getting ready to shade his price, but he is certainly preparing ,to defend it.

He can't get out of his head the idea that this man who comes lumber shopping is interested first and foremost in the price he is going to be charged.

'

His primary thought that if he can justify his price, he will get the business.

Yet, take that same lumber dealer. Put him in the buyer's instead of the seller's position. Spring has come. He wants a new straw hat. He starts out to get one.

Does he go to every hat store in town and price the sort of hat he wants, and place his order with the lowest bidder?

Does he stop at the first hat store he comes to, and try to Jew him down on his hat prices ?

He does neither, of course.

What does he do?

Why, he does just. what every other man does. He goes to the store where he likes to trade, where he has always been treated fairly, where he knows a good grade and assortment.of hats are to be found, and where he has learned from experience he gets a fair deal in every way. He looks

New Yard at San Bruno

Paul Schmidt, formerly manager of the San Bruno Lumber & Supply Co., San Bruno, is starting a new yard a,t San Bruno. The name of the new concern is the Keystone Lumber & Supply Co., and the office and sheds are now in course of construction.

Humboldt County Veteran

"Ted" Monette, log pond superintendent of the Hammond Lumber Co. at Samoa, recently celebrated his 54th anniversary in the Humboldt County logging industry.

Mr. Monette came to Humboldt County fro,m Canada in April 1875, and is now 77 years of age.

over their line, tries on the hats he is interested in, and finallv blrvs a hat that fits his needs, his head, and his purse. He pays the hat man's price withou't question.

And he sees nothins wrons with his method of bur nothing wrong his buying.

But the minute he starts SELLING. Oh, Man ! What a difference ! He can't put himsel.f in the other fellow's shoes, as he should. He can't understand that men buy their lumber like they buy their hats, and their shoes, and their other needs, by simply going where they like the kind of treatment they reoeive, and dealing with a man or a concern they have faith in.

Of course, ,that's up to the dealer. Has he by his contact with the public, by the conduct of his business, by the methods he has employed, qualified as the sort of man other f'olks will delight to call on and entrust their problems with, when they want building materials, and building things?

That's the most important-the ONE important-question to be answered.

Of course, if he's "just another lumber dealer", then he can't get business that way.

Butif they think of him first when they'think building, and building materials; if they enjoy meeting him on all occasions; if the thlngs they have learned about him thr,ough their own experience or through others, make them respect him in his profession; and if his place of business is well kept, and interesting looking, and a pleasant place to drop into-tell me, folks, why should he have to take the price route to sell merchandise?

Mrs. Ora Ferger

Mrs. Ora Ferger, wife of John C. Ferger, Swastika Lumber Co., Fresno, died at Fresno, April 11.

Mrs. Ferger was born in Indiana, and is also survived by a daughter, Edith May Kennedy of Berkeley; three sisters, Mrs. A. E. Elvin of Fresno, Mrs. George Pontius of Indiana and Mrs. A. L. Shugrue of Indiana, and a brother, C. W. Smith of Michigan.

R. E. "EDDIE" SEWARD BACK FROM NORTH

Eddie Seward, Southern California representative for the Dolbeer & Carson Lumber Company has returned from a week's trip to San Francisco and Eureka.