Modern Lumber M erchandisingEquipment

By JACK DIONNII

Every issue of THE CAITIFORNIA ITUMBER, MER' CHANT will contaiu many articles of various character concerning certain phases of the nodern m.erchandising of building materials for lumber dealers. There are probably a score of such, large and small, in this issue.

Our conception simply is that the problem of the lumber dealers, is to SEI-,IL MORE IJUI\IBER, and other materials, and that in order to accomplish that purpose they nust improve their VISION, their EQUIPMENT, their ENERGY and their SERVICE.

There are T'WO WAYS for a lumber dealer to increase his sales. One way is to ofrer his materials and services to MORE PEOPIJE; the other is to offer those people MORE WAYS OF IISING THAT SER,VICE AND THOSE MA. TER,IAIJS.

To begin with, he should be EQUIPPED to service. There are several items to a modern equipment; place of business, stocks of materials, plans and ideas, prospect lists, etc.

The FIRST, naturally, is PLACE OF BUSINESS.

Let us talk about that.

The place of business of the mod.ern lumber merchant should aim to reflect and advertise the business itself. It should be as well located. as cond.itions will permit. It should be as attractive in outward. appearance as the dealer can possibly arrange.

It isn't necessary that every lumber dealer, regardless of eonditions, go to the best corner in town and start a building store. (It IS a fact that such action has been attended with remarkable suceess every time it has been attempted anywhere in the country, but we are not suggesting dramatic changes. Every little dip in the sea of better business will encourage the next step.)

But every live lumber dealer should give his best attention to the matter of making his place of business more attractive to the sight, more representative of the great industry of BUIITDING, and better equipped to help sell the building IDEA to his town.

(In every issue we will show what California lumber merchants have done and are doing along this very line of thtiught. 'We will also furnish the ideas of live dealers in other states, so that the California merchants may profit, if they desire, by THEIR, example.)

Let me say this. I have seen many hundred.s of lumber merehants try the experiment of qodernizing and improving their places of busiuess in response to my exhortations, and every one without exception is today an enthusiastic apostle himself, of the modern idea. NEVER, A SINGLE EXCEPTION.

"Nothing we have ever attempted along the line of intelligent methods of modern merchandising has failecl to bring satisfactory results, and I consider a BUILDING STORE in a country town the most efrective business institution on earth, " is the way E. P. Hunter, of 'Waco, Tex&s, who operates sixty IIUMBER STORES, states the case.

He operates some beautiful and attractive stores, while many of his points have been improved with a much lesser investment. But ALL of them aim at the same thing: to better VISUALIZE for the trade the business they are in, and to sell building IDEAS, builcling I'UNCTIONS, rather than building material.

" Our business is to translate our materials into the language of HOMES ancl BUILDINGS whieh men and. women will save and sacrifice to own, " is the way the manager of one of these same stores in a little Texas country town, stated. his business to ne.

IMPR,OVE YOIIR PIIACE OF BUSINESS SO TEAT IT REFIJECTS THE BUSINESS YOU AR,E IN AND YOIIR, CLEVERNESS IN THAT BUSINESS. As I see it, TIIAT. is the only rule I would lay down on the retail lumberman who is ambitious better to serve his trade.

Don't forget!You are a PUBLIC SERVANT. The CONSUMER, is the KING whom you must serve. And you should be judged--NOT by the return you make on your invest. ment-but by the serviee you give the public. But if you will keep.l'our eye on that SERVICE dial, the PROFIT will take care of itself, to your thorough satisfaction.

Fix up and paint up your place of business. Arrange your stocks as attractively as practical handling of those stocks will permit. Have a modern ofrice, in which you can show your taste as a building expert.

There are hundreds of ways in which you may make that ofriee at onee practical and attractive, birt there is-one thing you I'l [,:S1' put somewhere in that ofrice. A SAIrE AND SEItVLtjU ROOM. Have a room som.bwhere in that ofrice