When Lumber Yards "Doll Up" the Whole Community Takes Pride

It is possible for some re,tail lumber dealer in the United States to run his yard so well that he will attract national attention.

Irtstead of that, most dealers are content to run theirs so that they do not even attract local attention.

The trouble with the re.tail lumber business is that practically all yards look alike and that none of them are doing the essential things to arouse a public consciousness of their extstence.

Nearly every town has at least one good store tha.t most people like to talk about.

When visitors com.e to town they are immediately shown the pride of the town in mercantile institutions.

This is seldom true of lumber yards.

How many times have you heard local citizens say to their visitors: "By the way, before ygu go home I must take you down and show you So-and-So's lumber yard. We are really quite proud of it."

The poor old lumber yard !

How little people ,think about it when they are driving around town, showing off their business institutions to their guests. Usually they go up some other street in order to avoid passing it.

Yet the lumber yard is capable of pleasing treatment.

It could be made one of the most attractive establishments of the tov/n. It does n,ot cost much money to do it. It 'takes a little time and some genuine enthusiasm. Also quite a "shot" of ambition.

, There are some towns now that can boast.of real honest-to-goodness yards, but they are few and 'far between. The citizens are so proud of them that all the drug stores sell picture post-cards of them, and visitors are so agreeably surprised at seeing an attractive lumber yard that they buy the cards and send them home, and write on the cards, "This is quite a ,town ! Look at the lumber yard they have here. "

When the lumber yard "dolls up" and people see how much attractiveness really means, other concerns get 'busy and before long the town takes on an entirely different) appearance.

When the business h,ouses put on their best "bib and tucker" it generates a civic pride that soon causes the citi- zens to do the same thing with their homtes.

Then when the inhabitants begin to compete with ea.ch other for attractive residences, business begins to be good for,the lumber dealer.

So it all works back to the direct benefit of the dealer who started the ball r,olling.

Dealers object to carrying out the program because they claim it will cost too much money.

They do not want to'build a new plant.

They do not have to.

One of the most attractive lumber yards w,e ever saw had one of the otdest sheds now in use in the retail lumber business. It had been kept in good repair, howevel, and the age of it added to the picturesqueness of the layout.

We have been told that we harp a good deal on the subject of attractiveness and that there are m,any other things in connection with the retailing of lumber that are more important.

This is true.

We are starting at the beginning when we talk about good looking lumber yards.

It is the logical place to start.

When a patient is taken to the hospital he is invariably given a thorough renovating. After he is slicked up and thoroughly fumigated the constructive program is started.

There isn't a chance in the world for the disreputable looking lumber yard any more than there is for the dirty department store, the dusty clothing store, the rusty jewelry store, the dirty grocery store, the untidy drug store or any other kind of mercantile institution.

Before lumber yards can function as advocates of better homes or other buildings they must put themselves in position so that they can speak with authority.

If the lumber yard continues to be the worst looking business institution in the town, and is devoid of modern merchandising policies and ideas, then it will continue to remain outside of the public consciousness.

And if it continues to do this undelthe. new regime in business that is now rapidly approaching, then the retail lumber dealer is going to be decidedly out of luck.-(From "IJpper-Cuts.")