Fall 2013 Hardlines Strategies

RETAILER FEATURE

The building that currently houses J.P. Lumber had been a lumberyard in the community for nearly 100 years. After a remodel, the Pierces reopened it under their own name in 2012.

able to meet customer requests quickly. One good example is how they responded to their customers’ requests for a strong paint department. The Pierces found the Pratt & Lambert line of paint from Blish-Mize was a per- fect solution for their store’s needs. They updated the store’s color matching system over an older system left by the store’s previous owner. Pratt & Lambert also provided them with an assortment that would fit their needs for a small-town cus- tomer base. “Pratt & Lambert understood the needs of our store, and our customers love the paint,” says Foutch. In addition to paint, fasteners are a strong category now that the store has a complete line of Hillman products the Pierces purchased at the Buying Market. While Jerry still spends most of his time out on the jobsite with the pump business, Suzanne, Jordan, Foutch, store manager

we should buy,” says Jerry. “We got a lot of great deals and bought a lot of the Blish- Mize RMS displays to help us get started. It was all a bit overwhelming since we’d never been to a Buying Market before.” As soon as truckloads of inventory arrived, the Pierces once again relied on the help of Blish-Mize to set the flow of cat- egories throughout the store. With the team from Blish-Mize on hand to set the store, the Pierces, along with the store’s new staff that included their son Jordan and office manager Christina Foutch, had a different challenge to face: finding a way to accommodate customers anxious to buy hardware. Even before the store was open, while workers were still finishing up the renovations and filling the gondolas with merchandise, customers were walking in the door and asking for items they needed.

“While we were still setting up the store, customers would walk in and want to buy products,” says Foutch. “Since our POS system wasn’t set up yet, we had to hand- write a lot of tickets.” New and Improved In fact, Pierce’s philosophy of running his business is centered around listening to his customers. That approach allowed him to take a different path than his predecessor, which was evident to any shopper attending the grand opening of J.P. Lumber in July of 2012. While the lumberyard previously occupying the space focused primarily on lumber, with only a small offering of build- er’s hardware in the retail space, J.P. Lumber covered all the core categories. Thanks to the wide selection of products available from Blish-Mize, the Pierces are

12 Fall 2013 • Hardlines Strategies