Ten Years Ago-Now And Ten Years Hence

By Jack Dionne

"There has been a great change in lumber merchandising in the past ten years, but there will be a still greater change in the NEXT ten years."

So said a wise student of the lumber industry the other day. And if he was right-and we believe without doubt that he WAS-then the aspiring lumber merchant who would keep up with the times, and with the public demands for service, must get ready to do some "stepping".

For great changes have taken place in ten years.

Ten years ago we were writing our first editorials concerning the use of retail lumber plan books and plan service. The first genuine lumbermen's plan books were then appearing in the field, and the lumbermen generally were wondering what the new "fad" amounted to.

Ten years ago there were not over a handful of retail lumbermen in the United States who were really ADVERTISING.

Ten years ago modern merchandising offices for retail lumbermen were practically unknown. Sales rooms, plan rooms, service rooms, etc., \ rere not yet born. Plate glass fronts and display rooms were about as scarcg

Ten years ago they were practically all "Mr. Pip's", but they didn't know it.

Ten years ago the average retailer took no thought of the opportunities that surrounded him for CREATING BUSI-

NESS by direct and intelligent effort. He simply used his energies and his ingenuity tq get the biggest possible share of the business that PRESENTED ITSELF. The CREATM instinct had not been aroused.

Ten years ago only one big producing lumber Association ln the world was advertising its goods, and trying to help create a DEMAND for its product. That was CYPRESS. Today they are ALL doing it.

TEN YEARS AGO THIS WRITER WAS EDITOR. IALLY BOOSTING PLAN BOOKS AND SERVICE, SERVICE ROOMS, ADVERTISING, BUSINESS CRE. ATING, MODERN BUILDING STORES INSTEAD OF LUMBER YARDS, ETC.

And he hopes to continue that work until every lumber MAN becomes a lumber MERCHANT, and until the buildfng merchant occupies his proper place in the scheme of things.

Ten years from now there will be few "Mr. Pip's". The sweep of progress, the demand for service, the survival of the fittest, will have wiped him out. The lumberman will know more about the building business than anyone elseincluding the contractor-he will be the building authority in every town, and it wiU be his knowledge and his service that will be dlsposed of to the public, rather than his stocks.

"Everlasting"