The Mail Order Home Seller Making California Dealers Worry

By Jack Dionne

I have been hearing a great ded more about mail order competition in California this season than ever before, among the home builders.

The reason apparently is that there is more activity this year among the mail order home sellers than ever before in this territory.

Sam Jones, the famous Southern-revivalist, used to say that "it's the hit dog that squeals," and that uncouth remark seems to apply rather directly to the California situation.

The dealers aren't exactly "squealing," but they are "hurting"all right, and every time they see a mail order house bill shipped into their home territory, they hurt worse.

I have heard perfectly astounding stories with figures, etc., showing the number of homes that are being shipped in by mail order houses into some districts of California during the past year. If they are just one-half true, we are furnished with a most convincing explanation of why the retail lumber business is not so good in many places as it ought to be.

Many years ago I was placed in charge of a great retail lumber association. And at that time that territory was being strongly infested with mail order home buildersship-in lumber firms.

I got a flood of mail on thatsubject. I would get a letter from a dealer stating that such and such a concern had shipped a house bill into his town from, we will say Memphis, Tenn., for example, and the dealer would want to know whatthe Association could do to protect him from such "piracy."

I developed a stock reply to such letters.

I wrote right back and asked the dealer why he did not meet the mail order man's price, and sell the bill himself' thus keeping the Memphis firm out.

Of course, he would immediately reply that he didn't know a thing about it until the lumber was delivered inr the city, and paid for, and there was no chance to compete.

That, of course, was what I wanted him to say-knew he would say. And I would write back promptly, something to this efrect:

"Surely you must be wrong about this matter. Do you mean totell me that a firm in Memphis, Tenn., five hundred miles from your place of business, knew that a man within a mile of your yard wanted to build a home, and sold and delivered him the lumber before you even had a chance to bid on it? How on earth did that happen? What were you doing all this time, with that man wanting a home and telling you nothing about it?"

Of course, there was much more to be said. The dealer would reply that his townsman saw the mail order man's ad in some paper or magazine, sent for their catalog, sent the order, etc.

Which always opens the same good old story. HO.W does the mail order man get his home business? WHY does he not give the local dealer a chance to cornpete for the business? Why is it that this local merchant witlr all the manifold opportunity that comes through local residence, doesn't even get a chance to compete for local business ? He has all the personal andlocal opportunity, churches, schools, clubs, business associations, social intercourse, local facts and information-in fact, everything that the mail order man has NOT.

But the mail order man has two mighty advantages; he advertises, and he speaks the language the prospective buyer understands. He names a home and a total price. And THAT is what attracts. He shows a picture and plan of the home. The plan comes with the order. And tn that simple but direct manner the cash that should have gone into the pocket of the local home builder, goes elsewhere, and doesn't come back

The dealer has everything that the mail order man did, and a dozen times more. But he lost the business.

And the answer is that to beat the mail order man, you must meet him on his own ground. To beat the mail order man you must know every home building prospect in your selling territory, and must keep YOUR ability and willingness to serve, before those people. Eternal vigilance is the price of beating the mail order man. You must have homes for sale, as he has. You must have pictures, and plans, and COMPLETED PRICES. And your trade must know about it. Mail order firms seldom thrive in communities where the lumber dealers are doing their best.

That is reasonably a fact.

There isn't a retail lumberrnan in California who cannot duplicate the mail order man's prices on any home bill shipped into his territory, and still have a good profit remaining. All he needs is to know who is in the market, and geta chance to work competitively. It is the business placed before he knows about it, that hurts the lumber dealer. And practically all mail order business is placed that way.

It means that the lumber dealer who is feeling the sting of the mail order competition, must increase his activities, redouble his energies, improve his effort to see that every man and woman in his selling territory knows. about HIM, his business, his service, his square dealing, his plans, his excellent citizenship.

That's all the answer there is. If the people of YOUR community all know about you, look upon you as a square shooter, as a building expert, as a home selling merchant, and as a loyd local citizen, and if you keep your ability to serve them always before them in that light-neither man nor devil can take their business from you.

But if you are one of those lumber dealers who sits and waits for business to come in, then you can take to yourself the thought that it is YOUR sort of lumber dealers that makes the mail order lumber business a success.