Morning paper says the only lumber store in town decided to close due to competition from Lows/HomeTeacup 10 miles away.
And it seems the regional farm tabloid always has an advertisement for an auction of a closing lumberyard going on somewhere.
What’s going to happen when they are all gone?
Will all we have be a choice of beLows, Homer, a satellite store from a lumber conglomerate, or melamine shelving board available from your local Ace Hardware?
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Replies
Look on the bright side: forums like this will be indispensable for advice on what is right and what is glaringly wrong. You may even start charging for it...
I don't blame the orange aprons for their incompetence, I'm guessing they're given zero training and minimum wage. I just wish they'd admit when they can't answer a question (which is almost always), rather than trying to bluff...
Sorry to hear that Rez. In my home town of El Reno,OK they had three yards going when I was a kid. Best memories I got is riding with Dad to one lumber yard for material and another for the coffee. All good men and women who were friends to my dad as well. They'd call him up when a shipment of especially good looking lumber came in.
The towns bigger then it was back then yet they can't support even one small yard because of a Lowes and a HD in nearby Yukon.
rez,
I fully understand your point, I think its hard to find good wood at the small lumberyards as well. They too are no longer running their wood mills and are buying the lumber from bigger wholesalers.
There were tons of yards years ago here, but I have to say that as a consumer as well as a builder, there was a lot of gouging going on. When there wasnt a HD or Lowes you had to pay what was asked in order to get materials.
At HD of all places, I used to get really good birch ply. Recently, it was junk, and we probably could attribute it to the war, but I went over to a small yard, and for a piece with no patches and that wasnt cupped, I had to pay 33 percent more for it.
Every thing from wood to a ruler has such a mark-up at a lumberyard that I only buy there on a need to basis, and maybe its about time that they get whats coming to them. Some people might say that they need to pay more middle men, but we also have a high end small tool place called Woodbutcher. They sell specialty items that you cant buy anywhere like japanese chisels, a real cabinet scraper, an adze things of the such, and their prices are reasonable. How can they sell at a reasonable profit if the lumberyards, which are bigger than them cant.
A local small lumberyard has been buying up all the others, and you cant get any service there either... I dont know.
I like to support local, but Im sick of paying for something that I dont get, and not getting what should be the norm, like a straight piece of wood.
edit: I guess the point is that it is funny how the monster becomes the victim when a bigger monster comes to town.
Edited 12/10/2004 9:56 am ET by zendo
Hasn't effected 'lumberyards' here, but they've closed up any 'local'hardware stores. I'll see 4-5 other guy's for every 1 Contractor yard[Lowes] delivering framing packages.
An aside; Walmart has done the same. The little town I used to deliver newspapers in had 4 grocery stores,big and small ones...now theres none.A Walmart supercenter opened outside of town.I DIDN'T DO IT...THE BUCK DOES NOT STOP HERE.
Wally
Negotiations are ongoing for a Home Depot or Rona to come to my town too. Land sale details are all but final but the franchise is still under discussion. Talking to the owner of the local Home Hardware franchise recently, which has long been the biggest supplier in town, and he didn't seem too concerned. He's been talking to other HH franchisees in western Canadian cities where this situation has occurred in the last few years, and it would seem he can expect an immediate 25% loss of volume, but that he will regain all of it in 2 years or less. I know an hour from us in Kelowna there is a huge Rona big box that moved in literally across the street from HH 6 years ago. HH is still going strong because they have always looked after contractors well, that's who carried them through the adjustment period. And their consumer sales came back too, probably because of superior sales staff and service. My local HH does 60% of volume with contractors and his service personnel are very good. Minimal turnover and you might actually learn something from them if you have a question.
However there is a smaller contractor-based outfit in town too that will find times to be tough indeed when big box opens. Although many of their customers will stay because Home Depot doesn't carry the masony products that is the store's mainstay, I'm guessing they will lose just about all other business. Service and accounting are sloppy - when I had an account there it was a monthly ritual to check every (handwritten) invoice against the statement to see if they had been transferred correctly - and at the quoted price. At least one month in two I had to dispute the statement and get it adjusted because of errors. I'm not saying the small yards in your area were like this, but if they don't offer quality products and high levels of customer service, not many businesses will survive a big box startup.
Wally