Service Rooms That Function

By JACK DIONNE

If The California Lumber Merchant did nothing else on town is no better off than it was before; if thc prrce has earth for the lurnber industry than to induce the dealers been cut deeply to get the order, the building game m that to install and operate sales and service rooms, it wuuld feel that its existence had been well justified.

Because, approach the subject from any viewpoint that you desire or treat it in any manner that you see fit, and the fact retnains that there is little use for the retail iurnberman to attempt modern merchandising, unless ?re has a service department, with a duly prepared location and headquarters where the public may meet and use that department.

Without Modern Merchandising effo.rts, how can the lurnber dealer do anything to SECURE BUSINESS, except by simply making a price that gets ths gusiness away from his neighbor?

We have racked our brains for many years to discover some method, and are convinced that it can't be donc.

And when one dealer has pulled an order hls way by ' making a better financial proposition than the other fellow, what has he accomplished? Has he done anytirlng for the lumber business in his town? Has he created any actual DEMAND for building material?

He has NOT. He has simply secured an order at thc i*pense of his competitor, but the building gaine tn the town is probably worse ofi than ever, lecau,sc everyone who buys is going to want those same prices.

Modern Merchandising does NOT airn to he:p a lumber dealer take orders away from his competitor. Far from it.

It simply helps him to forget that he HAS a compedtor, and helps him to go out anrong his trade and in<iuce people to invest their money in BUILDINGS; n:lrirey that, without that effort, would go into some other investment channel, or lie dorma,nt.

Modern Merchandising is strictly CONSTRUCTM.

It is founded on the belief that there are no predestined restrictions or lim,itations on the amount of busrness that is going to be done in a building way, and teaches us that the building that will be done in the average district sirn'p ly depends on the quality and quantity of the effort that the building merchants of that district make to get it.

Modern Merchandising tears down the foolish oid statutc of limitation, which says: So much building wili be done here this season, and it is my duty to use every effort to secure the biggest possible share of it.

(Continued onPage 42)

- KOA.

Ltlahogany Offers Distinctiae Hardwood Uoodworh At A Medium Price For

homcl ltorclr. donc windorvr, vcetibulcr and officc buildingr.

_Koa is a high class hardwood, unusually well6gured. When finished natural it shows exquirite high lights and shadows, or it can be stained as Mahogany often is. Koa runs clear and 6ne widthg.

More Distinctioe Than Gum

Koa can bc fliehcd in neutral toner liLc Gum. It har, howcvrr. a nrorc dirtinctivc and arirtocratic appcerancc than guur, and it ic a far mor,c durablc urcod.

Wc Iw altrc str-ftqf tltu &g Kq on lvnil ruilgtor lmnudldc dclloql). Thls td ls utorthg of go,r aflanlion.

(Continued from Page 41)

Not at all. That is the way a bunch of hogs go into a melon patch, but it is NOT the way a bunch of lurnrbcr dealers should go into a building season.

If every lumber dealer in town is sirnply engaged in the wonderfully alluring busincss of trying to see how many dollars he can coax, induce, cajole, and entice into builtiing channels, that would othenvise NOT have gone into those chinnels, then you will find a prosperous building condition in that town, pleased and satisfied customers, friendly and serene lunber competitors, because they will have been fulfilling their God-given destiny.

And since we don't see how a dealer can successfully practice Modern Merchandising without a plan and service and sale room in which to meet his trade and show them his building ideas and his building sqrvice, it therefore remains that the service department is the cure for the price-cutting habit in the lumber business.

Here he may meet his trade and sttow thena his plans, his color schemes, his ideas for their build'ing asststance; he can show them homes, and home improvemelts, and home surroundings, and home colors, and adornmants; he can show thern a thousand and one $rings with regard to their building investments that he cannot show them otherwise; he can establish himself with thern as a building merchant and a pttblic servant, and he can serve them through his service department as he can in no other way.

We have been the means through our preachings of inr ducing untold numbers of lumber merchants tirroughout the country to install service rootrts, and we consider that a vital part of our business.

In the service roorn you can "sell 'em through the eyes and ears both," impress their mentalities in every way with your proposed building investment, and make yoursclf of genuine service to your trade.

That''s why we call it the "Service Department."

Cy Hooper Returns From Long Trip

Mr. S. C. Hooper, of the wholesale firm of Hooper and Smith,. Los Angeles, is home after 'a tnonths trip through the eastern and northern part of the country.

PtYtT00lI- P11{EtS