"The City of Neglected Roofs"

By Jack Dionne

The Pioneer Paper Company is well named.

For truly it has been, and continues to be, a pioneeras well as a forceful specialist-in the propagation, de-. velopment, and successful implanting of business-getting, money-making merchandising plans and campaigns by, through, and for the retail lumber dealer who is live enough and on the job enough to grab them and put them to work.

Ever since I have been associated with the lumber industry of California I have watched with interest and viewed with admiration the procession-like merchandising efforts of this great concern. They find a thought or a thing, they develop it, they work it over, they get it hot for handling, they put it on the market, they put all their punch and enthusiasm behind it, and send it on its business-getting way. And the minute it starts to get cold, or to have traveled its first course and is losing its novelty -Bang ! Here comes another, new, different, attractive, workable, well oiled and greased and ripe for operation.

The procession never ceases. Their dealers do not have to stock a commodity and then settle down to trying to sell the same thing in the same way, forever. There's a new one coming up all the time. And they're all good. They haven't pulled a "dud" yet. Each successive product, or service, or combination of both, is something that the live merchant can go out and offer his trade with enthusiasm, and with sound hope of good profit on his investment and on his effort.

The pages of The California Lumber Merchant down through the years reflect this series of intelligent processional efforts to keep their business alive through constant variety of products and merchandising plans.

Right now they are ofiering the live dealer an active partnership with them in an effort to bring in the building dollar, put men to work, make a profit for the dealer, and create business for Pioneer products, by a campaign toright now before winter sets in-give specialized attention to the tens of thousands of neglected roofs throughout the state of California. Everyone knows that for the past six years there has been a dearth of building, and likewise a distinct falling off in the actual upkeep of homes and other buildings. People have put off and put off the re-roofing of homes, and the repairing of leaky and defective roofs. And so with every season that passes the list of necessities grows.

"The City of Neglected Roofs," is what the Pioneer ads call the territory surrounding every lumber dealer. They point out the fact that hundreds of roofs in every direction from every lumber yard, need attention. There is opportunity to repair, and to re-roof. Both can be done with profit to the dealer. And in creating work of this kind he is helping the entire situation by creating jobs for needy men.

The Pioneer plan for re-roofing homes has never been equalled by any m,erchant. Sold strictly through and by the lumber dealer, they offer to re-roof the homes of worthy people for the smallest down payment ever offered, and a modest interest, without brokerage or anything of the sort, for carrying the paper.

There is another great dealer angle to this plan. It puts the lumber dealer in the saddle, and gives him control of the re-roofing business in his territory. The roofing contractors work for him. He sells the new roof, gives the rogfing contractor the job at an agreed price for application, and pays the contractor himself. For it is through the dealer that this line of credit is to be had, and the roofing contractor only gets the opportunity. of working on these credit-built roofs by working under the dealer.

The dealer sells a re-roofing job. He hires the contractor to apply it. He puts the particular risk up to Pioneer, who investigate, and if the owner is a good man with a decent record, Pioneer O.K.'s the deal and agrees to take the paper. The dealer arrang'es the terms. He can take as low as l0 per cent cash on a good risk. Pioneer takes the paper, payable in twelve months, and gives the dealer a check. It is cash business for the dealer. It is cash business for the roofing contractor. And it is fine business for the home owner who gets a splendid roof in a way he can pay for. Of the thousands of these deals Pioneer has made, their loss is so small as to be negligible. They get their money.

They have many dealers who devote much of their time to digging up such business as this for themselves and for Pioneer, having found it the finest sort of cash business, and something that brings them in the long run a better return on their effort and investment than anything else they sell. Every good dealer can make such arrangements with Pioneer, and through this arrangement go to selling people that could not possibly be sold under normal arrangements.

Right now Pioneer is making a strictly REPAIR drive for roofs through the dealer, offering a remarkable new coating product for roofs, and a red-hot sales campaign all ready for the effort. Pioneer Static Coating they believe to be the most remarkable and practical roof. coating ever made. They ofier the dealer a complete campaign telling and showing them just horv to proceed. There is attractive and punchful literature to show the prospect, there is literature showing how to use the Coating, there are window displays, display racks for the office, samples, etc.

Pioneer says to the dealer who is doing too little new building fssi11s5s-"Why wait for new buildings? Your town is full of old buildings that rvill make you money. Ask us, and we'll tell you how."

Just another of the Pioneer procession of products that produce profits--for the dealer.