Fall 2012 Hardlines Strategies

THE PRESIDENT’S REPORT

Planning for Tomorrow W hen it comes to our personal lives, we’re well acquainted with the language of planning for the future. Retirement plans, college

Contents Your Dream Store . . . . . . . . pg. 4 Learn about the tools Blish-Mize has to help you reset your store. Market Preview . . . . . . . pg. 12 Plan now to attend the Blish-Mize 2012 Fall Buying Market, Sept. 21-22.

funds for the kids, insurance—these are all meant to give us a sense of financial security about the future. So doesn’t it make sense that you should be doing the same for your store? In retailing, being prepared for the future means that every day you’re doing what you need to do to ensure that the stuff you sell today is

still what people want to buy tomorrow. When your store begins to look a little shabby, you start to notice merchandise on the shelf that’s getting dusty, or that you’ve outgrown your retail space, it’s time to do something about it. As you get ready to come to our Fall Buying Market, I encourage you to take a good look at your store. Do your assortments need updating? Are there holes in your merchandise mix? If you start losing customers because you don’t have the right mix of products or services they want, then unfortunately the future won’t be very bright for your business. In this issue of Hardlines Strategies , you’ll read stories from some of our customers who have had some great ideas of where they wanted their stores to be in the future. They weren’t content just to let those ideas stay on the drawing board, either. They got to work building better stores, whether that meant resetting a single department, expanding their salesfloors or building a brand new building. They also asked for help. Just like we at Blish-Mize are here to help you get the best prices on the products you buy, we also stand ready with the tools to improve your operations. With our market-specific Retail Profit Management program, we can help with retail pricing, plan your assortments and design your store so you get maximum use out of every dollar you invest. Take for example Gary and Larry Smith at Smith and Sons Building Center in Oklahoma. Preparing for the future meant asking us to help with the expansion of their salesfloor and review of their assortments. Over at Anita Supply Center in Iowa, we helped Mike, Brian and Kim Wendt plan a building for a second location. Together, we looked at every four-foot section to make sure they were getting the products they needed. One of the exciting things we’re doing at our Fall Buying Market is showing you firsthand how we can improve two key categories that are seeing a lot of growth in the market today: Paint and Paint Sundries and Lawn and Garden. In our “mini-store” we want to give you a sampling of what we can do. As always, we tailor our studies and recommendations to your own unique market. We also keep our programs affordable. We know your dollars are valuable, and you’re very careful about how they’re spent. Don’t wait any longer to start putting into action all of the big ideas you have for your store. Ask us what we can do, because we have a lot of tools that can help build that dream store. We’ll have two seminars at the Market, directed by our regional managers, that will help you understand more about the store reset and planning process. Let’s build the future together. I’ll see you at the Fall Market!

Coupon Section. . . . . . . . pg. 19 Get hot deals at the Fall Buying Market.

Winter Sales . . . . . . . . . . pg. 24 Learn how to find sales opportunities, no matter what the weather.

Vendor Showcase . . . . . . pg. 29

Online Ordering . . . . . . . . pg. 30 Use the Blish-Mize online catalog to save time reordering inventory.

Advertising . . . . . . . . . . . pg. 34 Learn how to get your advertising online.

On the Cover: Brian Wendt (right) along with wife Kim and father Mike of Anita Supply Center, Anita, Iowa.

Advertising Information Hardlines Strategies is published twice every year by Blish-Mize. Copyright 2012. For advertising rates and deadlines, please contact:

Blish Connor Blish-Mize

223 S. Fifth St., Box 249 Atchison, Kansas 66002 Toll free: (800) 995-0525 (913) 367-1250

(913) 375-2505 (cell) (913) 367-0667 (fax) e-mail: blish.connor@blishmize.com

Jonathan D. Mize President and COO

Blish-Mize isamember-owner ofDistributionAmerica

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